Harry Potter and the Ministry of Magic
by the madcap magician
Summary: At the end of his sixth year at Hogwarts, Harry's life is in turmoil, Dumbledore is dead, Voldemort's power is growing, and those with the power to help him cannot be trusted. Dark times lie ahead, but allies can be found in some of the strangest places!
1. 1 Arrivals and Departures

AN/ This is it, my very first Harry Potter story. This is HBP compliant, the story begins immediately after the Sixth book.

AN/ There is a flashback passage here from the end of the HBP, in the book it is told from Harry's perspective, but here we shall see it from Ginny's, everything else presented here is my own work

AN/ I don't own anything in this universe, no matter how much i might want to, there is no profit being made. Without any further delays, may i present...

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

"A Man will suffer a great deal just to be happy"

Mary Montague 1759

Chapter One: Arrivals and Departures

**Hogwarts Express, 25 June**

Harry sat, as he had throughout the entire journey, silently staring out the window, but his eyes didn't see the countryside blurring past as the Hogwarts Express made its way swiftly back to London, his thoughts were still with the white marble tomb by the lake shore at Hogwarts, that and the task ahead of him.

Regardless of any prophesy, Harry had sworn an oath on Dumbledore's grave that he would see Voldemort dead, and to do that he had to find and destroy four more Horcruxes, those terrible items that contained a sliver of the dark lord's twisted soul. Only then could he find and destroy the last part of evil, the small sliver that remained in the dark lord's foul body.

He had known from the moment of Dumbledore's death that the path in front of him was one he had to walk alone. To protect his friends and loved ones, to protect sweet Ginny, he had begun to mentally back away, to isolate himself from them.

No longer could he or would he let anyone else stand between him and The dark lord, he had already lost so much, people who had cared for him and stood in front of him one by one, all determined to protect him. First his parents, then his God father, even Cedric Diggory had died for him, and now the last and greatest of his protectors had been slain. No more!

Despite the fact that he, as always, shared the compartment with his best friends in the whole world, Hermione and Ron, he could not remember ever feeling so alone.

Harry had not spoken fully of his plans with his friends, they would try to stop him doing what had to be done. Hermione, she would stand there with her hands on her hips and use logic to tear any argument of his to shreds. Ron, always the more passionate, would use emotional blackmail.

How many times since they had met that first year had he led them into, or caused them to be placed in, dangerous situations? More times than he could count. And then there was Ginny, Ron's younger sister, and the witch that had stolen his heart.

The dark lord had already reached out once and nearly snatched her from him, and that was before he had even realised the depth of his feelings for her, if anything happened to Ginny it would just destroy him. Harry knew he had already caused her great pain by breaking up with her, but he had told her his reasons, and had seen understanding alongside the pain in those eyes he had wanted to so much to lose himself in.

Normally she would have ridden back to London in their carriage, but she had this time opted to travel with some of her own year to avoid any awkwardness with Harry, and for that brief respite he was grateful, for while his feelings for her remained undiminished he had to focus on the task at hand.

The task of killing the dark lord, the most powerful dark wizard there had ever been. Although he tried to keep such dark thoughts from entering his head, Harry knew deep down he would probably not survive the confrontation, he was, in his opinion, neither an especially powerful nor gifted wizard. Despite the title the-boy-who-lived, the four times he had faced the dark lord up to that point had been survived by the assistance of others or sheer dumb luck, and eventually that luck had to run out.

A loud bang from the carriage pulled Harry's attention back to the here and now, Ron's old and temperamental exploding snap deck had caught his red haired friend again, and he was busy checking to see if he had any eyebrows left. Hermione just shook her head in exasperation, rolled her eyes at the stupidity of boys and sighed before going back to her latest book.

Harry knew he would miss them terribly, but the time had come, it was time to take the first step down a very dark path. Standing, Harry pretended to stretch.

"I'm going for a walk to stretch my legs, see you guys later" Ron looked up and gave him a toothy grin, Hermione smiled, then made meaningful eye contact with Ron. Harry knew that within moments of the door being pulled shut, the two of them would be all over each other, Harry was glad they would at least have each other, his friends deserved to be happy.

Moving into the passageway, Harry squeezed aside to let a group of giggling Hufflepuff girls past, then slipped into the carriage toilet and locked the door.

"Dobby!!"

The house elf suddenly appeared from under Harry's invisibility cloak, he had been waiting for Harry's arrival in the toilet for the entire journey, god alone knew what sights had been inflicted upon him by the other students.

"Harry Potter calls, Dobby is here sir"

The little creatures fashion sense had certainly not improved since the last time Harry had seen him, he still proudly wore Ron's sweater from last Christmas, and the tea cosy for a hat, along with two mismatched soaks, one of which was still Harry's original black school sock that had won him his freedom.

"Thanks Dobby, you know what to do?" The House elf looked at Harry with those big solemn eyes and began to nod furiously.

"Oh yes, Dobby will follow Harry Potter's instructions, Take Harry Potter's chest and Harry Potter's owl to Wheezy house" For some reason Dobby had real problems with the name Weasley. "Then deliver messages to Harry Potter's Wheezy's"

"Thank you Dobby, remember if anyone asks where I am you must not tell them, this is really important for their own safety" The house elf came over all solemn and nodded.

"Dobby will do as Harry Potter asks, Dobby won't tell anyone Harry Potter has gone to '_that place_'"

That place was what Dobby called 4 Privet Drive. His visit to his relatives house in Harry's second year had obviously left adeep and lasting impression on the little elf.

Satisfied, Harry smiled, reached out and patted his friend on the head, before pulling the invisibility cloak over himself, then stood and unlocked the door. Back in the corridor Harry found himself suddenly doubting his own resolve, his friends had always been there for him. When they realised he had slipped away without even a word of goodbye, they would be so angry and hurt at his lack of trust in them, but better that than Harry having to grieve over yet another coffin.

Harry moved over to the door, making sure he could be first off the carriage when it reached the station, or he would be trampled in the exodus, invisibility cloak or not. The train was already moving through the Capitals outskirts.

As he stood there waiting for the train to reach the platform, he caught a whiff of a familiar flowery smell. Turning quickly, he was suddenly chin to forehead with the last person he had wanted to see on the train. Ginny Weasley was moving down the passageway heading towards Harry's compartment, where Ron and Hermione were by now getting quite intimate.

The puffiness of Ginny's eyes led Harry to believe she had been crying, and it wrenched at his heart to see her upset in such a way, all he wanted to do was drop the cloak, and scoop the young witch into his arms and hold her tight.

But he had decided on his course of action, and knew he must carry it through. So instead of comforting Ginny, he silently stepped aside and watched her move past him without her knowing how close she was to him.

He let his fingers just brush her hair gently through the cloak as she passed, and she shivered as if caught in an unexpected draught. Then firmly clamping down on his emotions Harry turned back to the door, the express was visibly slowing now.

OoOoO

**Kings Cross Station, Platform 9¾ **

Stepping onto the platform, the first thing Harry noticed was the large number of parents present, a far larger number than Harry could remember at any time in the past. Dumbledore's death had sent ripples out whose effects were going to be felt for a long time to come, of that Harry was sure. The parents all wanted to personally check that their offspring had arrived safely.

The second thing Harry noticed was the number of Ministry Auror's on hand, there must have been thirty or more trying with varying degrees of success to blend into the background.

The Ministry was finally starting to take the threat of The dark lord seriously it seemed, not that Aurors would actually bother the dark lord that much, but it made the public feel safe, and as far as the Ministry was concerned, that was what was important.

Harry still fumed over the Minister for Magic's attempt to use him as some sort of propaganda instrument, Scrimgeour had wanted him to issue statements supporting Ministry crackdowns, and to tell the public that everything was under control in respect to the dark lord, and had been quite upset when Harry had refused.

Ducking behind a luggage trolley, Harry used the smoke and steam from the train to move further up the platform, Mad Eye Moody had the ability to see through the invisibility cloak, who knew what other tricks the Aurors had up their cloak sleeves.

"Wotcha Harry" Harry froze on the spot, and slowly turned around. Leaning nonchalantly against one of the stone pillars stood a young woman only a handful of years older than him dressed in an Auror uniform, her pale heart shaped face carried a knowing smirk, and her hair was short and bubblegum pink.

"Hi Tonks, so what gave me away?"

Harry tried to keep the annoyance out of his voice, some stealth get away this was, busted within the first hundred metres. Nymphadora Tonks was a fully trained Auror and had been one of those watching over him for a couple of years. Somehow she seemed to have some sort of eighth sense when it came to Harry, perhaps because she was the cousin of Harry's godfather Sirius Black, and as such virtually family.

"Harry, when a person moves through smoke or steam they disturb the air, regardless of whether they are wearing an invisibility cloak or not, plus despite being invisible using the 'point me' spell still works to tell me where you are, so where were you sneaking off to then?"

While she had been talking Harry had taken out his wand out of his pocket and pointed at her under the invisibility cloak, he felt bad for what he was about to do, Tonks really didn't deserve it, and Remus Lupin would be so angry when he found out, but Harry couldn't let anyone stop him.

"I'm sorry Tonks, I can't tell you…Obliviate!!" Tonks' expression went slack, and her pretty brown eyes went out of focus, a look of dreamy unconcern fell over her face. Harry had used the very same memory charm he had once nearly fallen foul of himself at Lockhart's hands to remove any memory of Tonks having seen him.

It was in fact very much like selecting a memory to be extracted and placed inside a pensieve, concentrating on the image or images to be removed, but rather than removing a memory of your own you forced your way into another's mind and stripped out that persons memory. In some ways it was a violation and a form of abuse, and Harry felt terrible. But his determination forced his guilt to the back of his mind.

With the amount of people on the platform and the large number of spells being used, from shrinking charms to levitation spells, he knew he wouldn't have to face any punishments for the underage use of magic. With a last wordless and heartfelt apology to Tonks, Harry continued down the platform, avoiding any more smoke and steam, ensuring he crouched down further to avoid detection.

Near to the portal leading back to the muggle platform stood the welcoming party, representing the Weasley's both Molly and Arthur, and the twins Fred and George waited for Ginny and Ron, Arthur was having an animated discussion about television with a tall, grey haired man, he seemed to find it 'fascinating', who was arm in arm with a pretty blonde woman.

Harry recognised the couple as Hermione's parents Dan and Emma Granger. Also standing with group was his friend and Tonk's partner Remus Lupin, he looked a lot better than when Harry had seen him earlier that day at the funeral.

Harry moved past them without saying a word, he kept his gaze straight ahead, focused on the portal, he crossed through without incident, carefully removing his cloak on the other side. Moving up the platform, blending in with the muggle commuters, Harry set out on the first part of his long journey.

OoOoO

**4 Privet Drive**

The doorbell rang, and Vernon Dursley looked up from where he was sat in his armchair, reading his paper and glanced over at his wife Petunia with a quizzical expression on his face, from her shrug it was obvious they were not expecting company, heaving himself out off the chair, he moved to answer it.

"If it's those bloody Jehovah's witnesses again, I swear I may kill one of them" Vernon Dursley was a man who disliked anything that disagreed with his idea of normality, or challenged his view of how the world should be. And these religious freaks coming to bother him on his own doorstep fell into both categories.

Opening the door with a tirade of rudeness upper most in his mind, Dursley was momentarily taken aback at finding the bespectacled youth that was his nephew, on the doorstep. He had secretly hoped the boy would not be returning to his home at the end of this school year, gone off with those red haired lunatics, or the decrepit old codger that had collected him at the start of the year.

"Oh its you, well don't just bloody stand there, get in here boy, before the neighbours see you!" For many years Dursley had been telling his neighbours that Harry attended a Borstal for criminal youths, he didn't want any of the boys strangeness disturbing the Dursley's suburban paradise.

Harry entered, and Vernon slammed the door behind him, and pushed past him back into the living room.

"Don't expect any food, we've already eaten, and keep that bloody bird quiet or else!" It was tonly hen that Dursley noticed that his nephew had entered without any of the usual luggage, no chest or even a birdcage under his arm. "How long are you staying for anyway?"

Harry turned to look at him, and it was with some shock that Vernon Dursley realised that for first time his nephew was the same height as him now, perhaps even an inch taller. And from the steely look of determination in the boys' features, his uncle certainly no longer intimidated him the way he once had.

"Just for tonight, it's all I will need" Harry voice although soft had a strength to it that his uncle hadn't heard there before, something in the lad had changed, something that Dursley couldn't put his finger on. Whatever it was Dursley suddenly felt he had lost control of the usually meek youth.

Harry turned, and without a backward glance, trudged up the stairs and turned into his room, closing the door he lay down on the bed and with the emotional upheaval of the day, he was asleep in seconds.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Bill Weasley looked up from his book as his Fiancée Fleur put a steaming cup of tea on the table in front of him, he grinned at her, took her hand and kissed it. He then began to plant kisses from her wrist to her elbow, causing a fit of girly giggles.

Then with a gentle tug Bill pulled her down into his lap, she smiled sweetly and gently ran the fingers of one hand through his long untidy mop of red hair. With the other hand she gently traced the vivid lines of the mass of red and inflamed scar tissue that criss-crossed his once unblemished face.

With a little bit of Veela magic here and there, and a lot of tender loving care his face was slowly healing, it would never be unblemished and whole again, but it was a massive improvement on the mess his face had been only a week before.

He had been granted an extended sick leave from the curse breaking department of Gringotts bank, the small creatures had been unusually understanding about his injuries sustained while fighting Death Eaters for the Order of the Phoenix.

A quiet clicking sound from the wall nearby drew Bill's attention to a most unique clock, it had nine hands, one for each family member with a photo of the person on it. The hands representing his parents, the twins, Ron and Ginny had just moved to point at the section marked 'travelling', Bill sighed sadly, he knew all too soon the hands would once again be pointing at 'mortal danger' along with those of the rest of the family.

"They're on their way back, they should have been back by now in fact, I wonder what's taken them so long? Maybe the express was delayed."

Bill looked back up into the concerned eyes of Fleur Delecour, and leaned in and kissed her lips, and then kissed her again, in fact he was only interrupted by the kitchen door opening and the entrance of a very irate Molly Weasley.

Fleur slipped off Bill's lap and began to busy herself around the kitchen. She still felt intimidated by the Weasley Matriarch, and tried to overcome the problem by making herself useful in the kitchen, which only made the problem worse because Molly Weasley was very territorial when it came to her kitchen.

Tonight though, she had other things on her mind than an interloper in her kitchen.

"So what can we possibly do?" Molly's angry comments were directed over her shoulder at her husband Arthur, who was next in through the door.

"We should wait until Remus gets back from seeing those muggles I suppose, after that I guess I will have to inform the ministry" Arthur sat down at the table and lifted his hand to forestall any questions that Bill might have.

"Yeah, cos Harry and Scrimgeour are the best of friends at the moment" Ron's sarcastic comment preceded him into the kitchen, Arthur opened his mouth to reprimand his youngest son for his lack of respect to the Minister, but when he saw the face of his only daughter he quickly closed it.

Ginny had come in behind Ron, she walked in with her head down and appeared close to tears. Being the only female in seven siblings meant that the other six hovered around her, treating her like the family's precious jewel.

Bill stood up immediately and quickly gathered her into a firm hug, which she returned. Of all her brothers Ginny had always felt closest to Bill, he had never made fun of her 'petty' fears or teased her about her 'stupid' dreams. But because of his job he was very rarely at the burrow, only Charlie was absent for longer periods.

The twins came in next, they were unusually subdued, they each put an arm around their sister and also gave her a hug, this unusual sign of affection from the pair of born practical jokers was enough to bring a small smile to Ginny's face.

"Just say the word sis and we'll…"

"Turn his underwear into poison ivy or…"

"Every time he uses his wand…"

"His shoes will burst into flames…"

The twins were just warming up, although they thought of Harry as another brother, he had upset their baby sister, and they were fully prepared to defend her honour the only way they knew how.

Bringing up the rear of the group was Tonks, and if Bill hadn't figured that Harry was in trouble before, one look at the fury etched all over the face of the young Auror left him in absolutely no doubt. Her hair was oscillating through a wild and varied colour range, which for anyone who knew her was a warning that her emotions were running particularly strongly, it was the only time she lost control of her appearance like that.

"Damn him, how dare he!"

Although he had known Harry the shortest time of all those present other than Fleur and Tonks, like the rest of his family Bill had come to think of Harry as one of them, to all intents and purposes he was a Weasley.

The fact that Harry had risked his own life and in the process saved his beloved sisters life in her first year hadn't hurt, but it was very hard to dislike Harry, he was polite to a fault, unassuming and considering his upbringing, left remarkably unaffected by the trauma.

Of all the Weasley children, who it must be said were only fair letter writers at best, Bill and Ginny perhaps corresponded by owl most frequently, so when Bill had heard that Harry and Ginny were officially an item it had pleased him greatly, because he had secretly known for some time that despite what she said, Ginny had never really got over the crush she had formed on Harry in her first year.

Bill had heard enough, holding up his hands he took the bull by the horns.

"Ok, so I know it involves Harry, but what has he done now" The entire group in the kitchen, apart from Ginny, began talking at once in an unintelligible babble of overlaid voices. Turning to Fleur, Bill raised an eyebrow and cocked his head, she tried hard to smother a laugh, and the look he had given her had so clearly said 'now do you see what I have to put up with?'

"Harry snuck off the train under his invisibility cloak, then used the memory charm on Tonks when she caught him in the act" Remus Lupin stood in the doorway, looking tired and distressed. He entered the kitchen and took a chair opposite Arthur, he gratefully accepted the cup of steaming hot tea that Fleur put in front of him.

"I assume from his absence, Harry wasn't at the Dursley's?" Arthur was leaning forward, resting his elbows on the table, and trying to massage away a growing headache.

"It's worse than that Arthur, not only could I not find Harry, I couldn't even find the Dursley house at all! He must have used the Fidelis charm somehow to make it unplottable, just like at 12 Grimmauld Place"

Molly gasped, she had not been aware that Harry's magical talents had progressed even that far, the Fidelis charm was a very complicated piece of magic that could hide whatever it was cast on by binding the target to a living soul.

Fleur had been busying herself around the kitchen making tea for everyone, but she stopped when she heard what Remus had said with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Why would 'e do zis, eet makes no sense, 'e is loved here?"

Fleur alone was not surprised at the power Harry displayed, of all those present she was the only one who had ever competed against him magically, and although she had never actually duelled him, she was intimately aware of the power the small dark haired boy possessed.

"He told me he didn't want anyone else he cared for hurt in his name, he told me that he had things he must do alone, that if things went badly he didn't want to drag anyone down with him"

Ginny's small sad voice silenced the whole kitchen, she sat down upon her fathers lap and buried her head in his shoulder, something she hadn't done since coming home from that terrible first year at Hogwarts.

Arthur reached up almost hesitantly and gently stroked her hair, and made gentle reassuring noises, he shared a look of deep concern with his wife over Ginny's shoulder.

He had always been immensely proud of all his children, despite what they thought, they were each striving for greatness in their chosen fields. Ginny, the smallest and youngest of his children, had always been one of the strongest, and now she was displaying how fragile she really was he felt slightly useless.

POP! Fleur gave a loud squeak of surprise, as a house elf suddenly appeared right in front of her with a large chest and a birdcage in tow. Inside the cage, a very flustered snowy owl attempted to bite off the elf's fingers. It was Ron that reacted first.

"Dobby! Where is he, Dobby?"

The house elf looked stricken, then started bouncing his head repeatedly off the kitchen table, to the bemused looks of everyone present. Ron finally managed to grab him and managed to drag him away from the table.

"Dobby wants to tell his Wheezy's where Harry Potter is, Dobby does not like Harry Potter to be alone, but Harry Potter says Dobby mustn't tell anyone, especially his Wheezy's, it is for his Wheezy's own good."

Dobby looked up at Ron with huge regret filled eyes, although Dobby was a free elf, freed by Harry in fact, he would always consider Harry his master just because of his kindness and treatment. He could never be forced to betray Harry.

"Harry Potter wanted his Wheezy's to have these" With that Dobby pulled out a bundle of parchments and handed them to Ron, Ron had to let go of the house elf to take the parchments, it was at this point that Dobby disappeared from view.

"What an interesting creature" Molly was the first to speak in the long silence that followed the house elf's disappearance. "Apparently we are now Harry's Weasley's"

The twins both grinned at this, imagining the entire Weasley family as Harry Potter's property.

"And Ron dear, do tell me why that elf was wearing my Christmas present to you?"

"Molly, we have more important things to worry about at the moment!"

It was a rare occasion that Arthur raised his voice to his wife, they had a special relationship and it was seldom indeed that they argued. Reaching out, Arthur took the parchments from Ron, and began to dish them out to those sat around the table. One of the parchments had Hermione's name on it, Arthur passed this one to Ron so he could dispatch it via owl.

"Tonks, Remus you are welcome to spend the night, I'm sure we can find the room, what with the funeral and everything its been a very long day, its really getting late kids, I thinks its time for bed"

Ginny took her parchment from her father and cradled it to her chest, she kissed both her parents good night and went straight upstairs, both her parents watched with worried expressions, normally she would have contested her fathers decision.

Ron followed his sister, and after suffering one of their mothers' glares, the twins trooped after, despite having a flat over their shop in Diagon Alley, they still spent a lot of time in the family home, because although they wouldn't admit it, even under torture, they really missed the family environment.

"So back to my original question, what do we do now?" Molly was studying the parchment on the table, it was addressed to her, Remus and Tonks also had one.

"Well that all depends on what Tonks wants to do"

Arthur, Molly, Fleur and Bill turned to Lupin with puzzled expressions.

"Harry used a memory charm on her that is illegal without Ministry sanction, she would be well within her rights to file magical assault charges against him!"

Tonks sat there at the table without looking at any of them, her hair was now holding its usual bright pink colour, which was a good indication that she had calmed down somewhat. But it wasn't the spell itself that troubled her, it was who had cast it, she had liked Harry from the moment she had met him, and now to find herself betrayed by someone she counted a friend had hurt her deeply.

Remus moved chairs to sit next to her, he took one of her hands in his own and gave her hand a gentle squeeze, and she looked up at him and gave him a weak smile.

"Don't worry, I won't report him, but when he turns up Harry and I are going to sit down for a very long chat, one he won't enjoy"

Molly smiled at the young Auror with relief and genuine affection, she suddenly remembered her parchment, and she quickly opened hoping it provided some clue to Harry's actions.

_Mrs Weasley,_

_You and your husband opened your arms, your house and your hearts to me, you gave me a sense of family I thought I would never experience again, and for that I shall always be in your debt. I cannot put into words how much the friendship and support of your entire family has meant to me from that very first moment I met you on the platform that first year._

_Which is why I entrust Hedwig, my very first friend to your care, for on the path I have chosen to walk none of those I care about can be allowed to follow._

_I wanted you to know how very sorry I am for any hurt I have caused your daughter, Ginny. She does, and will always fill a very special place in my heart, but for her own safety and that of my friends I have taken certain steps to distance myself from them. I could not stand it if any harm were to befall them on my account._

_Perhaps if things work out, one day you will again find me at your front door, until that time I hope you will think kindly of me, and not be disappointed by anything I have to do._

_Yours, always,_

_Harry James Potter._

"Oh Harry" Molly wiped away a tear and passed the parchment across to her husband, after reading it quickly he came around the table and hugged her.

Remus picked up his own parchment and studied it for a moment, much as someone who has found something unpleasant on the sole of their shoe would, sighing he opened and began to read.

_Remus,_

_You are my family, more so than any blood relation I still have left, so I know right now you are sat, probably at the Weasley's kitchen table, worried sick about me. While I can tell you not to worry until I am blue in the face, it won't really make much difference will it?_

_I need you of all people to understand why I am doing this. All my life I have had people I care about throwing themselves in front of me to protect me from danger, often at the cost of their own lives. Mum and Dad, Sirius, and now Dumbledore. I cannot afford to lose anymore of those I care about, finally I have strength of my own to hopefully make a good showing in the coming confrontation._

_The dark lord would think nothing of striking at any one of you if he thought he could get to me, so I have taken certain steps to ensure my isolation. No owl will accept any mail addressed to me, no magical means will be able to locate me, and that's the way I want it._

_Something Dumbledore told me once has been running through my head recently, how important it is to fight, and to keep fighting regardless of whether it's a losing battle or not, he said it was the only way to keep evil at bay. Well I intend to fight, and I suspect it will be a losing battle, but take heart, even If don't manage to take out The dark lord I will have made it easier for someone else to do so._

_Tonks_

_Keep an eye on Remus for me, he's likely to rush off and do something heroic and stupid, like challenge Voldemort to single combat, it's the wolf in him! I can't tell you how pleased I am that you have found each other. Everyone deserves a shot at happiness, be kind to him and remember he gets a bit tetchy for three days a month, don't take it personally. I wish you both eternal love and happiness._

_Harry James Potter_

Remus handed the letter to Tonks and walked to the door, he spent a long time leaning against the frame staring out into the night. Bill and Fleur read both letters, Fleur reached over and hugged Bill tight.

"He really doesn't expect to live through this, does he?" Bill asked the room in general in a quiet voice.

"He knows he must face the dark lord, he just cannot see a way of beating him" Lupin had turned to face the room, still leaning against the frame.

Molly came to stand behind her husband and put both hands on his shoulders, he smiled up at her and leant his head against her arm.

"I think its time that the forces of good got into this game before the snitch is caught, Harry is going to need help, a lot of it, whether he knows it or not, whether he accepts it or not, and when that time comes we have to be ready!" Everyone in the kitchen agreed readily and began to lay plans.

Upstairs Ginny lay on her bed staring at her ceiling, her father had been right, it had been an extremely long, emotional roller coaster of a day, and she was physically and mentally exhausted, but there were so many conflicting thoughts rushing about in her head that Ginny doubted she would be able to get to sleep.

She glanced over at her parchment, it sat on her bedside table like some sort of millstone, dragging at her, she wasn't sure she could face opening it yet, she felt confused enough about what was going on in her life already without Harry muddying up the waters as only he could.

On reflection it didn't seem possible that it had only been that morning during Dumbledore's funeral, that Harry had dropped his bombshell on her.

_Flashback_

_He had a strange look on his face when he turned to face her. There was pain plainly evident on his face and other emotions were struggling to escape from under the surface._

_"Ginny, listen…" His voice was quiet, but she could hear him clearly over the buzz of conversation from the other mourners "I can't be involved with you anymore. We've got to stop seeing each other. We can't be together."_

_Ginny's heart suddenly felt like a lump of ice in her chest._

_"It's for some stupid, noble reason, isn't it" The twisted smile on her face barely hid just how much what he had said hurt her._

_"It's been like…like something out of someone else's life, these last few weeks spent with you" Harry's voice was thick with emotion. "But I can't…we can't…I've got things to do alone now"_

_Ginny did not cry, but it was a hard struggle not to, as he continued._

_"The dark lord uses people his enemies are close to. He's already used you as bait once, and that was just because you were my best friend's sister. Think how much danger you'll be in if we keep this up. He'll know, he'll find out. He'll try and get to me through you."_

_"What if I don't care?" And the funny thing was, she really didn't, she would have walked into the dark lord's own lair at his side if Harry had only asked her to._

_"I care!" Harry's voice had a force and an emotion to it Ginny hadn't heard before. "How do you think I'd feel if this was your funeral…and it was my fault…"_

_There were tears in his eyes, so to save his embarrassment Ginny looked away from him, over the waters of the lake, the merpeople had gone now, leaving nothing but expanding ripples in the water._

_"I never really gave up on you" Ginny couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze "Not really. I always hoped…Hermione told me to get on with life, maybe go out with other people, and relax a bit around you, because I never used to be able to talk if you were in the room, do you remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more…myself…"_

_"Smart girl that Hermione" Harry said with a sad smile. "I just wish I'd asked you sooner. We could've had ages...Months...Years maybe..."_

_"But you've been too busy saving the Wizarding world" Ginny chuckled "well…I knew you wouldn't be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. I think maybe that's why I love you so much!"_

_Harry had squeezed her hand, his sad eyes meeting hers for a moment, he gave her a weak smile. And then he stood and turned his back on her and began to walk away. That had been the last time Ginny had seen him._

_Flashback Ends_

Ginny found herself sobbing quietly to herself as all the emotion of the day came rushing back to her in an overpowering torrent.

On the other side of her room was the empty bed that Hermione used on her frequent holiday visits, Ginny found herself wishing her friend was there, the brown haired witch was the one of the smartest people she knew and always a source of good advice.

Although she understood the reasons Harry had given, that his loved ones were his greatest weakness, she also saw something he obviously didn't, those very same loved ones were also his greatest strength.

His friends would stand with Harry right to the very end regardless of the danger, so what if the prophecy said either Harry or the dark lord would kill the other, it didn't say he had to face the monster alone?

Coming to a decision, Ginny reached across and picked up the parchment, and with a loud sigh opened it and began to read.

_Dear Ginny,_

_By now I guess everyone will be aware of my disappearance, I am sorry for the worry I have caused your family, your mum must be going spare with me right now, I bet even Remus is furious at me, and I deserve nothing less._

_I cannot tell you how much I wish things could have been different, how much I wish I could have lived a normal life, settled down with the one I love, made a home, maybe even children. Maybe all those things still await me, the future is uncertain, you never know how things will turn out._

_But with Voldemort still out there nobody will be able to live a normal life, he will see to that, he has to be stopped, before he destroys everything and everyone I hold so dear. Before he has a chance to take more lives._

_Dumbledore told me all about good and evil, how good must fight, and keep fighting, even if that fight is a lost cause, this is the only way to keep evil in check._

_What is now certain is that I must eventually face The dark lord, and that one of us will kill the other, but if he thinks that I will just lay down and let him kill me he is in for a big surprise, because I have been given the greatest reason in the whole world to win our battle and stay alive. _

_You sweet Ginny are my reason, my reason and my strength. Whenever I am near you I never seem to be able to find the words to tell you how I really feel. How much you mean to me, how much I will miss your company. I will fight and I will win, because this is the only way I can come back to you._

_Take care and stay safe_

_Yours, always_

_Harry James Potter_

Ginny held the parchment tightly in her hand, and cried for a long time before sleep finally claimed her.

OoOoO

**Leiston, Suffolk**

Leiston was in nearly all respects the very image of the small county villages made famous worldwide by Agatha Christies' Miss Marple series of books and films.

With the quaint white stone cottages, the outsides of which were covered in colourful hanging baskets, the central village green where the local pub side played cricket on Sundays, and the small single platform railway station that had not changed since the 1960's.

The only difference between Leiston and any one of a hundred villages in neighbouring counties was the series of buildings dominating the surrounding Suffolk skyline.

In 1965, along with its twin Sizewell A, the Sizewell B Nuclear power plant, located on the Suffolk coast, had been the pride of British engineering. It had been the first nuclear plant that was envisaged, designed, and built entirely by British engineers, up until that point all the post war nuclear generators had been built under license from the American government.

The Magnox reactors, as they were called due to the casing of Magnesium oxide on the fuel rods used in the reactors, were the heart and soul of industrial Britain for three decades. But now, with advent of new technology and safer working practices the reactors were falling dangerously behind the times, and were soon to be closed.

As with all Nuclear power generation, the Magnox reactors had a very dangerous by-product, the highly unstable, radioactive spent fuel rods. The only processing plant in the country that could safely handle the old style fuel rods used by these outdated reactors was the nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield where the only other Magnox reactor still operating in the country was located.

Moving the fuel rods between Sizewell and Sellafield involved a seven-hour train journey that occurred monthly on a specially constructed, government operated train, which for the duration of its journey was given priority over civilian commuter traffic. Many complaints over the years about British Rail had been caused, unknowingly to the complainant, by this service.

For over thirty years this train had run between the two exclusive stations, without a single incident, in the way of such things it had become a mind numbingly routine task. All that was going to change in one terrible night.

Locomotive driver, Phillip Marsh had just poured himself a cup of black coffee, lovingly prepared by his wife several hours earlier, when something, some impending sense of doom, made him look up at the track ahead of him, and he promptly dropped the cups contents all down himself, and grabbed for the emergency brake.

150 meters in front of the speeding train the track had just simply…stopped, just disappeared as if it had never been there, how in hell was that possible?

Phillip Marsh had extremely fast reflexes for a man of his age, but the train was still travelling at over 70mph when it ran out of track right smack bang in the centre of the village of Leiston. The effect was as instantaneous as it was spectacular, one locomotive and thirty cargo cars, each weighing in excess of 40 tons, immediately became unguided projectiles carving a path of utter devastation through the centre of the quiet rural village.

When all the twisted wreckage finally came to a rest, the scene resembled something from a Hollywood film director's most vivid imagination. The ruined remains of the station and more than a twenty cottages were illuminated by the light of fires burning in more than a dozen places, here and there a Leiston local stumbled about in his or her night clothes not understanding what had happened to their quiet existence. And then there were the spent fuel rod containers.

The bright yellow containers, transported three to a cargo car, lay scattered everywhere, like strange brick like confetti. But despite the violence of the impact, not one had split open, not one.

They had been heavily over engineered for just this sort of situation in mind, they had been dropped from aircraft, and crashed into with everything ranging from family cars to jet airliners, in one test a military jet had even shot one with an anti-tank missile, the end result? A mere scratch to the paintwork. They wern't just armoured...they were impregnable.

The incident should have ended there, a regrettable accident, with an even more regrettable loss of life. The emergency services would have arrived to begin picking up the pieces and begin an investigation into the cause, and Suffolk would have slowly returned to normal. But in the midst of the wreckage, unnoticed by any survivors, figures in long black cloaks were appearing, seemingly out of thin air with nothing but little pops.

Each figure moved with a grim purpose towards a yellow fuel rod container, levelled a wand at it, and began casting spells. The air was filled with a varied mix of incantations, "Bombarda" and "Reducto" being just two of the more recognisable.

The end result was over sixty containers buckled and split, spilling their contents of radioactive fuel rods into a growing conflagration. Their job done, the figures began vanishing with the same speed as they appeared, the last one pointed at the heavens and incanted.

"Mors Mordre!" Before vanishing with a pop.

It took a little over forty minutes for the authorities to arrive in anything like the strength to make a difference. By then it was far too late, the intense heat combined with the other chemicals present had started a chain reaction deep inside the fuel rods.

By comparison to the destruction a nuclear weapon could create, what happened in the village of Leiston was nothing, technically called a nuclear fizzle, the explosive energy released was not even enough to blow out the windows in the Sizewell reactor building five miles away.

But particles of the exploding fuel rods were thrown up into the atmosphere, and by the morning, thanks to the prevailing wind, a radioactive cloud had spread to cover half the county of Suffolk, and to all intents and purposes the village of Leiston had ceased to exist.

The dark lord had launched his second campaign with an attack on those who had no way of seeing it coming, for those bearing the Dark Mark it was shaping up to be a busy night. For everyone else, a night filled with fear, pain and death.

OoOoO

**Longbottom Manor, Wiltshire**

Neville woke with a sudden start, with a very determined toad sat on his face.

"Damn it, Trevor, Ger-off!"

Taking hold of the greatest animal escape artist in recorded history, he lay there for a moment listening to the wind howl around the big old manor house that had been in his family for centuries.

Neville Longbottom swung his legs from under his duvet and touched his feet down onto the plush carpeted floor and shivered, his breathe misting in front of him.

Neville's wand was in his hand in a second, ever since being injured in the fight at the Department of Mysteries, when his father's wand had been snapped, he had slept with his new wand under his pillow.

"Lumos!"

A powerful beam of bright white light flared from his wand tip, even this simple spell was much more powerful using his new wand, and his bedroom was thrown into stark relief. It was then that Neville saw his bedroom window, and the pattern of ice quickly spreading across it. He realised he had seen this terrible sight before, It and the terror that had followed it had stuck in his mind ever since the incident three years before on the Hogwarts express.

Dementors! Neville snapped in action, before Dumbledore's death the founding members of the D.A. had sat down and agreed on a plan of action, what to do and where to go in emergency situations, and Neville acted on that plan now. Grabbing the first clothing available, he began pulling on his school robes, Neville stuffed Trevor into one of the pockets and pulled open his bedroom door.

With his wand held ready, Neville advanced steadily down the long hallway towards his grandmother's room, a sense of terror, hopelessness and despair was growing rapidly stronger inside him. His Gran's door was partially open and without even an instant of hesitation Neville exploded inside, a spell already on his lips.

The Dementor, hovered over the bed, over the convulsing form of his Grandmother, delivering what was called 'the kiss', across the room a second Dementor was coming in through the open window.

Neville felt the despair grow within him, he felt as if he would never be happy again, as if all his hopes and dreams were being sucked directly out of him.

However Neville Longbottom was not the same clumsy, shy, ill prepared youth he had been in that first year at Hogwarts. He had seen the face of evil in the battle at the ministry, and proven himself capable of facing the most extreme danger without flinching from it. His confidence had grown, and with the help of his friends and the DA, so had his skills.

Neville braced his legs, lowered his wand, and concentrated on the happiest memory he could drag from his consciousness.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

A bright mist of white formed at his wand tip, expanding until it began to coalesce into a solid form. The white Eagle beat its wings, screamed a challenge, and burst across the room at a speed that defied believe.

It struck the first Dementor, causing the foul creature to recoil in pain and surprise, but the Eagle wasn't finished, spreading its wings it seemed to grow until the wingtips reached across the room, then it pressed forward, giving the Dementors little choice but to flee from the room, out of the window.

Neville sagged to his knees exhausted, breathing heavily, although he had never had a reason to use that particular spell in anger before, he made a mental note to thank Harry for insisting they all learnt it regardless.

Using the doorframe to drag himself upright, Neville staggered to the bed, his gran lay still with her eyes shut. Reaching for her wrist, Neville was nearly overwhelmed by what he might find, but although she was ice cold, there was still a pulse.

Knowing he did not have long before the Dementors returned in greater numbers, Neville took a few deep breaths and steadied himself. Grasping his Gran's wrist tightly, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the place he was going harder than he had ever concentrated on anything in his life.

With an incredibly loud pop both Longbottoms disappeared from sight.

OoOoO

**Granger Residence, London**

Hermione Granger was, not unsurprisingly perhaps given her personality, reading a book when the power flickered and went out.

Belonging to a non-magical household, illumination in the family home was provided by good old-fashioned electricity, and for a moment she wondered with illogical irritation if her father had forgotten to pay the bill.

Rising swiftly from her cross-legged position on the bed, she moved to the window and looked out over the street, to see if the power outage was a wide spread problem.

It was very quiet, far too quiet for a Saturday night at this time of night, Knightsbridge was never this quiet. All the streetlights were out, and the only illumination came from the half moon partially hidden behind the clouds.

There was sudden movement in the shadows across the street, blurry indistinct dark clad figures moving quickly towards her house.

"Lumos!" Like the others, Hermione never let her wand out of arms reach anymore, too many things had happened, and she had sworn she would never find herself unprepared.

Charging to her bedroom door, she had barely gotten the door open when the front door to the house blew inwards in an explosion of masonry and wood.

The Granger house was an old Victorian affair with three floors, Hermione's room was on the top floor, the front door on the ground floor, with her parent's bedroom in between. It was a race, a race in which she had barely a few seconds head start to win, with her parent's lives as the prize.

Leaping down the stairs two and three steps at a time, Hermione slammed into the wall at the bottom with her shoulder ignoring the sudden pain the impact caused, and turned the corner in time to see her bleary eyed father open his bedroom door looking out at her with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Hermione? Wha…

Because he was looking at his daughter he never saw the Death Eater reach the top of the first set of stairs, and raise his wand.

"Avada…"

"Expelliarmus!"

Hermione watched with satisfaction as the Death Eater was thrown against the far wall, bouced off and fell backwards down the stairs, from the sound of oaths following his unplanned descent he was not alone on the stairs at the time. Hermione raced to the bedroom door and grabbed her father by his arms. "Get to my room! Move now!"

Her father seemed to shake himself quickly out of his shock, spinning he dashed back inside, appearing a moment later dragging his confused wife by the hand, in his other hand he held some sort of package Hermione didn't recognise.

They had reached the foot of the second set of stairs, with Hermione backing up, covering them, when a second Death Eater appeared at the top of the first set.

"Stupefy"

"Protego!"

Hermione's shielding charm caused the red beam of the stunner to deflect into the ceiling, sidestepping, it was her turn.

"Incendio!"

The Death Eaters robes burst into flames, Hermione cast the spell again, and the Death Eater was quickly engulfed in a raging inferno.

A third Death Eater appeared at the top of the stairs, and ignoring the screams from his burning colleague he moved into position to attack her.

For a moment the Death Eater and Hermione regarded each other down the length of the short hallway, Hermione felt he was regarding her with a frightening familiarity, and this was horribly confirmed when he spoke.

"100 points from Gryffindor miss Granger, for being an annoying, smug, know-it-all mudblood bitch"

Her eyes widened in shock, there was no mistaking that slimy voice, dripping with condescension, her opponent was none other than her former potions and Defence against the Dark Arts professor Severus Snape.

The man was an accomplished and experienced duellist, and Hermione knew with a dreadful certainty that she was utterly overmatched, Harry had fought a running battle with him less than a week before, that could at best only be called a draw, what chance did she have?

"Expelliarmus!"

Snape blocked Hermione's attempt to disarm him with a casual wave of his wand, and stood there as if encouraging her to try again, gritting her teeth Hermione did just that.

"Stupefy!"

This too was casually waved aside, with seemingly little effort, but Hermione wasn't done yet.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Hermione was getting increasingly desperate, she knew dozens of spells she could fall back on, but she just wasn't the skilled duellist some of her friends were, Neville and Harry were the best with Ron and Ginny only slightly behind them. She was the brains behind the group not the muscle.

"Now Miss Granger, I believe it's my turn! Sectumsempra!"

"Protego!"

Her shield charm barely sprang into existence in time, even so the power behind the former Hogwarts Professor's spell smashed into it and overwhelmed it.

Hermione screamed in pain as she was thrown backwards by the power of the spell, a deep laceration had appeared across her hip and down the outside of her thigh, she staggered against the banister rail, but somehow managed not to fall.

"Come along Miss Granger, or I'll be forced to deduct more points for time wasting!"

The Bastard was playing with her, baiting her, damn him. Her anger began to burn inside her, it was as if it supplied her with the stubborn determination to fight on.

Forcing herself to ignore the pain and the weakness she suddenly felt in her leg, she cleared her mind as she had been taught at Hogwarts, she could not beat Snape in a conventional duel, he was too good, too experienced, but what if she tried something a little bit unconventional and unexpected.

"Aquamenti!"

Snape had been prepared to block any incoming spell, but he hadn't been ready for the water jet that had erupted from Hermione's wand tip, aimed not at him, but at the wall behind him.

The water jet hit the wall, rebounded and struck the defenceless and unprepared Snape square in the back. The surprise on his face was a treat, and for an instant Hermione wished Colin Creevey had been there with his camera to capture the moment for eternity.

Snape, soaked to the bone, was knocked to his knees by the force of the water but managed to keep a grip on his wand, behind him a fourth Death Eater had appeared on the landing and was advancing on her, wand raised.

Time to go, Hermione turned as fast as her injured hip would allow and had her foot on the first step when…

"Reducto!"

"Bombarda!"

It was like getting the hardest shove in the back Hermione could possibly imagine, and she was sent flying through the air. For an instant it felt like the back of her legs, her back and the back of her head were on fire, and then everything went numb.

Hermione found herself lying face down on the stairs, amid a lot of debris, she tried to roll over, but to her surprise her body didn't appear to be working properly and she felt numb and slightly detached from her surroundings.

Levering herself up, she was most surprised to discover that where there had been a wall before, there was now a huge hole, revealing parts of her back garden.

Well that's strange, who put that there? Hermione felt an almost pleasant warm numbness spreading slowly through her entire body, and although part of her mind was screaming at her to get up, to keep fighting, by far the greater part seemed quite happy for her to simply lay there admiring the new view of the garden.

"It'll never work, be far too cold in the winter!"

Something seemed to be on her cheek and she tried to lift her arm up to brush it off, but her arm of choice, her right, wouldn't move.

Reaching up with her left Hermione touched her cheek and touched a flap of skin hanging down, pulling her hand away she studied her blood covered fingers critically. Dirty hands, that would never do, she would mess up her books.

"Tergio!" For some reason the cleaning spell didn't work, Hermione wasn't used to spells not working for her, normally it was a first time every time thing. "Tergio!" Still nothing, now she was getting really annoyed.

A shadow fell over her, looking up, a man in a dark cloak and a mask appeared holding a wand on her, seeing her laying there helpless, his pose relaxed slightly, and he turned to speak to someone she couldn't see from her position.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The cloaked man was suddenly flung forcefully backwards, disappearing through the new hole in the wall, to fall the twenty feet to the garden below. Hermione winced, that would hurt, and someone had better call that guy an ambulance.

"Get away from my daughter you Bastards!!"

Her father stepped carefully over her, both hands extended in front of him, holding something black and metallic, she was surprised to see him holding a firearm, she hadn't known he had one.

She felt someone grab her under the shoulders and begin dragging her up the stairs, Hermione found herself looking up into her mothers tear stained face, why was her mother crying? What had happened? Was she angry with dad again? Had it something to do with the new hole in the wall?

Hermione tried to say something comforting to her mother, but what came out was barely a croak.

Boom! Boom!

More shots, Hermione had no idea what her father was shooting at.

Suddenly her father was there, lifting her up one handed, as if she weighed nothing at all, his face was angry, he wasn't angry at her surely. Hermione fondly remembered when her father used to give her piggy back rides to the local shop, she remembered giggling with pleasure, he was her horsey.

Looking around, Hermione suddenly realised she was back in her room, well that was funny, she had just been on the stairs a moment ago?

"Hermione, honey?"

She looked up into her fathers fear filled face, it took a moment for her to focus on him, with her working arm she reached up and stroked his cheek, not seeing the bloody smudge she left on his face, she wanted to tell him everything was going to be alright, they were all going to be fine, but for some reason nothing recognisable as words would come out.

"Your mother and I need you to concentrate honey, we need you to take us away from here!"

Hermione frowned, why did they want to leave, it was the middle of the night? They hadn't even gotten dressed, they couldn't go out like that, what would the neighbours say?

"We want you to take us to see Ron at the burrow, wouldn't you like that baby?"

Her mother asked. Ron, oh yes, she would love to see Ron, at this time of night she might even catch him naked, he liked to go commando sometimes.

Her father was pressing something into her hand, looking down she saw it was her wand, and it too was covered in blood, he was also holding the paperweight from her desk that was the emergency portkey. Her mother bent and snatched up Crookshanks from the bed, and grabbed her husband.

Taking the filthy wand, Hermione concentrated on drawing the magic. It was harder to do than normal, but concentrating on Ron's surprised face Hermione tapped the portkey twice, and the Granger family disappeared, just as a Death Eater burst into the room. Snarling with rage, the dripping wet man turned and stormed out of the room.

OoOoO

AN/ Well there you have it, chapter numero uno of my first Potter story, hope you like it enough to stick around for some more. In case you hadn't realised things are going to get a whole load worse in Harry's world before they get any better, this not a light and fluffy tale, although i shall throw in some light and fluffy, a bit of comedy with a twist of romance.

AN/ Until next time, sleep well, don't let the boggarts bite.


	2. 2 Eternal Night

AN/ Well i decided that on such an occasion as the release of my first completed chapter i should celebrate...with my second completed chapter! You Lucky, lucky people! Don't worry i shall not be updating at anything like this pace normally, but go on...treat yourselves.

AN/ This chapter introduces some non-canon re-occurring characters, and expands on a few we never get to see much of. Without further ad, may i present...

* * *

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

"Without the darkness...how would we ever recognize the light?"

Chapter Two: Eternal Night

**Ministry of Magic, Auror Crew Room, 01:00 26 June **

Senior Auror Marcus Washburn, the oncoming night shift commander, grabbed two cups of pumpkin juice from the small galley at the back of the room and strolled nonchalantly through the virtually empty Auror crew room, whistling to himself.

He had arrived at the Ministry an hour early, as was his custom, to sit down with his opposite number, the off-going day shift commander and discuss any problems the shift had uncovered. There were of course official parchments documenting the events of the entire shift, and they too would be read, but Washburn preferred the informal chats at shift changeovers, sometimes you could learn more from the opinions of your peers than the written word.

"Marcus, stop strangling that damn cat and get your lanky arse in here!"

From inside the shift commanders' office the voice of his friend, Senior Auror Peter Deacon growled. Grinning, Washburn entered the office and flopped heavily down into one of the two chairs, offering the pumpkin juice across, he studied his friend carefully.

The two men were as different as night and day, Washburn, tall, handsome and fair, Deacon, squat, brooding and dark, but they were a formidable team. They went back a long way, right from their days at the Auror academy.

They had even served their Auror probation term together under the steely gaze of Alastair 'mad-eye' Moody. They had quickly become the best of friends, and the best pair of field Aurors the Ministry had ever had, only old 'mad-eye' had a better individual snatch record.

When, as is often the case in most large organisations and government departments, they were finally transferred to different divisions, it had felt to Washburn as if a part of himself had been lost, it had taken some getting used to.

And now here they were, both holding the same rank and the same post on opposing shifts, which in the normal run of things would mean conflicts over manpower, resources, and case loads. But not for these two men, they were revelling in the chance to work together again after so many years apart, and the department had never run more smoothly.

Deacon took the pumpkin juice without looking up from the report he was reading, he was frowning, his natural facial expression, which with his thick, overhanging brow gave him a brooding caveman look. Many criminals in the past had underestimated the intelligence of the Auror to their cost.

"Here, read this"

Deacon tossed the report to his friend, who deftly snatched it out of the air one handed and began reading. After a few minutes he whistled a shrill tuneless note and looked up.

"So Potter did a runner from the train, and now no-one knows his location, the Minister must but be turning the air blue"

Both men smiled, the Minister for Magic had until recently been the head of the Magical Law Enforcement division, and their direct boss, both were intimately aware of what happened when Scrimgeour didn't get things his own way, and from what they had heard, nothing Potter did was Scrimgeour's way.

Then the men turned to more serious matters, reports of deaths, disappearances, and Death Eater sightings. It made a grim read, in truth both men were still in shock over the week old news of Dumbledore's murder, of Ministry personnel, the Auror community had felt the loss hardest, most active Aurors had been taught at Hogwarts, and all had fond memories of the old wizard.

As the official shift changeover time approached, both men moved into the crew room, there were about forty Aurors present, both off going and oncoming shifts, and the chatter was loud and animated as the banter flowed between the different teams.

"Alright you bunch of clowns settle down, roll call"

As Washburn went down the list of Aurors, there was only one absence from the list, first year Auror Cadet Bell, she was only in her first week of training and was assigned to shadow a trained Auror twice a week.

Washburn frowned, from what little he knew of the dark haired girl this was totally out of character, he made a note to look into it after the shift had settled down. As it happened by the time anyone investigated the absence, it was much too late to make a difference.

OoOoO

**Bell Residence, London**

At about the time that the roll call was taking place, Auror Cadet Katie Bell was running and fighting for her very life.

The Bell family were one of the oldest in the Wizarding world, but compared to the Malfoy, Potter and Black's they had never been considered wealthy, they called their house 'the town house' but in truth it was the only property they owned.

Unlike some of the older Wizarding families, the accumulation of wealth and power had never been of much interest to the Bells, they had always been a morally upstanding family, believing in justice and truth, and over the generations many Bells had served in the Ministry as Aurors.

When Katie Bell had told her mother of her intentions to enrol in the Auror academy, while she wasn't exactly overjoyed given the state of the world, Senior Auror Rebecca Anne Bell respected her daughter's right to choose a career for herself. And given what was happening in the world, having some training behind her could only be of benefit.

So with her mothers blessing Katie Bell had enrolled in the Auror training academy immediately after her NEWTS, it was a three-year program, followed by a year's probation period. The training was extremely hard, physically and mentally, classroom work during the day, and twice a week she shadowed a fully trained street Auror on a twelve-hour shift.

It was only her second shift and she had to admit to herself, she was excited. She had gone to bed immediately after finishing at the academy for the day, knowing she would be up for an entire eight-hour night shift, it was important to get enough sleep.

She had dressed in the smart Cadet uniform and was on her way down the stairs, when there was a knock at the front door. The families' elderly house elf, Bugsy, had appeared at the door before the echo had died away, opening the door, the elf had barely long enough to scream before he died.

The killing curse threw the small body backwards, he landed in sad little tangle of clothing and limbs at the foot of the stairs almost at Katie's feet. The elf had served the family for three generations, he had been Katie's nanny, cook and cleaner, but most importantly he had been Katie's friend.

Katie was stunned, she just stood looking down at the small corpse, and it was not until the Death Eater stepped inside and raised his wand at her that his movement snapped her back to reality. She quickly realised that she was horribly exposed on the open staircase, and that she was the only one awake and was all that stood between her family and the Death Eaters.

Not for the first time in her life, Katie Bell gave thanks to the fact that she had joined the organisation called Dumbledore's Army in her sixth year, the duelling training that Harry had provided was about to become invaluable.

"Reducto!"

"Protego!"

The blasting curse deflected off of her shield charm up into the ceiling, causing the house to shake and plaster dust to rain down upon her. If nothing else, it would serve to wake her parents.

"Avada k…"

"Silencio! Incarcerous!"

Katie cast a silencing spell cutting the Death Eater off mid-incantation, and then bound the surprised Death Eater, but before she could get too carried away with her celebrations, another stepped inside the front door.

"Incendio!"

The second Death Eater started a large fire in the carpet, and then stepped back outside the door before he could be hit by return fire. Katie was outraged, they were trying to burn down her home, with her family still inside.

"Aquamenti!"

The jet of water shot from the end of her wand and doused the fire, leaving a burnt patch smoking in the carpet, but as soon as she cast the spell she knew she had made a huge mistake, she had forgotten the first rule of duelling, never lose the focus on your opponent!

The Death Eater had quickly stepped back inside and had his wand levelled right at her, he had her, and they both knew it.

"Reducto! Reducto!"

The Death Eater was thrown cart wheeling over backwards in a spray of blood, destroying an antique muggle clock that had belonged to her grandfather in the process, from the awkward and unnatural position in which he had landed, it was fairly obvious he was dead.

Katie turned in surprise, both of her parents were standing at the top of the stairs wands held ready and they were looking sheepishly at each other.

"What are the chances of that? We both picked the same curse!" Her father grinned at her and shrugged "Oh well, take off and nuke em' from orbit, it's the only way to be sure"

Katie quickly climbed the stairs, as behind her a mass of curses began to strike the outside of the building, blowing great chunks from the walls, and dust from the ceiling. The entire old building was now shaking violently, as curses struck it seemingly from all sides.

"How many?"

Her mother was more forthright and to the point.

"I don't know, I took down the one who killed Bugsy, you took down the second I had seen"

Her parents shared a moment of non-verbal communication one only develops from a lifetime of marriage, then her father nodded and turned back to watch the stairs.

Katie's mother took her hand and led her to her sister's bedroom. five year old Helen Bell sat up in her bed, her big blue eyes full of fear, she was hugging her Quidditch duvet to her chest and sobbing quietly.

"Katie I want you to take your sister, get to the Ministry, get help" Katie had started shaking her head as soon as her mother had started talking, she wouldn't leave her parents to fight alone, she wanted to stay and fight. Her mother was in no mood for arguments. Grabbing Katie by the shoulders, she shook her violently.

"Someone has to get your sister out of here Katie, plus you are the on duty Auror, its your given task to fetch help, it has to be you, protect your sister!"

Katie flung her arms around her mother's neck and hugged her hard. Then turned and grabbed her sister by the hand, Helen sobbed loudly, so Katie bent and picked her up, the little girl threw her arms around her big sisters neck so tightly Katie thought it possible she might pass out.

The landing was filled with dust and debris, her father was firing spell after spell down the stairs trying to buy time for his daughter's escape, he had counted at least six different Death Eaters, plus two dead, against those odds he wouldn't hold them long. Turning he looked at his daughters and smiled sadly.

"Girls, I love you both, now and forever, now get out of here"

Katie sped to her room, an escape idea already forming in her mind, throwing open the door she went straight to her cupboard and retrieved her firebolt broom, she had not had time to ride it for a while now and had put it away for storage.

She had once played Quidditch for the Gryffindor house team as a chaser, and as such knew her way around a broomstick. In fact she had once entertained the idea of taking up Quidditch as a professional like her former Captain and the team goalkeeper and her two fellow chasers, Oliver Wood played for Puddlemere united's first team, while Angelina and Alicia were both soon to be starting on the reserve team of the Holyhead Harpies.

Putting her sister down while she eased the broom out of the window, Katie expertly mounted and gripping with her legs, held out her arms to her sister.

"Helen we are going for a little broom ride, I need you to hang on tight and not look down, OK?"

Helen's little head bobbed up and down mechanically, the shock of the night had taken its toll on the young girl. Helen climbed out of the window onto the broom just in front of her sister.

Looking down into the garden, Katie could see the robed shapes of two Death Eaters below, but they were concerned with the ground floor and did not look up. Don't look up, don't look up, Katie kept repeating to herself.

Katie pushed off from the building as hard as she could with her legs, accelerating away from the besieged house and tore through the air above her garden.

A shout went out from behind and below her, and several spells shot harmlessly over her shoulder, lying as flat as she could with her sister in front of her, Katie dipped the firebolt lower, and urged more speed out of it. The firebolt crossed the garden boundary barely a foot above the hedge, at a speed just under a hundred miles an hour. And then they were out of sight of the house and made their escape through empty skies.

Back in the house, Rebecca crawled across the debris strewn landing to her husbands side, ignoring the constant stream of spells and curses firing up stairs, smashing the few remaining bannisters, he had been caught with a Reducto curse which had shattered several ribs and punctured his lungs, his breath was coming in painful gasps and his mouth frothed.

He took her hand and squeezed it hard.

"Rebecca…" gasp. "I have loved you my whole life…" gasp. "I don't regret a single moment…" gasp.

Suddenly he was looking over her shoulder in alarm. She rolled sideways away from him and fired off a Reducto curse, which knocked the Death Eater back out of sight down the stairs. By the time she had turned back to her husband it was too late, he stared at her with sightless eyes, with a slight smile on his face. Closing his eyes with her hand, Rebecca lovingly caressed his cheek.

"I thank you Daniel for the joy you have given me, and for my children, I will see you soon my love"

Rebecca climbed to her feet, and with shrug of her shoulders marched to the top of the stairs, whatever happened from that point on, all three of her children would survive and that was a blessing.

Senior Auror Rebecca Anne Bell died as she had lived, with courage, trying to protect those too weak to protect themselves. She took a further two Death Eaters with her.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

The apparition ward on the burrow was different from the one covering Hogwarts, the Hogwarts ward was ancient and had been designed not to let anyone in or out, while the burrow's ward much more recent and was just designed to warn the inhabitants that someone not a resident was arriving.

The six adults still sat at the table looked up in alarm as the anti-apparation ward started howling in a very strident tone, resembling the sound made by a host of angry merpeople. To apparate inside a wizard's residence without permission, was the magical equivalent of a muggle breaking down the door, and considered very rude indeed.

All six had their wands out by the time a completely exhausted Neville Longbottom appeared with a pop, supporting the dead weight of his grandmother, he was white as a sheet and was swaying alarmingly. In fact if Remus had not quickly moved in to take her, they both could have ended up in an ungainly heap on the floor.

"Dementors , help!"

With that Neville's eyes rolled up into his head and he passed out, falling to the floor with a clatter. Other than his apparation lessons at Hogwarts last year, he had never apparated anywhere, now the long distance of the apparation and the extra strain of carrying a passenger as well had completely drained him.

"Augusta, can you hear me?"

Molly looked at her husband in desperation. Arthur moved to stand beside Remus and carefully took hold of Augusta Longbottom.

"Tonks you'd better come with me, I'll take her to the Ministry healers, you'll need to report the attack and Master Longbottom's actions to the shift commander"

Tonks nodded and with a brief tender touch on Remus's arm she disappeared, a second later Arthur and his burden had disappeared too.

Remus bent over and gently picked Neville up off the floor, for some reason it always seemed to be Longbottom ending up on the floor, and carried him to the couch, if he had been awake Remus would have offered him chocolate, it would have made him better, it really would.

Trevor crawled out of the Neville's robes and sat on the unconscious boy's chest, every so often giving Neville's chin a gentle nudge, with the worried concern of a friend.

Without warning another louder alarm began sounding in the kitchen, this one sounded like a dragon roaring, Bill knew his brother Charlie had been the one behind this one, he had always had an unhealthy fascination with dragons.

"Now what?"

Remus had to shout to make himself heard across the kitchen.

"It's the portkey ward, more visitors coming!"

Bill shouted back, taking up his wand once more.

With a flash of light the Grangers were suddenly standing in the kitchen. And it was immediately apparent that something disastrous had befallen them. Both parents appeared to be in a state of utter shock, and all three were covered in brick dust and blood. Crookshanks dropped from Emma's nerveless fingers and shot out of sight under the table

Hermione was stood sandwiched protectively between her parents, she was deathly pale, her head resting limply on her mother's shoulder, she was the only one of the three fully dressed, but her cloths were badly ripped and torn, in some places hanging off of her body.

Her right arm hung at a strangely unnatural angle and blood dripped to the floor from the tips of her limp fingers. Blood was also spreading in a crimson stream down her trouser leg from a deep wound in her hip and thigh.

Hermione's eyelids flickered crazily for a moment, and when she opened her eyes she seemed to have great difficulty in focusing on her surroundings, when Remus stepped in close to her she gave him a weak smile of recognition, and then her knees started to buckle and her parents were supporting all of her weight.

"Help us!"

It was the plea in Dan Grangers voice that broke the stalemate, Remus moved fast, scooping Hermione up in his arms, he moved to put some distance between them, and closed his eyes. After a few seconds in which nothing much seemed to happen, he opened them and looked around in panic.

"I can't apparate! There's a ward been thrown up!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Remus saw Bill draw his wand at an impressive speed and begin to trace an elaborate pattern in the air, as he repeated the pattern a second time glowing symbols began to form and Remus recognised that the oldest Weasley offspring was attempting to drop the ward over the burrow.

"Remus, quickly the table!"

Molly and Fleur moved to the kitchen table and swept it clean of items, heedlessly clattering plates and cups to the floor. Remus carried the motionless figure over, and as gently as possible laid the unconscious young woman down on the tables' surface.

"We need to roll her onto her front Remus"

With Fleur doing her best to hold the teenagers neck still in case of spinal injury, Remus and Molly carefully rolled Hermione over onto her front. Taking one look at the mess of blood stained clothes Molly sighed deeply and looked up into the worried eyes of Lupin and Fleur.

"We are going to have to undress her I'm afraid, I need to know how bad her injuries are"

Remus nodded and with Fleur's help they managed with the aid of their wands to cut Hermione's blood soaked muggle top, her jeans and her bra off. Remus gasped, her back was a mass of cuts, some so deep Remus thought he actually saw the white of bone in the wounds, so very many it was hard to tell where one ended and the next started, the backs of her legs were not in a much better state.

But what scared Remus the most was the sight of Hermione's normally bushy brown hair soaked with blood, there was a terrible wound to the back of her head.

Remus didn't understand, how could anyone, wizard or witch, this seriously injured been able to use a portkey? How on earth had Hermione had the presence of mind to summon the magic to safely use a portkey while she was in this condition? It would require powers of self-control and concentration unheard of in modern wizardry.

He looked down blankly at his arms, they were now covered in Hermione's blood, just for a moment he felt the wolf inside of him screaming in anger and pain at the moon, one of his cubs had been hurt, the instinct was very strong to lash out, to kill, but then with a feeling of utmost disgust he thrust those thoughts back, deep inside him.

Bill Weasley, the mild mannered, easy going oldest Weasley sibling, had been replaced by Bill Weasley, experienced Gringotts curse breaker, and it was a change that went largely unnoticed by the others in the room.

Most of his friends and family had no idea how dangerous and competitive curse breaking could be, and because he worked for Gringotts, the Goblin run Wizarding bank, most thought he was some kind of accountant or book keeper, this image was probably the thing he hated most about his job.

The very fact that he had been hired by the Goblins at all, spoke volumes about his talents, the Goblins had shamans who were very creditable curse breakers, and the Goblin distrust of human wizards dated back into the dim and distant past, yet still they had hired him.

Bill's wand was out, and he immediately moved to counter the anti-apparation ward that had been placed over the burrow. His wand instinctively traced out the path in the air for the rune of farseer, runes were magic that dated from a time before the advent of modern wizardry, before human magic users had learned to focus their magic through a wand.

When runes were carved into stone or precious gems they had a power that could rival any modern spell, most wards consisted to some extent of runes, either cast in the air or carved into stone for those of a more permanent and stronger nature.

Those runes cast in the air required the casting wizard to repeatedly trace the shape of the ward rune in the air and focus his magic to keep the ward up. To beat such a ward could be done a number of ways, physically overloading the ward itself which if successful could possibly kill the casting wizard. You could attack or distract the wizard; any break in his concentration would cause the ward to fall. Or you could nullify the ward by finding the correct counter rune, which was what Bill was attempting to do.

As he forced the power of his rune into contact with ward he knew the counter rune he had chosen wasn't the correct one, but he had never seen anything like this ward, it felt dark, cold and utterly impenetrable. Bill knew he could get past the ward eventually, but time was something he very much doubted that they had much of.

"No joy Remus, I cannot get past it quickly."

Bill turned away and conjured another couch, and Dan and Emma sat down upon it, appearing still in shock, hugging each other and staring at the still figure of their daughter, and those struggling to save her, Bill noting their bloody condition and needing to feel useful tried to check them over for injuries, but Dan waved him away.

"It's not our blood, it's hers" he said softly.

Lt Col (retd.) Daniel Granger was no stranger to blood, as an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps he had been required to have a broader range of skills than just the dentistry that was his specialty. He had taken the required courses in battlefield surgery, and served time in the casualty departments of inner city hospitals.

The Army had been his entire reason for living, his family had served in the military for generations, it was ingrained into him from an early age and he truly enjoyed the life style.

Then while attending an international military dental convention in 1977 he met someone that would change his life forever. Captain Emma Hunter, as she had been called back then, stole his heart during their first meeting.

He had looked into those brown eyes and he had found his world had been changed forever, everything suddenly now made sense, and suddenly nothing did. He had asked Emma to marry him on their third date, a romantic weekend in Paris, while walking alongside the seine river, and she had just hugged him and whispered in his ear, 'I thought you would never ask'

If he had thought he was happy before, when a year later Emma announced she was pregnant he found he was positively floating through life. By then Emma had left the Army for a civilian practise, which was a loss to the military, she was always the better dentist of the two of them.

When Hermione had been born, Dan remembered vividly looking down at this naked, wrinkled little lump, on impulse he had reached down and the baby Hermione had reached up and grabbed his finger with her whole hand, opened her intelligent brown eyes, and grinned, toothlessly at him, and he had lost his heart for a second time.

From the moment she was born, Hermione could wrap her father around her little finger, he doted on her, and she was his daddy's girl.

For three years after he had married he had continued to serve, moving around the world and taking his growing family with him, until he became attached to the 2nd Battalion the parachute regiment in January 1982. And then halfway around the world, a foreign power seized control of a group of Islands most of the British population had never even heard of.

He had been part of the British military task force that had steamed into the south Atlantic in an effort to retake the Falkland Islands from the Argentinean armed forces.

At the time it had seen like a grand adventure, like some boys own tale of dash and daring do, the expectations of the younger soldiers onboard that the Argentineans would suddenly collapse upon news of their arrival were contagious. The reality of warfare was much different.

He had seen the very worst of war up close and personal, he had been on hand to treat the horribly burned young Welsh guardsmen, injured when the _**Sir Galahad**_ had been struck by Argentinean bombs, He had treated the dazed survivors rescued from the gutted wrecks of _**HMS Sheffield**_ and _**HMS Antelope **_the warships that had both been destroyed by an anti-ship missiles. He had operated on the young paratroopers shot to pieces during the battle of Goose Green.

When he returned from the Falklands conflict he was a changed man, before that time the Army had been all that mattered. After being a part of the bloody struggle for an insignificant piece of rock so many miles from home, he was sure that it was time that he turned his back on the military, he decided he had other priorities in his life, a child to raise and love.

Hermione had always been special to him, even before they had known about her magical powers, frighteningly intelligent, wise beyond her years, she had never mixed well with the children her own age, she had always felt uncomfortable in the company of other children, preferring to seek out adult conversations.

Dan had always worried about her lack of childhood friends, despite her love of books it was no substitute for friendship, she had always spent too many hours in her room, alone with nothing but a book for company.

But during that first year at Hogwarts everything had changed, the girl that had arrived home that Christmas holiday was so…alive, radiant and confident, for the first time Dan had seen signs of the young woman his daughter would become.

She still loved her books of course, nothing would ever change that, but now she also lived outside those pages. All because of the extraordinary gift of friendship willing given by two boys, Dan remembered they were all she talked about that first holiday, Ron this, Harry that, finally she had found the part of her life that she had not even realised she had been missing.

But even when she left to go back to Hogwarts, she had remained Dan's little girl.

Then tonight she had faced down those men, those monsters, without even a flicker of fear, or a moment's hesitation, and Dan had been instantly reminded of those young soldiers steaming down to retake the Falklands so many years before. Knowing the risks and willingly walking into danger because they believed they were doing the right thing.

Dan had never been more proud of a daughter he had always felt proud of. Then as she retreated up the stairs the wall behind her just simply exploded outwards, and Hermione had taken the full force of the debris and been thrown halfway up the stairs.

When that man had stood over her with his wand pointed at his daughter's head, for the first time in his life Dan had felt such an intense sense of fear and panic, it had threatened to consume him. And then he had felt an uncontrollable urge to kill, and he had at his disposal the means to do it, his old service pistol, kept hidden away in the bedroom because Dan liked to be 'prepared'.

He was a medical man, a doctor, he had sworn an oath 'to do no harm', but now he had for the first time in his life, killed a man tonight, he was sure he had, three 9mm rounds to the centre of mass, these dark wizards didn't wear Kevlar vests, so yes he had killed.

The strange thing was that he felt…nothing, not a damn thing, the Army training had just kicked in without conscious thought, he remembered cocking the weapon by dragging the slide back to the rear, lining up the front and rear sights, compensating for the recoil and pulling the trigger once, twice, three times, all those hours on the ranges over 18 years seemed now so worthwhile.

He looked now at the bloody figure now laying on her front on the Weasley's kitchen table, his little girl, the one he had been placed on this Earth to protect above all else, and something inside of him grew cold, if it was the last thing he did, he would hunt down the ones responsible for this, and he would kill them all.

"What's all the racket down here…"

"Don't you know some of us are trying…"

"To sleep, very inconsiderate if you ask..."

The twins stopped dead in their tracks at the bottom of the stairs as they took in the scene in front of them, they were perhaps for the first time in their lives, stunned speechless.

"Get out of the way you two great lumps, what's going on?" Ginny, although now taller than her mother, still barely came to the shoulders of Fred and George. She pushed between the twins and stopped, an expression of sheer horror frozen on her face. But to her credit she recovered far quicker than either of the boys. Spinning so fast she nearly fell over, she shouted at the twins.

"Get Ron, get Ron now! MOVE IT!"

The twins shook themselves and came back to reality, Ginny when she turned it on, had the same cutting tone her mother had, and reacting to it was inbred into the twins at an instinctive, almost molecular level, they found their bodies moving before their minds caught up.

Their youngest brother had the ability to sleep through earthquakes, so it was a distinct possibility that he had slept through both the wards going off, turning, the twins shot off up the stairs.

"Ginny, I need every blood replenishing potion you can find, quick as you can dear"

It was the urgency in her mothers voice that scared Ginny the most, never had there been a situation in Ginny's entire life that her mother couldn't cope with, but now she sounded desperate and afraid. Ginny gave her injured friend a last look then sprinted away.

Molly worked as fast as her trembling hands would allow, she had never dealt with injuries as numerous or as severe as this before, and she suspected the task was simply beyond her.

The blood loss had already been severe, not to mention the damaged shoulder and back, on top of all that Hermione's hair was also soaked with blood, indicating some sort of head injury.

As fast as Molly worked, it was not fast enough, Hermione was bleeding out on the table in front of her, and there was nothing she could do!

"We are losing her!" Molly sobbed.

"We won't" Fleur answered quietly "I won't allow eet!"

Molly looked over at her soon to be daughter-in-law in surprise, there had been something strange and different in the tone of her voice. Fleur had taken Hermione's left hand in her both of her own and had closed her eyes, her face screwed up in concentration and she trembled slightly.

Her Long blond hair suddenly began to whip around her face, as if blown by some unseen magical wind, Molly shivered as the temperature in the kitchen inexplicably plummeted.

Hermione groaned loudly, and she started convulsing violently.

"Fleur, what are y…"

Molly went to push Fleur away from the table, not understanding what she was doing. But she found strong arms holding her back, startled, she looked up into the dancing eyes of her oldest son, he shook his head.

"Don't interfere, she knows what she is doing, look!"

Molly turned back to the table, and gasped in shocked amazement.

Hermione's convulsions had stopped completely, and her colour had gone from almost transparent to what was rosy cheeked in comparison. Her breathing also sounded decidedly less ragged, but it was the sight of Hermione's back that amazed Molly the most.

The blood that had been freely flowing from Hermione's many wounds had virtually ceased to flow completely, and some of the smaller wounds had even begun to close.

Molly looked up at Fleur and took a step back in horror, the improvement in Hermione's condition had been matched by a rapid change for the worse in Fleur's appearance. The pretty blond looked drawn, haggard and pale, her breath was coming in gasps, and veins stood out in her hands and face. She was also trembling slightly.

"Fleur is part Veela mum, but where a full blood Veela could do this without any cost to itself, Fleur has to expend part of herself to help Hermione" Bill sounded almost in awe of his girlfriend. "After my attack Fleur did this several times for me to help my face heal"

"But what is she doing?"

Remus asked, as a former professor the quest for knowledge was always a driving force, he was as much a bookworm as Hermione.

"Best explanation I can give is that Fleur has frozen Hermione in time, without treatment she will still die, but at least now you will have a chance to stabilise her without her getting any worse. Fleur cannot hold it for long, perhaps thirty minutes, after that she will be completely exhausted."

Molly reached up and kissed her son on the cheek, then turned back to the table, moving quickly she began to treat Hermione's wounds, being careful to give Fleur a wide birth. At least now Hermione had a chance.

OoOoO

**4 Privet Drive**

'_and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives,_

Harry sat bolt upright in bed. For a moment he was absolutely certain he had heard Dumbledore's voice in his mind, but now there was nothing but the squalid, barely decorated room in Little Whinging.

He was still fully dressed, in his Hogwarts robes, laid on top of the bed rather than in it. Looking at the street outside he saw it was still the pitch black outside, his alarm said one in the morning.

Something was terribly wrong, he didn't know why he knew, but he did, the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up straight. It was like the taste of bile in the back of his throat, making him gag, someone he cared deeply about was in serious trouble, but that didn't really help him find them, it could be Neville at his Grandmother's house, Hermione at her parents, Remus or Tonks, or one of the Weasleys. Ginny! It could be Ginny!

"Dobby!" Harry cried out.

As if he had been waiting for the summons, the house elf appeared over by the cupboard Harry had once had to stuff him into to hide him from uncle Vernon.

"Dobby is here, Harry Potter"

"I need your help Dobby, one of my friends is in great trouble, but I don't know which one, I need you to visit them in turn and check on them, can you do that for me?"

"Dobby would be honoured to do this for Harry Potter"

"Thank you Dobby, hurry back"

With an excited bob of his head the house elf vanished as quickly as he had appeared, Harry made a mental note to ask Hermione about the differences between human magic and that used by the house elves.

He had witnessed at first hand Dobby's power, Dobby had once stopped Lucius Malfoy casting the killing curse upon him by throwing him down a flight of stairs, and despite the anti-apparation wards at Hogwarts, the house elves were able to come and go as they pleased.

Standing quickly, Harry took a quick look around the room, there was nothing left for him here anymore, he had come back for the sole purpose of maintaining the bond of blood, he had spent his one night under the roof of his one remaining blood relative, as Dumbledore had requested, now he would leave, and probably never come back.

He had cast protective wards over the house upon his arrival, including the Fidelis charm, although that was just designed to be a very short-term enchantment, not the full scale spell that protected Grimmuald place, he hadn't wanted his friends finding him here, by morning it would have faded.

He didn't really owe these people anything, they had done nothing but abuse him for nearly sixteen years, they were however, family, the only blood family he had left and he could not allow any harm to come to them.

Suddenly Dobby was stood on Harry's bed, his eyes were nearly on a level now with Harry, and looking into those eyes Harry felt his heart grow cold, Dobby was as upset as Harry had ever seen him. He stood there head bowed, wringing his hands, as if he expected Harry to beat him for delivering the news.

Harry reached over and gently placed a hand on Dobby's shoulder, the house elf flinched, but when no punch fell he looked up into Harry's face.

"It's alright Dobby, just tell me"

"Sir, Dobby found the Longbottom house empty, so was Miss Hermy's, but Dobby found this" And with a wail Dobby held out his hands, there was blood upon them, a lot of it.

"Did you go to the burrow?" Harry tried not to let his imagination start conjuring images of what could happened in the Granger house, or whose blood had been spilt.

"Dobby tried, Harry Potter, but something dark and cold was stopping Dobby"

Dark and cold? Harry had no idea what that could be, but whatever it was it didn't sound good.

Because he was not yet seventeen he was not allowed to apparate anywhere legally, but Harry had taken the required course at Hogwarts and made the required practise jumps without splinching himself too badly, he had never attempted an apparation of a distance further than a few metres on his own before. But he also knew that with his friends in danger he didn't care what Ministry rules he broke to save them.

Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on the burrow like he had been taught, he imagined the Weasley kitchen and the warm welcome he would receive there. Then he willed himself to be there.

And that's when it happened, something…dark and unnatural rose up and physically repelled him, it was so cold that it made him cry out, and for a moment he was lost between as he struggled to find his way back to his own body. Opening his eyes he wasn't surprised to find himself still in Privet Drive. Turning to the waiting house elf.

"Alright Dobby, this is what I want you to do, I want you to find the Minister for magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, do you know who that is?"

The house elf was bobbing his head up and down violently again.

"Good, tell him there is trouble at the Weasley house, tell him to bring Aurors and healers, as soon as he can, can you remember all this Dobby?"

The house elf looked at him for a moment as if he was deeply insulted, then puffed out his chest proudly.

"Dobby remembers every word Harry Potter has ever said to Dobby, Dobby is proud to do Harry Potter's biding"

Then the house elf disappeared without another word.

Harry wished sometimes he understood Dobby better, when all this was over and Voldemort was dead, Harry decided he would explore Dobby's and his relationship, but for now he had other things to think about, he had to get to the burrow! And to do that he had to push more power into his apparation, to break through the barrier.

Closing his eyes again, Harry concentrated once more on getting to the burrow, but this time he tried adding the power he tapped into whenever he summoned Prongs, his Patronus, concentrating on his happy thought and the fact he needed to get to the burrow.

Harry felt the power swell within him, build to the level where he would release it in the form of a glowing white stag, then go beyond that level. Harry almost lost himself for a moment as he revelled in the feeling of ecstasy the power created in him. It was unlike anything he had ever experienced before, it felt like his whole body was bathed in sunlight.

With a conscious effort, Harry turned away from the power, and concentrated on the burrow, how much he wanted to see his friends, how much he wanted to see Ginny, how much he needed to be there.

This time the pain and the cold of the barrier was much, much greater, as the dark barrier repelled him and threw him away, he heard himself scream in mental agony. Stumbling to his knees, Harry took several deep breaths. The power of the Patronus had made the pain much worse than his first attempt. Why?

The Patronus was one of the more powerful types of light magic, being one of the only things that could repel a Dementor, what if this barrier was designed to keep light magic out, maybe that's why it had repelled him with more force the second time. If that was the case, what if he used magic powered by darker emotions, what effect would that have on the barrier.

But what to use, what memory was dark enough to create the same effect as his memory of his parents did to create his Patronus, it did not take long to find.

Severus Snape, the six years of torment he had put Harry through while at Hogwarts, belittling him at every turn, the snide comments, the insults to his parents, the threats, the way he had treated Sirius.

Harry could feel the anger and hatred build inside him, it was like a huge wall of flame that licked at the expanses of his mind trying to find a way out, but Harry didn't let it have its way, he didn't let it out, instead he willingly stoked the fire to new heights.

Snape standing upon the tower that fateful night, Snape slowly raising his wand and pointing it at the injured and unarmed Dumbledore, taking his life while Harry stood there helpless, frozen.

The flame of anger had now become an inferno, a firestorm that raged at its captivity, the power of it surprised and frightened him, even the power level he had generated moments before by using his Patronus memory was dwarfed by what he felt now.

It was almost as there had been a doorway leading to his magical potential that had until this moment been held shut against him, but now he had blown the door completely off its hinges, allowing him to become what he was always supposed to be, he wasn't sure how he knew, but Harry was sure his magical core had just increased in size increasing the amount of magic available to him.

The scary thing was how good it felt, with this much power he could do anything, go anywhere, and no one would be able to stop him. He need never be afraid of anything or anyone ever again, no one would be able to abuse him or deprive him of what he wanted, he could just reach out and take whatever he needed. Laughing, Harry raised his arms above his head, revelling in the feeling of power.

Voldemort would be first, his destruction would sound the death knell to blood superiority in British Wizarding society, Harry would bring justice to those born of mixed blood or muggle born, and he would restore the rights and privileges to the other magical races, the Goblins, the centaurs and all the others. And if any stood in his way he would strike them down with righteous fury.

'Well really Harry, haven't you learnt anything in six years'

Hermione's voice suddenly intruded into his mind, it was like the effect of standing under an ice cold shower and it immediately jerked him back to his senses, this wasn't who he was, he was Harry Potter, not Voldemort.

For Harry it wasn't ever about power, it was about people, people he cared about, and who cared about him, it was about feelings that Voldemort had never experienced and would never understand.

Taking a deep breath, Harry let the power slowly bleed off, until only an afterimage, like that left on your retina after looking at the sun, remained. Sitting heavily on his bed, Harry put his head in his hands, was that how Voldemort felt? When he drew the power to himself, it that why he had done the things he had done?

How close did I come to tipping over the edge and perhaps even joining him, Harry though to himself, no there could only be the one dark lord, they still would have fought each other. But once Harry had cast him down, would he have become Voldemort himself?

Standing, Harry composed himself, he had to still get to the burrow, and following the way of light was not going to work, but at least now he knew what to expect from the power when it built up inside of him.

Concentrating on Snape again, the anger grew again much quicker than before, Harry was not convinced this was a good thing. Soon Harry felt the inferno of power build up inside him, and rather than push his luck any further he closed his eyes and concentrated on the burrow, and what he would do to the Death Eaters he found there.

With not so much as a pop, more an ear splitting roar followed by the sound of a passing express train Harry, disappeared from 4 Privet Drive.

OoOoO

**Ministry of Magic, Improper Use of Magic Office**

Malfalda Hopkirk sat at her desk, alone in the silent and dark office, sobs wracking her stout frame. She stared at the photo held grasped in her hands, oblivious to the tears that splashed down upon it. The picture depicted a family enjoying a picnic in a summer meadow, and had been taken the summer before, in a happier time.

They were all dead now, her husband and her two sons, killed that very night by the servants of he-who-must-not-be-named. Malfalda felt as if her world was ending, and what she wanted now more than anything was to have been home herself when the attack had started.

Instead she had agreed to cover for a friend and take the night shift in the improper use of magic office, monitoring the illegal use of underage magic. It was not a difficult task, very few underage wizards would risk expulsion from Hogwarts so soon after the start of the holiday, and the confiscation of their wands by performing any form of illegal magic.

So it was with some surprise that Malfalda heard the sound of a plate smashing, the tone that indicated someone, somewhere had performed underage magic. Deep in the Ministry building stood the ancient magic detector, nobody knew how old the device was, some said it had been fashioned by the Goblin. No one still possessed the knowledge to build another one, the required enchantments had long fallen into mis-use.

A piece of parchment in the shape of a paper airplane floated over her shoulder and landed gracefully on her desk, the inter office memo would indicate who had performed the illegal act, what they had done and at what time, and where they were located.

Numbly, Malfalda picked up the parchment and unfolded it, going through the instinctive motions without really any thought. It took a long time before the words on the parchment swam into focus before her tear filled eyes.

Harry James Potter, aged 16

Unknown magical act 01:20

Unknown magical act 01:24

Unknown magical act 01:26

Apparation 01:35

No. 4 Privet Drive. Little whinging, Surrey

Malfalda blinked away her tears, focusing on the memo before her in an attempt to divert some of her pain, she had never seen the term 'unknown magical act' on a parchment before, the detectors in the past had always determined what spell had been cast at the specified location. She recognised the name Harry Potter of course, he had performed underage magic in self defence two years before in the same location, in order to drive off two Dementors.

She also knew Potter was a direct opponent of Voldemort, and had indeed faced him several times over the years, and was therefore someone who deserved her utmost support. He was not yet of age, and had no apparation license, if she did nothing the authorities under the orders of Minister Scrimgeour would no doubt take the youth's wand from him at the time he possibly needed it most.

Coming to a decision, Malfalda reached out and picked up a stamp on her desk and slammed it down onto the parchment.

'Actioned' was now printed upon the parchment in big red writing, folding the parchment into an airplane once more, Malfalda waved her wand over it and threw it into the air, the plane looped once before zipping out of her office.

Standing, Malfalda moved to a large magical filling cabinet and pulled open the drawer containing wizards with the surname P. Reaching inside she pulled out Harry Potters file and took it back to her desk, what she was doing, if detected, could earn her a sentence in Azkaban, but she didn't care, she was going to allow the youth to do what he had to do without any interference from the Ministry.

Potter would escape official notice for any magical act he would undertake until he was legally allowed to perform magic.

OoOoO

**Gringotts Wizarding Bank**

Once the conditions of the enchantment had been fully met, it required very little action on behalf of the night staff of Gringotts, the package removed itself from the Bell family fault, appearing in the goblin night clerks' in tray. It was already properly addressed.

The clerk worked his way down his pile of correspondence until he got to the package, he picked it up and scrutinised the address for a moment, his brows furrowed in concentration.

An unusual address to be sure, but Gringotts prided itself on being able to carry out any and all the wishes of its clients, especially clients of such long standing of the Bell family.

Summoning one of the large international courier owls, the clerk attached the package to the owls legs with practised ease, the owl stood patiently until he had finished, then he craned his head to look at the address.

The owl appeared to do a comical double take, then gave the Goblin a very black look, the goblin just shrugged his shoulders which was not a natural movement for a Goblin, and gave the owl a 'what am I supposed to do, I only work here' look. The owl snorted in disgust and with a powerful sweep of its wings launched itself into the air, and set off on possibly the longest mail journey of its life.

OoOoO

**Ministry of Magic**

Tonks burst into the Auror crew room, and stopped so suddenly it was if she had hit a brick wall. The room was full to capacity, not just the duty shift of Aurors, but all the shifts, all told nearly eighty Aurors were packed into the room.

Just inside the door she saw the three Aurors of her own capture team, Proudfoot, Savage and Dawlish, they had all been on the platform when the Hogwarts express had arrived. Moving inside she made her way across to them.

"What's going on?" She asked. Dawlish, who was standing just inside the door leaning against the wall, turned to look at her in amazement.

"You don't know?" She shook her head. The three male Aurors looked at each other for a moment as if to try and decide which of them should be the one to tell her. In the end it was it was Ryan Savage that spoke first.

"The dark lord, he hit us hard tonight Tonks, nearly forty Ministry dead, and the reports are still coming in!"

Tonks staggered back and blinked quickly, people she knew would be on the casualty list, Aurors didn't tend to mix much with other Ministry personnel, because one day they could end up investigating their friends. Tonks was different, mainly because she was still very new to her job. She had only been fully trained for three years.

Her relationship with the Weasley family was unique, it had originally come about because they were all members of the Order of the Phoenix, but to tell the truth it had developed far beyond that now.

"Yeah, I have a report to…well, report, myself,"

Pushing through the crowd, she managed to fight her way to the shift commanders' office, she was surprised to find two of the four shift commanders, the head of MLE Gawain Robards, and the Minister of magic Rufus Scrimgeour himself inside.

"Yes Auror Tonks"

Marcus Washburn looked up from reading a report on his desk catching her eye before she had a chance to knock, he looked very pale, not surprising really considering the kind of night he was having.

"Sir I have come to report an attack, Dementors attacked the Longbottom's and managed to give at least a partial kiss to Augusta Longbottom, before her grandson Neville apparated them away."

None of the four men needed to look at any file when it regarded the name Longbottom, all of them fondly remembered Alice and Frank Longbottom, two very capable Aurors. The Longbottom family had suffered so much, but it seemed the suffering had not ended yet.

"Where is she now," Deacon studied her intently

"Arthur Weasley took her to our healers sir"

"And the boy?" This from the Minister.

"At the Weasley residence sir, he was exhausted from the dual apparation"

"Very well, your mission tonight is to keep the Longbottom boy and the Weasleys safe, go and find Arthur and return to the burrow, if we can we will send reinforcements later."

Tonks managed to retrace her steps through the crowded crew room swapping the occasional greeting, and paused to speak briefly with her fellow team members, before getting to the door to the crew room, where she was nearly knocked flat by an Auror cadet carrying a bundle in her arms. The cadet was crying.

"Death Eaters! They attacked my family, I have to get help, I have to go back!" The young woman wailed.

In a very short time the whole story had spilled out, and they found themselves surrounded by a large and very angry group of Aurors, including the shift commanders.

"Right I want a ten man team with me at the Bell house, give no quarter, save who you can, no, not you Katie, I want you to stay and look after your sister, in fact you go with Auror Tonks!"

If Katie Bell had any argument left in her after the night's events, it flashed to the surface, and immediately died under the stern gaze of Marcus Washburn, he gripped her shoulder comfortingly.

"We'll find you Katie, when we have them safe, ok?"

Washburn shared a glance with Tonks that left no doubt in her mind he didn't expect to be bringing anyone back alive. The young child held in Katie's arms had remained silent the entire time, just looking about her with big, fear filled eyes, and Tonks knew it would be a very long time before the child had recovered from this night.

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

They hit the prison in an unstoppable wave of despair, two hundred Dementors, arriving out of the night without warning. Most of the forty strong Ministry guard force died without even drawing their wands, a few managed to conjure a solid Patronus, but it was too little too late. In the space of ten minutes the prison was once again in the hands of the Dementors.

By the time the scheduled relief boat arrived there was nothing left alive on the island, all the captured Death Eaters had been released, along with about half the prisons regular detainees. In all it was estimated that the dark lords numbers had been swelled by nearly three hundred, and the Dementors had fed extremely well on those who had turned down the dark mark.

OoOoO

**Bell Residence**

Marcus Washburn stood helplessly on the pavement and watched the roof of the Bell town house collapse down into the flames that had nearly finished gutting the interior. The heat was intense and the others had immediately backed off, but Marcus felt almost duty bound to watch the building consume itself.

Looking up, Marcus stared at the dark mark hanging in the sky and shuddered in revulsion, it had been a bad night, the worst in what they were calling the second war, but Marcus truly believed the war had never really ended, it had just taken a fifteen year break. It would never end until the dark lord was finally dead.

"Sir, you better come and see this"

An Auror named Carver interrupted his thoughts, the man was an experienced veteran, but he was pale and breathing heavily, whatever had effected him so badly would not be pleasant, sighing Marcus indicated Carver to lead the way.

They moved around the house into the large garden at the rear of the property, by the light of the fire Marcus could see their destination, two bodies lay on the grass, they had been draped with cloaks in a last attempt to salvage some dignity for the corpses.

Kneeling down, Marcus reluctantly lifted one of the cloaks and peered underneath, he looked at the body for a moment before dropping the cloak. The only visible effect of the body upon him was a slight tremble in his hands and a tightening around his jaw.

The body had been mutilated by what appeared to be a large dog, the throat had been torn out, the chest splayed open and the internal organs removed, and to add insult the face had been clawed to make the corpse unrecognisable.

Marcus suddenly remembered the terrified bundle in Katie Bell's arms, a small child, yes that would fit the profile of a known Death Eater who was also a werewolf, one Fenrir Greyback. The man liked to give the children of his enemies a bite, to get back at the parents in the worst possible way, by transforming the children into werewolves themselves.

With Katie depriving him of his sport, Fenrir's fury must have been great, Marcus just hoped that the Bells had already been dead before the enraged werewolf had savaged them.

"Right, there's nothing more we can do here, Carver get a detail to bring in the bodies, lets get back to the Ministry" Marcus was not in a rush to get back of course, in fact he was dreading finding what other reports would be sat on his desk awaiting his return.

OoOoO

**No.10 Downing Street, London**

The Prime Minister of muggle Britain paced up and down in front of the fire in his office muttering to himself, much to the amusement of the only other person in the room. Kingsley Shacklebolt sat back in one of the comfortable armchairs and watched the most powerful muggle in the country vent his spleen.

"Damn the man, where is he? The only time I've ever asked for him, and what does he do, nothing! He cannot even be bothered to answer!"

Shacklebolt coughed politely, just to remind Blair he was still there, and that the man the PM was slating so viciously was in fact his immediate boss. But Blair just fixed the man with a black look and continued pacing.

The Prime Minister had requested the meeting the moment he had been informed of the events in Suffolk that evening and their significance. Now several hours later he was still waiting, waiting with the seemingly eternally patient Shacklebolt.

To most government employees and even most of the cabinet ministers, Shacklebolt was the highly efficient secretary that ran the outer office, to a very select few in the know, he was the Prime Minister's magical bodyguard.

The muggle leader was about to do something that no British Prime Minister had ever done, and he was in two minds as to whether this made him and his government appear weak, or whether it was just making use of all available resources.

He was just about to start another leg of his office, when he heard the sound he had been waiting for all evening, a cough from behind him, in the corner of the room where he knew no one was stood.

Whirling, the muggle stalked to the small, dirty portrait of a man, and waited for it to speak, the fact that this had run through his mind without some form of interruption showed how much he had changed since coming to power less than a year before.

With sudden glee the Prime Minister knew he must be there when the portrait first spoke to his successor, it would make everything seem worthwhile somehow.

"To the Prime Minister of muggles, the Minister for magic will be arriving shortly" It always sounded as if the man in the portrait was reading from a prepared script, and not a very well written one at that.

"Er…right, thank you, I shall be expecting him" he just time to walk back behind his desk and sit down before green fire flashed from the unlit grate, and Rufus Scrimgeour the Minister for magic stood in his office.

He had slightly more grey streaks in his hair than the last time the muggle had seen him, but then his own hair was hardly the same colour it had been when he had first stood for public office either. Scrimgeour had the look about him of a man under a lot of pressure, but he still carried himself with a certain pride that suggested that no matter how bad things got he would fight on.

"Good evening Prime Minister, what can I do you tonight!" Straight to the point, good, the Prime Minister didn't have the time to waste in idle chitchat anyway.

"Minister, earlier this evening there was an incident involving a train in Suffolk, an explosion has caused a very dangerous substance to be thrown into the air. This substance will make a great many people very sick, I was hoping that some of your people could use their special…talents to handle this substance"

Scrimgeour conjured an armchair and sat down heavily, of all the things he had come armed to expect, this certainly wasn't one of them, no muggle government had ever asked for help from the magical community. It was not the job of the magical community to clean up after muggles, if it started here, then where would it stop, would they end up fighting wars for them?

"No, I'm sorry Prime Minister, but the Magical separation treaty of 1837 quite clearly states that the Ministry is under no obligation to help in a purely muggle incident in any way."

"I thought you would say that Minister" the muggle reached for a folder on the table and removed a photo, which he passed across the desk.

"Which is why I'm showing you this, I think you will agree it throws a different light on my request"

Scrimgeour picked up the photo, it was a muggle picture of course, frozen in the moment it was taken, but the subject of the picture made his eyes widen. It was the Dark Mark hanging in the air

"Shacklebolt has already identified it as his mark, so all I need to know now is how you will help prevent half of Suffolk falling ill and dying, I'm sorry to press you Minister, but time is short"

Scrimgeour looked up at the PM, shock evident on his face, he'd been completely caught out, this muggle had outmanoeuvred him brilliantly, Scrimgeour noted that he must remember not to underestimate the man in future.

"Very well Prime Minister, I shall dispatch a team to the scene immediately"

Suddenly, with nothing more than a slight pop, there was a strange creature stood on the Prime Minister's desk, it had big ears and large doleful eyes, and an interesting fashion sense. Shacklebolt had reacted fastest, and his wand was pressed into the house elf's chest before the creature could move or utter a sound.

"Explain yourself, quickly" The normal placid Shacklebolt seemed to grow in size as he spoke, and there was a decidedly threatening tone to his voice.

"Dobby is sorry sir, but Harry Potter insisted"

"Your Potter's elf?"

Scrimgeour almost screamed at the elf, how dare that little black haired, scar faced upstart flout the Ministry rules in such a way, he would bring him in for this.

"No sir, Dobby is a free elf, Dobby's former master presented Dobby with clothes, thanks to Harry Potter. Dobby serves Harry Potter because of his greatness and kindness."

"Alright, so what are you doing here?" Shacklebolt had not moved his wand an inch.

"Harry Potter told Dobby to find the Minister and tell him there is trouble at the wheezy house, tell him to bring Aurors and healers, and to come quick"

Shacklebolt and Scrimgeour looked at each other in puzzlement, both mouthed 'wheezy'.

"What do you mean wheezy?"

"The wheezy family sir! Red hair, Ron wheezy, Ginny wheezy, Fred and George Wheezy, Percy wheezy, Dobby thinks he works for you sir!"

Shacklebolt slapped a big black hand on his forehead.

"He means Weasley!"

"That's what Dobby just said!!" The house Elf was getting quite agitated now, hopping from one foot to the next.

"Tell Potter we're coming!"

Dobby nodded once and disappeared without another word. Scrimgeour turned to the PM who had sat back in his chair in astonishment, he just waved his hand feebly at the Minister of magic.

"I don't want to know, just send the help to Suffolk" With a nod the two wizards stood and moved to the fire place, in a flash of green they had both vanished.

The Prime Minister leaned back in his chair and tried to figure out how this whole incident would fit into his as yet unwritten memoirs, the more involved in the magical world he got, the more he wished he'd never been told about it. Sighing, he reached for the phone to get the latest update from the crash site.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Ron came downstairs rubbing the sleep from his eyes and yawning, he didn't trust his brothers as far as he could levitate them, he had been on the end of their pranks for far too long now. But there had been something about the urgency in their manner that told him to pay attention to them this time.

He took in the scene in the kitchen, then had to do a double take, his mind refused to accept what his eyes were telling it.

"Hermione?" It came out as barely a whimper, slowly almost reluctantly, he approached the table and looked down at the bloody form that lay there.

Her eyes were closed and there was a slight smile on her lips, and despite her blood-smeared face, in Ron's opinion she still looked like an angel. With a gentleness that not many suspected he possessed, he reached down and carefully caressed her forehead, brushing some stray bushy brown hairs back from her face.

Ginny took one look at her brother's face and ran up to him and gave him a huge hug, she had never seen him look so completely panic stricken and lost before. He hugged her back with one arm, with the other he continued stroking Hermione's forehead, as if he was afraid of what might happen should he break physical contact with her.

"I'm sorry Ron dear, we need you to move so we can help her" Molly didn't want her son stood there if brave Hermione lost her tenuous grip on life, this was going to be hard enough as it was.

When Ron gave no indication that he had heard her, Molly looked meaningfully at her daughter, and nodded her head in a direction away from the table. Ginny nodded in understanding to her mother and dragged Ron away from the table, over to the couch, Ron and Emma took one look at each other, and both burst into tears and started hugging each other.

Dan found himself caught up in a hug with them too, his thoughts had been miles away, at an Army camp just outside the town of Hereford, and the favours owed to him by those very special soldiers stationed there.

He blinked, and dragged himself back to the here and now. He needed to stay positive, his wife needed him to be strong, and so Dan pushed his thoughts of revenge to the back of his mind, not out of it completely, but very deep none-the-less.

Suddenly the Apparation ward triggered again. Remus moved quickly up to Molly's side and bent down to whisper.

"They're coming Molly! Can we move her?"

Molly shook her head.

"No, with Fleur's help she's hanging on, but she cannot maintain the spell if we move, if we move her now it will kill her!"

Remus nodded at her assessment, reaching a decision, he turned to face the room in general, gripping his wand tightly.

"Ok Weasley's wands out, company is coming, and I suspect it won't be friendly. Fred, George, I want you pair at your most devious best, I am ordering you to take the damn gloves off, whatever you can come up with, the nastier the better."

The twins grinned evilly at him and sprinted for the stairs, and their secret product stash kept in their room, for a single moment Remus felt a twang of sympathy for the Death Eaters.

"Alright then, since we cannot move Hermione, right here is where we shall make our stand, none of them can be allowed to get in here alright?"

Bill nodded grimly to him, even had she not been Ron's girlfriend, Hermione also now belonged to the extended Weasley clan, and to the Weasley's (other than the idiot Percy of course) nothing mattered more to them than family.

The Death Eaters were about to learn what a bad idea it was to stir up the Weasley hornets' nest. Bill drew his wand and crossed to the kitchen window and stood staring out at the garden.

Ginny just looked at Remus with grim determination burning in her eyes, Hermione had befriended her at a time when no-one else would, been the source of good advice and encouragement, and helped her come to terms with what happened to her in that first terrible year at Hogwarts, she had been Ginny's big sister since almost the day they had met.

As far as Ginny was concerned Hermione was as much her sister as Ron and Bill were her brothers, and she was damn sure no one was going to hurt her family.

Ron just stood and drew his wand, there was a strange stiffness to his movements, and a certain set to his shoulders, making him seem almost mechanical.

He was no longer crying, but inside he was in terrible pain, none of it seemed real, it was if this was just one huge prank cooked up by the twins, and that Hermione would sit up on the table and everybody would laugh at the look on his face.

But that wasn't going to happen, Hermione still lay on the table fighting for life, and given the looks on his mum's face, it was a fight she could still lose. Ron found that he was more frightened of something happening to Hermione, than he had ever been in his whole life, even that time in the forbidden forest when he and Harry had faced Aragog. Thinking of Harry, Ron really wished he was here now, Harry would know what to do, he always did.

There was a sudden loud groan from the other couch, and Neville sat up looking about himself with a bewildered look on his face, when he saw Hermione on the table and Fleur beside it his eyes widened in disbelief.

"Neville?" neither Ginny nor Ron had even noticed him up to that point.

"What's going on?" Neville sounded a little groggy.

"No time to catch you up Neville, we need your help to defend the burrow, are you up to it?" Neville grinned weakly and nodded at Remus, pulled out his wand and moved to join the other defenders.

Dan touched his wife on the arm then stood and moved over to Remus, from his pocket he withdrew a large black object. Remus raised an eyebrow at him and Dan smiled at him coldly.

"I've already killed one man tonight who came for my daughter, it would be downright rude not to share the wealth"

Remus grinned back at him, and for just a moment Dan saw the wolf in him revealed.

"Alright, positions then, keep your heads down, drag any injuries back to the centre of the room"

With a last look around, Remus moved across to the window and stood next to Bill, he looked over at the tall red haired wizard, noting the barely healed scars and the white knuckles where he was gripping his wand.

"You ok?"

Bill looked back over at him, there was the ghost of a smile on his lips, and a sad far away look in his eyes.

"Not really, but until this is finally all over I don't think any of us are going to be, are we" Remus said nothing and turned his attention back to the window, but he found himself agreeing.

OoOoO

AN/ A bit Harry light this chapter i know, but i needed to get all my pawns in position and this story has a lot of pawns.

AN/ i need to go and sit down in a quiet corner now and rest my weary fingers, hope you enjoyed it, sleep tight, don't let the horntails bite,


	3. 3 Bust up at the Burrow

AN/ Since this is my first ever story i'm not sure what the going rate is, but i know i hate chapters of only a few hundred words length. Of the chapters in this story that are finished or at least nearly so, Chapter one remains the shortest at about 10k words. I have set myself the (hopefully) reachable goal of never falling below this figure for this story.

AN/ This is the last in a trilogy of 'set-up' chapters to introduce some new characters and get others where i want them.

AN/ As this is my first story i am a little unsure of the maturity rating this story should operate under, but this chapter contains several deaths and probably deserves it's M classification.

* * *

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

"People can sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."  
** George Orwell **

Chapter Three: Bust-up at the Burrow

**Somewhere In England**

"Crucio!" The screams from Voldemort's latest victim filled the chamber, echoing from the damp and slimy stonewalls.

It was almost too much for Draco Malfoy to bear, it took every bit of his self-control to stand there, impassively, while the dark lord went about his business, when all he wanted to do with all his heart was run from the chamber and keep running.

Draco was forced to watch in silence, as acts were carried out that sickened him to his very soul, he was completely helpless to act on behalf of the countless victims that had been brought before the dark lord for his amusement.

He had made a terrible, terrible mistake, of this he was only too aware, a mistake he would be lucky to walk away from. All his life it had been drummed into him about how superior pure blood wizards were, about how unworthy muggle born, or mudbloods, were to carry the name wizard or witch, about how it was those that had the pure bloodlines right to rule over the entire Wizarding and muggle world.

Draco had believed every word, every single slur uttered against impure bloodlines, had allowed himself to wear the superiority of his pureblood heritage and bloodline like a comfortable cloak, and treated others like dirt because of their parentage.

But it wasn't about blood, it never had been, he knew that now, it was all about the accumulation of power, and the only one with the true power was the dark lord.

He had seen various Death Eaters, men from supposedly proud and illustrious bloodlines, toadying up to Voldemort in search of some favour, some morsel of power dropped from his plate, and it made Draco sick.

How could he have been so completely wrong in his beliefs, lived his life in such a manner so completely alien to the truth?

It felt to Draco like someone had just opened the curtains in a dark room, revealing for all to see the lies and falsehoods by which he had lived his entire life to this point, and now he was in so deep, how in Merlin's name was he supposed to extricate himself, when his every move and gesture was under scrutiny.

He wasn't trusted, despite who his father was, maybe because of his youth, maybe because of the hesitation he had shown in killing Dumbledore on the roof of the astronomy tower, whatever the reason there was always someone in the background watching him.

Oh they thought they were being so very clever and secretive about it, but Draco Malfoy had been born and bred a Slytherin, and when it came to being sneaky, cunning, sly and deceitful he had rewritten the book.

It would take careful planning and perfect timing to pull off, but it had to be done, he had to get out of here, because Draco knew that sooner or later he would be caught out, they would discover that he was only going through the motions, that he no longer believed at all in what he was being forced to do.

Forcing himself to focus on what was happening in the chamber, Draco realised that the screaming had stopped, the torture victim had fallen mercifully unconscious.

Draco felt a sudden chill, and shivered violently despite the thick robes he was wearing, his own breath began to mist in front of his face in the suddenly frigid air.

Two Death Eaters standing guard at the entrance to the chamber shrank back in fear, away from the black figure that floated down the steps and into the chamber, the figure was tall and thin skeletal fingers protruded from the long black sleeves. Dementor!

Draco wanted to scream, but the sound became lodged in his throat and he stumbled backwards until his back was against the chamber wall, his knees were shaking so hard it was a wonder he was able to remain standing.

The Dementor drifted into the center of the chamber and came to a halt before the now standing Voldemort, for a moment the two creatures just regarded each other, as if weighing each other up, then the Dementor bent down to the unconscious man on the floor and dragged him upright, pressing the palms of both skeletal hands to the sides of the man's head.

The man suddenly jerked, his eyelids opening but showing nothing but the milky whites of his eyes. The man opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

Draco had never heard one of the creatures speak, in fact he didn't even know until that moment that they could speak.

"There are instructions for us Dark One, we are listening?"

The voice was strangely disconnected from the man's body, as if the words didn't come from the man's mouth at all but were somehow projected into the chamber from somewhere far away, his mouth didn't move, just hanging limply open. The sound was one of the most terrifying sounds that Draco had ever heard and filled him with a sudden urge to flee the chamber.

Draco shook his head, trying to restore some focus, he felt utterly hopeless, there was no escape from Voldemort's clutches, and he would die, screaming in pain from multiple castings of the Cruciatus curse, while Voldemort cackled in the background with murderous glee.

"Yes, I require you and your brethren to keep a low profile, just for the moment only feed as you must, preferably somewhere isolated with no witnesses. We do not need to draw too much attention upon ourselves until we are ready to strike with all our force, then you may feed upon the masses until you are sated, but for now I must urge caution. If our enemies are roused they still have sufficient strength to hinder us."

The Dementor said nothing for what must have seemed to Draco to be an absolute age, but in actually fact could not have been more than twenty seconds. The dark form bowed its head towards Voldemort.

"We agree to your terms, what of the marked boy child?"

This time it was not just one voice that answered but many overlaid one on top of the other each slightly out of synch with the one before. Draco made a quick estimate that there were at least five voices all speaking the same words.

"You mean Potter?"

Voldemort couldn't quite hide the surprise in his voice, Dementors never referred to wizards as individuals, almost as if they didn't recognise humans as life forms in their own right.

"The marked boy child has stood against the will of the council twice, stood between us and our prey, this act of defiance must be punished, there must be retribution."

"He shall die in terrible pain by my hand, will that punishment suffice?"

Again there was a pause, almost as if those speaking were taking time to converse and reach an agreement on what to say.

"When the time to strike has come, we will also harvest all the marked boy child's companions and their families, only then will the punishment be complete."

Draco shivered again from the sheer menace in the voices that resonated in the air, they were deadly serious about killing Potter and all of his friends, just because Potter had stood up to them to protect Sirius Black and Potter's muggle cousin.

To Draco's relief the Dementor bowed once more to Voldemort then turned and drifted from the chamber, the man who had been the creature's mouth piece flopped to the floor, dead, his heart having failed him. The temperature immediately started to climb again, and Draco took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to still his beating heart.

There was movement at the entrance to the chamber that attracted Draco's attention, and his eyes widened slightly in surprise when he saw whom it was that had entered. His father was supposed to be imprisoned in Azkaban prison, yet here he was in the flesh.

Lucius Malfoy limped slowly into the central chamber, and into the presence of his lord, Voldemort noticed the new arrival and beckoned him forward with a clawed hand.

"Ah Lucius my old friend, you are returned to me at last" Lucius bowed in acknowledgment, his long blond hair falling off his shoulder. "And how was Azkaban?"

"A nice place to visit my lord, but I would not want to live there" Voldemort roared with laughter, he was in a good mood, he had received reports from nearly all of his strike teams, and the nights work had been, with a few exceptions, a complete success. He felt he could be expansive, and forgive those of his followers that had failed him in obtaining the prophesy in the department of mysteries.

He had struck out at certain key positions within the Ministry, positions his supporters were already in place to inherit or profit from, if all went to plan, in one night he had managed to get nearly twenty-five of his people placed into the Ministry hierarchy. Now he could start to guide the actions and policies of the Ministry towards an end goal only he knew.

Not all the strikes had been part of a grand plan of course, some had been pure and simple vengeance, the Granger, Weasley and Longbottom children for example, they had gotten in his way of his plan for gaining the prophesy in the department of mysteries, and now they would pay the price.

Now all he had to worry about was Potter, but according to reports, the boy had gone into hiding, a wise choice, at least he would spend his few last days in peace, before Voldemort found him, then tortured and killed him.

"I have someone who has been waiting to see you, Lucius" Voldemort indicated a clawed hand to Draco where he stood off to one side, slightly hidden behind the Dark Lords throne.

If Lucius was shocked at the appearance of his son, Draco, he was careful not to let it show on his face, his son appeared ill, he was drawn and haggard, with dark circles around his eyes, he seemed to have lost a lot of weight, and his cheeks were sunken

"Father"

Draco made no move to approach him, just nodding in acknowledgement of his fathers return, they had never been all that close, Lucius was a cold, hard man, to whom displays of affection did not come easily.

"You have arrived just back just in time my friend, we have entered the end game, Dumbledore is dead, thanks in large part to your son"

If either of the older wizards had been looking at Draco at that moment they would have seen an intense look of pain cross the young man's face and a shudder wrack his slender frame. It lasted only a second before he got control over his emotions once more.

"With him out of the way we can proceed with our plans virtually unchallenged, his secret order are running in fear and being picked off one by one, the Ministry and its Aurors will soon have crumbled to dust, and then I will be able to turn my gaze overseas"

Voldemort laughed with glee, but to Draco's ears it sounded like the end of all things. Was there no end to the man's quest for ever-greater power? It left him even more determined to break free from this downward spiral he found himself locked into, he had to, to save his own soul.

OoOoO

**Basra, Southern Iraq**

Killing a man silently was nothing like how they depicted it in Hollywood films, just creeping up behind someone and sticking a knife in their back wouldn't do it, even cutting the throat was no guarantee of total silence, there was always the risk of escaping air and the last thrashing struggles of your victim.

Neither did Hollywood accurately depict what the act killing another human being does to your soul, some would claim that each life taken costs a little part of your own soul, but the truth of the matter was that after the first couple of lives, after the sleepless nights and the nightmares faded, taking lives actually got easier.

Quick as a striking Cobra the soldier reached out and savagely clamped his left hand tightly under his opponents chin, pushing the man's head sharply up and back. Before the surprised victim even had chance to struggle the soldier inserted the stiletto style commando knife into the back of the neck with his gloved right hand, just above the shoulder blades, there was very little or no resistance, thanks to the ultra sharp blade.

The effect of the blow in this location was instant and permanent paralysis, as the brain stem was severed with almost surgical precision from the spinal cord. There was no sound and no tell tale hissing escape of air, because although he was still alive, the young opponent couldn't command his own body to do anything, he couldn't cry out, breathe or move a single muscle. He was in fact already dead, but his brain hadn't caught up with his body.

The soldier had time to wipe his narrow blade clean on his victims clothes, and then sheathe it in the scabbard down on his right hip before he had to worry about catching the falling body, the body fell almost in slow motion as if some kind of muscle memory was fighting to keep the man upright, but in the end gravity always won the contest.

Grabbing the dead weight of the body by the back of his dirty shirt collar, the soldier lowered the man slowly to his knees, finally, almost gently he lowered the man down on to his side, taking care that the Kalashnikov assault rifle slung around the man's shoulders didn't clatter noisily to the floor.

The injured man looked up pleadingly at his killer of course, his eyes begging, beseeching the soldier, as he began to understand the true horror of what had happened to him, but it was far too late, without the body's ability to process the oxygen in his lungs he had only moments of life left.

Once upon a time, back at the beginning of the path the soldier now found himself on, he had wondered briefly about his victims, they were all someone's sons, someone's husband. But he had stopped thinking that way a long time ago now, to him now they were all just targets to be eliminated.

The young man died silently, in terror, alone in a dirty alleyway. He died at the orders of men that although he had never met, he had wished harm upon, he died at the hands of a dedicated and skilled soldier whose name he would never learn, all in the name of a cause he had sworn his life to defend.

By this time the soldier had moved on, it was best not to linger, he had a mission to perform, and time was a factor. The Heckler and Koch MP5A4 submachine gun that up to now had been slung across his back, was now up and held tightly into his shoulder, sweeping from left to right across the alleyway. Wherever his eyes looked, that's where his weapon was pointed, after all there was little point to spotting trouble if you were unprepared to deal with it.

Behind the soldier, in a formation that allowed them to cover every angle, were the other three members of the assault team, dressed exactly as the first soldier was, in black and grey fatigues, black gas respirators covering their faces, black flash hoods pulled over their heads, and although there are no markings noting their names, ranks, units or nationalities, the image they presented was famous the world over.

The four soldiers moved down the alleyway in an almost crablike movement, a strange crouched over run, designed to cover ground quickly but still allow them to fire their weapons accurately while on the move.

But the overriding requirement here was for stealth, and the four soldiers were utterly silent, since the mission started there hadn't been the need for a single sound, communication was only by hand gesture and by well trained and drilled intuition.

Ahead, there was the objective, a building believed to be holding two western aid workers, medical doctors that had been snatched off of the street by the Iraqi secret police.

They were supposed to be being tortured as spies, which they certainly were not, they had come to this place with nothing but good intentions, to bring medical help to the poverty stricken Iraqi people and ended up as just more victims of a mad dictator.

This was not the first time that this had happened, however this was the first time that Intelligence had come up with the goods on their location in time to make a difference, and this time things would be done right.

Moving up to the corner, the first soldier carefully edged his head out until he could see up the main street, the midday heat has forced most of the locals inside, he was sweating heavily too, but with an act of willpower he ignored it, his mind focused on the job at hand.

The street was utterly deserted, the heat haze causing some of the furthest buildings to take on that unusual wavering effect seen most often in deserts. After a moment of carefully observing the scene, movement from the building across the street drew the soldiers attention, a man was stood up on the roof, trying his very best to look innocent, but the AK47 slung over his shoulder was the giveaway, sentry.

Slipping back into cover, the soldier reached up to his throat mike and broke radio silence for the first time, the range was simply too great for the soldiers personal weapons, the MP5, so he knew he needed a helping hand.

"Tango sighted, roof opposite target building, give me a three count!"

Short, sharp and concise, the soldier knew that nearly half a mile away a friend was peering intently through the telescopic sight of a high powered L96A1 sniper rifle, just waiting for a call to action. It only took a moment to get a reply.

"Tango seen, three, two, one, tango down for the count"

Then the soldier was around the corner moving fast, he didn't even look at the roof of the house opposite, such was the trust he had in his back up. In his position you had to have absolute trust in those around you to allow you to do such a job properly, besides the 'down for the count' comment indicated the sniper had scored a definite head kill shot.

The soldier's attention was firmly fixed on the objective house, knowing there was a second team of four soldiers moving parallel whose task it was to guard the flanks and rear during the assault.

Reaching the door of the target house, the soldier and the rest of his team lined up along the wall, the second man in the team moved into position on the opposite side of the door.

The second soldier was the explosives expert in the team, the soldier tasked with breaching the houses' defences once the assault started. Quickly, he confidently began the task of attaching breaching charges to the hinges and door lock of the front door, and then he moved back to stand on the opposite side of the door from the rest of the team. Once the charges were detonated he would be the last one of the team inside.

Reaching down into his webbing, the leading soldier removed two objects from his pouches, affectionately known in military circles as 'Flashbangs' these are non-lethal grenades designed to confuse and disable anyone inside.

"Delta Team stacked up, awaiting a go."

Now it was all in the hands of those sat many miles away in a comfortable air conditioned command centre, in whose hands rested the lives of the assault team, the two captured men, and the lives of the Iraqi secret policemen inside the house.

For the assault team this was the most dangerous time in the whole mission, they were horribly exposed out on the street in broad daylight, relying completely on the midday sun and their protection team to keep the locals off their backs.

"Delta Team, you have a go"

It was the go code, no need to reply and no turning back from this point on, they would all have to play the cards they had been dealt by fate. With a nod to his demolition man, the lead soldier let his MP5 dangle on its sling and pulled the pins on the two Flashbangs, ensuring he kept the spades pressed in. The demo man held up three fingers and started dropping one at a time until he reached zero.

The breaching charges exploded with a dull crump, all their explosive effect focused inwards. The hinges and door locks instantly disintegrated, and the door was spun crazily into the room like a malfunctioning projectile, quickly followed by the two Flashbangs. There was just time to take up the MP5 again and activate the powerful torch slung under the barrel.

**Boom**, along with the loud noise generated by the grenade there was also an intense blaze of white light, hence the term flashbang, then the soldier moved inside before the sound faded.

He moved inside and along the left hand wall, behind him, the next member of the assault team was already inside and moving along the right hand inside wall mirroring his movement. The assault team had trained to do this so many times it has become second nature, it was almost enough to make the men feel nostalgic about the 'killing house', the training facility at the soldiers base in Hereford.

There, a kneeling man, clutching one hand to his bleeding ears, his other hand holding a Russian made Markov pistol, **phut**, **phut**, two 9mm rounds to the head, and then a further two to make sure.

The soldiers weapons were set to single shot, they also had a three round burst setting and an automatic setting, but on single shot every round is guaranteed to go where the soldiers want it to, which in a hostage rescue environment is a necessity.

After the sound of the Flashbangs, the retort of the submachine guns in the confined space seems almost quiet by comparison. Their training was to never leave an opponent to their rear, they were not here to take prisoners, but to save hostages.

More weapon fire erupted as the team continued to clear the room, speed, aggression and surprise is everything, keep moving, and never, ever let them recover from the initial shock.

Two doors lead from the first room, and the team automatically splits into pairs without a word and progress deeper inside. On his side of the room, the lead soldier found a hallway stretching away from him.

From the left of the hallway came a man, carrying an AK47, he ignored the two soldiers and tried to cross the hall. **Phut**, **phut**, the lead soldier put two rounds into his back and stepped over him, the room the secret policeman came from was empty, behind him the soldier's team mate has put another two rounds into the man he had dropped.

Last door is shut. The soldier, with his tightly laced jump boot, delivered a powerful incentive for the door to open, and then he was inside, moving left to clear the doorway for his team-mate.

Three men, two secured to the wall, bound and gagged. Another holding a large serrated and bloody knife, on the other side of the room is a video camera, already recording.

The knife man span and started to move towards the hostages. Even with just a knife the man was a threat to the soldiers and most definitely to the hostages, neither soldier hesitated so much as a split second.

**Phut**, **phut**, **phut**, **phut**, **phut**, **phut**, **phut**. Both the first soldier and his team mate engaged the knife carrier with their MP5's, and in a storm of 9mm rounds, every one of which hits its target, his body moved in a macabre dance of death under the hail of bullets, then he slowly dropped on his face and laid still.

Ignoring for the moment the bound men, the soldier changed his magazine for a fresh one from his webbing, it was a smooth, well-practised movement that his body carried out seemingly without any conscious effort.

Continuing to secure the building, its only moments before, "Clear!" all four of the soldiers chorus in turn, reaching up to his throat mike the lead soldier spoke into it, his voice still calm and steady despite the last few seconds of frantic activity.

"Charlie Team, this is Delta, packages secure, ready to extract"

"Roger that Delta, Charlie is moving, be outside in three, don't be late."

Quickly the soldiers searched each of the dead bodies and the rooms for anything the intelligence boys will find useful, and remembering to remove the video camera. Improvising, the soldiers quickly recorded the faces of the men they had killed inside the house for later identification.

Only then did the soldiers move the prisoners, they did not untie them, because shocked and stunned civilians were much easier to control if they were still bound. The team led the hostages into the front room, ignoring the smell of cordite from the flash-bangs, breaching charges and the weapons fire.

With a squeal of brakes, two captured taxis slammed to a halt outside, and moving swiftly the soldiers hustled the prisoners out to the waiting transport. The sniper team and the flank protection team were already onboard and squeezing a further six men and all the weapons they carried into the cabs was a difficult feat of human dynamics, but given the alternative there were no complaints.

Once everyone was onboard the two taxis screamed away, putting distance between themselves and the house, making for a rendezvous with a Royal Air Force helicopter that would carry them out of the country and back to safety in Kuwait.

In all it had been less than five minutes since the door blew in, seven men were dead, another two had been rescued, and most importantly no casualties had been taken by the assaulting team, for the soldiers it had been a very good day.

The lead soldier reached up and with a sense of relief pulled his respirator from his sweat soaked face, breathing in the dry air, Sergeant Thomas Daniel Bell of C Squadron, 22nd regiment, Special Air Service, smiled and leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes, a job well done.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

To Remus's immense surprise it had been Dan Granger that had come up with the strategy to defend the burrow, it seemed he had some rather unusual skills for a dentist, when all this was over Remus knew he had to sit down with Dan and pick his brain.

Since it had been decided that with the numbers available to them, it would be madness to try and defend every avenue of approach to the house, the plan involved deliberately channelling the Death Eaters to the front of the house using a combination of magical and muggle means.

The twins had used their entire on hand supply of portable swamps to create a double thickness barrier around the rear of the house, and with the use of some carefully laid trip wire to activate them, more of the twins inventions would make life extremely hazardous for anyone approaching from the rear.

Remus, Dan and the still disorientated Neville had formed what Dan had called a reserve, ready to fill any gaps, or pull any injured out of the line of fire, they also formed the last line of defence around the three women caring for Hermione.

Fleur was really starting to show the strain now of maintaining the Veela enchantment, she looked at least two decades older than her twenty years, and her slender frame was noticeably shuddering now. Remus didn't know how much longer she could keep it up, but it wouldn't be long.

Molly was working with her wand, trying to use the time that Fleur had given her to stabilise Hermione before the enchantment collapsed, the head wound was beyond her abilities, but broken bones and cuts she could deal with. You didn't have seven children without picking up a lot of home healing.

Emma had taken over as potions mistress, Remus had explained what the use of each potion was, and thanks to the ever-organised Molly's colour coded bottles Emma had picked it up quickly. When she had nothing to do she spent her time holding Hermione's other hand or gently stroking her forehead.

Bill was given the field command of team Weasley, the five red headed siblings had been given the task of defending the walled area directly in front of the kitchen.

The twins had strategically placed boxes of their infamous Weasley wildfire whiz-bang fireworks at intervals around the wall, and were maintaining a high rate of fire over the wall with various rockets and Catherine wheels. The flashes and bangs lit up the early morning sky, several Death Eaters had already tried vanishing them, which of course only multiplied their number by ten.

If the Death Eaters had any sort of organisation behind them they would have overwhelmed the scant defenders in moments, but attacking as individuals allowed the teamwork of the Weasley's to repeatedly beat them back. This was how five Weasleys were managing to hold off fifteen Death Eaters.

"Stupefy!"

Ginny stunned a Death Eater that had drawn an aim at Bill's back, and unleashed her Bat Bogey hex on another, before ducking back under the cover of the wall as someone fired a killing curse at her, in a flash of green light, the wall where her head had been exploded into dust.

This reminded her of the battle in the department of mysteries, in fact if she counted the unconscious Hermione, four of the six that took part in that battle were defending the burrow, only Luna and Harry were missing.

Harry.

She had tried hard not to think about him since this had started, he was proving to be…distracting. Ginny knew him only too well, he would only blame himself for this attack, and probably for the one on Hermione and Neville as well, which to Ginny's mind was just crazy talk.

Hermione had been absolutely correct, Harry had a saviour complex, and he always had to be saving everybody. But if Harry would only let her, Ginny was more than willing to save him for a change.

"Expelliarmus!"

Bill had disarmed a Death Eater that had drawn a bead on her "Ginny pay attention!" Bill cautioned.

"Yeah Ginny, pay attention!"

Both the twins chorused at her. She shot them a black look, but they had already moved on.

Despite the seriousness of the situation the twins seemed to be having a ball, they seemed to be having entirely too much fun, in fact they were having more fun than they had had in a long time. They were tossing fireworks and spells over the wall along with various comments that made no sense to her, but if it kept them happy, then who was she to argue.

"Get some!"

"Have it!"

"Fire in the hole!"

"What did you call our mother?"

"Ya mama was a snow blower!"

"Does it hurt, does it hurt!"

"Is that all you've got!"

"Voldy might own the beach…!"

"…But Voldy don't surf!"

"That's gonna leave a mark!"

"I don't care which magic school you go to, that's gotta hurt!"

"Crawl home to Daddy!"

"Make sure Voldy pays the bill for that!"

"You might want to put some ice on that!"

Ginny just shook her head, she loved her brothers dearly, but she had never really understood them, although to be honest Ginny doubted there were many that did.

"Stupefy!"

Ron dropped a Death Eater as he crossed the pigpen, the man fell face down in a pile of manure and lay still.

"Well that was a shitty thing to do!" cried out George.

"I love the smell of manure in the morning!" shouted Fred

The volume of incoming spells lessened and then died out completely, risking exposing her head Ginny snatched a quick peek over the wall, the Death Eaters had pulled back, around the side of the house and out of sight. Leaving just the immobile Death Eater face down in the manure. Bill moved up beside her and risked a peek as well.

"Is it over?" She asked quietly. Bill shook his head.

"No, they'll be back"

"Let them come, we're ready!" chorused the twins.

Bill grinned affectionately at the two of them and just shook his head, then he crossed the yard at a run and Squatted down beside Ron.

"How are you doing little brother?"

Ron looked up at his oldest brother and tried to smile bravely, but whatever he saw there, it didn't reassure Bill one little bit, he reached out and squeezed Ron's shoulder.

"She'll be fine, you know that right? Would this face lie to you?"

Ron smiled at the standing family joke, Bill had always gotten away with troublemaking as a child because he had the ability to pull an innocent, puppy dog eyed, face of an angel.

Whereas all the other male Weasleys had a guilty expression permanently stuck to their faces, whether they had done something wrong or not. But now Bill, his face ripped up by the werewolf Fenrir Greyback, could not rely solely on his good looks to escape trouble.

"Here they come again, and, oh look, they invited some friends!" Underneath the sarcasm in Ginny's voice Bill could detect a slight undercurrent of fear. Looking over the wall, Bill couldn't blame her, the number of Death Eaters appeared to have grown considerably.

"They must have heard we Weasley's throw the very best of parties, keep their heads down, I'll be right back"

Running in a crouch, Bill slammed into the kitchen door and rolled inside, just as a green flash of light blew wood chips from the doorframe.

Remus lowered his wand, and offered Bill his hand, which Bill gladly accepted. Pulling the oldest Weasley sibling to his feet, the two men exchanged knowing looks.

"Not sure how much longer we can hold them Remus, there must be thirty of them out there now, any more bright ideas"

Despite the attempted levity there was a slight bitterness in Bill's tone, unless they left Hermione, and that just wasn't going to happen, they had no choice but to hold their position.

"No, sorry I'm fresh out, come on Neville, time to join the fight, Dan, protect the ladies"

Remus, Bill and Neville dashed out to bolster the defences, leaving Dan feeling very frustrated and helpless. Moving carefully to the window so as not to draw any unwanted magical attention, he watched the battle intently.

As someone who had spent most of his adult life in uniform, albeit in the Army medical services, he had seen many attacks on well-defended positions, some real, but mostly simulated.

He had also spent many hours in the company of the men whose job it was to carry out those attacks or defend against them, and some of that knowledge, that experience had rubbed off on him. And now there was something niggling at the back of his mind, something was wrong, something he couldn't put his finger on.

Trying to use an impartial eye he, watched the enfolding magical battle, and employed what he knew about tactics to this unusual situation. While he was an outsider to the magical world, he was no stranger to military tactics, the Death Eaters had spread out along the perimeter of the walled area and were keeping up a constant barrage of spells raining down on the heads of the defenders.

This ensured that the defenders were each pinned in place, unable to move to help and support each other, if this had been a conventional muggle battle, Dan smirked to himself, even he was using that term now!

Anyway if this had been a conventional battle, with those holding the position pinned down, he would have expected a small group of attackers to be advancing under the cover of their fellows. It was the most important principle Armed forces everywhere operated on, fire and manoeuvre, but on looking outside, there was plenty of fire, but absolutely no manoeuvre. The Death Eaters outside were not making any concentrated attempt to take ground, just seeming content to throw long range curses for no gain.

Dan had a sudden chilled feeling, as if someone had tipped a bucket of ice down his spine, the black Berretta automatic was in his hands in an instant, something was wrong all right, the force of Death Eaters outside were simply a diversion, and the defenders had completely fallen for it.

Moving back away from the window, Dan's eyes quickly scanned every corner of the kitchen trying to identify where a possible attack could come from. Snatching up a knife from the draining board as he passed, he moved over to the table.

Molly and Emma both looked up, and while Molly didn't recognise the pistol for what it was, she picked up on the tension in Dan Grangers face. Emma saw the weapon out in his hand and knew immediately that something bad was happening, it may have been a long time ago, but she too had served in uniform.

"Here, take this"

Dan passed her the knife hilt first, Emma took it and studied it for a few seconds, then she flipped it over in her hand, expertly catching it as it span through the air, ignoring the startled look she got from Molly, she nodded to her husband and he grinned back at her, god he loved this woman.

"I have a feeling we are about to have more company"

OoOoO

**Lovegood Residence, Ottery St. Catchpole, **

Arthur Weasley stepped out of the fireplace into the Lovegood's living room, lowering their wands, Amos Diggory, Jonas Lovegood and his daughter Luna, his magical neighbours in Ottery St. Catchpole came forward to greet him.

"Morning Arthur, it's a damn fine start to the day in which to fight the minions of the dark lord!"

Arthur and Amos looked at the eternally cheery Jonas with a mix of amusement and exasperation. Just like his daughter, Luna, Jonas sometimes came out with the most inappropriate comments, but also like his daughter he was loyal and brave.

"The battle started about ten minutes ago, most of the noise is being generated by some sort of fireworks, and I take it that's the work of your two reprobates!"

Amos was well aware of the twins' ability to cause havoc in nearly any circumstances.

Arthur smiled, in the distance he could hear explosions and whistling sounds, he was relieved that the burrow was still holding, Kingsley Shacklebolt had informed him of the attack moments before, and unable to apparate or Floo directly home, he decided to get as close as possible.

Shacklebolt and Tonks were gathering a relief force of Ministry personnel, but Arthur couldn't wait any longer, he had contacted his neighbours and asked for help, and neither of them had let him down. The Lovegood house was only a scant half a mile from the burrow, just a short walk across the fields, not that they would be walking.

The grate flared unexpectedly green again, and a very flustered Percy Weasley stepped out into the living room, he met his father's gaze for a moment before dropping his head.

"I only just heard, I…I had to come, they're still…my family!" Percy had expected harsh words, maybe hostile silence, what he didn't expect was to be swept into a huge hug by his father. He found himself automatically returning the hug, and there were tears in his eyes, as there were in the eyes of his father.

"Welcome home…son"

They had not spoken for nearly two years, and despite putting a brave face on it, the rift that had been caused in the family had hurt Arthur Weasley more had he would ever admit to anyone other than Molly.

"I think we should probably leave soon"

Perhaps it was the dreamy, serene way Luna said it, but suddenly every eye in the room was on her, she didn't appear to notice, in fact she was absently playing with her radish earrings.

"It's suddenly gone very quiet"

Arthur cocked his head to one side, listening intently, Luna was right, where there had been whistles, bangs and explosions, now there was only silence. A cold stab of fear ran through him, he was too late, the burrow had fallen.

"Come on Arthur, time to go"

Amos Diggory knew all about loss, his eldest child, Cedric had been killed by Voldemort two years ago, but that had just made his opposition to the dark lord the more resolute. He missed his son, a fine strapping lad, and hoped to one day see him again, but that day would not be this day, after the events of this day the forces of light needed a victory, and he would do everything in his power to supply it with one.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

"Well that's the last of the fireworks"

"Shame really, we had already sold that lot"

"These Death Eaters are really starting to eat into our profit margins"

"Yeah, who do we see about compensation claims!"

The twins had thrown themselves down either side of Bill, and drawn their wands, both still had big grins on their faces, as if this whole thing had been set up for their personal enjoyment.

"Now what do we do!" Bill shouted over to Remus, who was huddled down beside Ginny, above the deafening sound of the incoming spells.

"I could always change into a werewolf and go out there and bite a few of them," Remus shouted back.

The very fact he could even joke about his condition showed how far he had come, besides looking at it from Bill's point of view, he hadn't been far off having the same needs as Remus. Fenrir Greyback, Voldemort's pet werewolf had a lot to answer for.

"We'll keep that plan in our back pocket in case of an emergency" quipped Bill.

"What do you call this?" chorused the twins in amazement.

"This…I'd call this a situation, now if we didn't have Ginny and Neville, now then it would be an emergency!" Bill laughed as his sister screwed her face up and stuck her tongue out at him, Neville just looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

"Bloody hell! Why don't they just rush us? They have the numbers?" It was the first thing Ron had said since the battle had started that was not a spell incantation, his voice sounded strained and had none of the levity the others were forcing, apart from the twins, they didn't have to force anything, it just came naturally to them.

"Don't know, but I don't like it."

**Inside**

The three Death Eaters crept down the stairs, they had gained access to the upper storeys with the use of stolen brooms, and while their companions kept the blood traitors busy outside, they were under orders to eliminate anyone inside. They reached the ground floor and slowly came around the staircase, wands up and ready.

There was a group of three women, two of them quite attractive, gathered around something on the kitchen table, one of the Death Eaters grinned, maybe today wasn't going to be a waste after all, if he stunned them, maybe he could have a little fun before the killing started.

Indicating the other two Death Eaters to hang back, he moved forward and raised his wand and took aim.

CLICK, he froze as he felt something cold and metallic pressed into his temple, looking out the corner of his eye he saw a tall grey haired man, holding something black pointed at him.

"Drop the wand right now, or no healer will be able to put your head back together!" The man hissed, but he had not seen the two remaining Death Eaters that were moving up behind him.

There was sudden movement from around the table, one of the women had whipped around and launched something through the air. The knife spun straight and true and hit the second Death Eater in the throat, it would have caused a mortal wound had it hit blade first, but the hilt still made contact with enough force to make the Death Eater grasp his throat and fall to his knees.

Before he could react, the petite blond woman was across the room and on the third Death Eater, he appeared shocked that a mere muggle would dare to physically assault him, a bastion of pureblood society.

She punched him hard in the face with all her body weight behind it, spun and drove her elbow hard into his gut, forcing the wind from him in an audible gasp. As he doubled over trying desperately to breath, she grabbed him by his ears and pulled his head down further, before driving her knee up into his face with bone crunching force.

With a moan, the man collapsed to the floor holding his face. Emma Granger walked away with a grim smile on her face, people tended to forget Dan was not the only Granger that had military training behind him, and she had found herself waiting all night for a chance to take out some of her frustration and anger on something soft, although from the sudden pain in her hand, not all that soft!

Distracted, the first Death Eater never saw the man raise the black object above his head and bring it crashing down on the back of his neck. Dan turned to his wife and gave her a mock stern look.

"Hilt first dear?" Emma gave him her best 'butter wouldn't melt in my mouth' look and gave him an innocent shrug.

"What can I say honey, I'm out of practise. Dan! Look out!"

Dan spun back around, the second Death Eater had somehow managed to regain his feet, although he was still holding his throat with one hand, and now stood unsteadily his wand held more or less on Dan.

Dan could never piece together what exactly happened next, one moment he had been looking down the pointy end of a wand, the next moment the Death Eater was laid in an unnatural position in the pantry, and he didn't look like he would be getting up any time soon. Spinning around, Dan looked on in astonishment as Molly Weasley gave him a little smile before going back to treating Hermione.

**Outside**

Neville spun aside, dodging a killing curse by the narrowest of margins, he didn't have time to check behind him, but he felt rather than saw that the wayward curse had hit someone, he hoped with all his heart it had not been any of the defenders.

"Reducto!"

His counter curse exploded into the side of the broom shed, and the resulting shrapnel of stone chips and wood slivers dropped two Death Eaters to the floor in howls of pain, but there was more than enough of them to go around, and another two moved forward.

Under the constant barrage of spells it had only been a matter of time, but when the wall collapsed inwards, what had been an organised defence behind its cover became a mad scramble for survival.

Spells and curses flew backwards and forwards, as the defenders suddenly found themselves duelling at point-blank range, fighting for their lives.

Ginny found herself facing off against two Death Eaters, only her quick and accurate shield charm and her smaller size was saving her, that and Neville. Somehow he was holding off two Death Eaters of his own, and still managing to keep her opponents under sporadic fire at the same time, it was a truly impressive performance, he had grown in significantly power and confidence since the department of mysteries.

Dodging backwards away from a ferocious slicing hex aimed at her neck, Ginny tripped over something on the ground behind her, and despite wind milling her arms in an attempt to keep her balance, she fell to the ground. Landing hard on her rump, it was only then she noticed what she had tripped over, it was a Death Eater, his mask lying beside him, his dead eyes staring up at the early morning sky. She was just considering scrambling back to her feet when the Death Eater she had been duelling with noticed her predicament.

"Expelliarmus!"

Her wand went flying from her hand, landing at Bill's feet. Her attacker was smiling with victory and advancing upon her, until Neville threw a curse at him, momentarily distracting him. Bill had his back to her, concentrating on his own private battle, Ginny knew she had only seconds to recover her wand before she was left defenceless before the Death Eaters attention.

"Bill! Wand!"

Bill spared only a second to locate her wand on the floor, then with uncommon skill managed to back heel the wand straight to her out stretched hand, but the lapse in concentration cost him dearly.

A curse blasted through his shield charm and flung him bodily across the yard. He landed hard, but was immediately back on his feet, shaking blood out of his eyes from a cut high up on his scalp.

Ginny had just risen to a sitting position, her wand held ready before her, when something slammed into her hard on the side of her head, everything in her world suddenly tilted to one side, turned grey and seemed to slow to a crawl around her, as she found herself helplessly slipping over sideways to the floor.

Across the yard Ron sat, his back pressed against the ruined wall, holding his shattered arm to his chest, despite the pain he was still fighting, his wand clutched in his good hand. Remus, cut deeply across his chest, physically threw a Death Eater against the broom shed, stunning him before he could recover his balance.

The last thing Ginny saw before the darkness claimed her was the twins, and Neville, stood over her, back-to-back, taking on all comers. Then Ginny slipped into unconsciousness.

OoOoO

**Somewhere In Transit**

Harry hurled himself at the barrier thrown over the Burrow for the third time that morning, his rage as hot as the sun, this time however rather that rising to repel him, the barrier shrank back before him, contracting until it became a hard smooth shell.

For a moment he skirted seamless perimeter, howling with impotence, before flinging himself upon it, pounding with all his might, to no effect, after several useless, wasted blows he collected himself and withdrew slightly.

He had been taught to be smarter than this, having power was one thing, but Dumbledore had always stressed that it was the power of the mind that really made the difference. Harry studied the barrier, it was solid and black, but beneath the surface, crazy, disturbing patterns seemed to swirl, it reminded Harry a little unnervingly of the veil in the department of mysteries.

If he couldn't batter his way through with brute strength, then perhaps if he tried a more subtle approach he would have more chance, Harry took a deep breathe, and gathered his rage-supplied power, and focused it into a tight beam of fury, and directed it at the barrier. For a long instant there was no effect, but then the barrier seemed to move, to retract away from the beam in the way melting plastic retracts from the heat.

Concentrating, Harry slowly widened the beam until the barrier was falling away on either side of him, with a cry of victory, he willed himself to the burrow.

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic**

The instant the barrier fell, a very determined house elf named Dobby apparated directly into the crowded Auror crew room, a feat impossible for a human witch or wizard due to the wards placed upon it.

He appeared, took four small running steps to the side of a young blond haired woman dressed in healer green, reached up and grabbed her arm. Then with a slightest pop disappeared from sight with his victim.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Harry arrived at the Burrow with a deafening crack of thunder and a shockwave that blasted everyone within twenty feet of him to the ground. He stood, bathed in a stunning nimbus of blue, green and gold energy, which slowly bled off into the floor, his hair and robes blowing about him in a mystical gale.

For the Death Eater maintaining the barrier, Harry's arrival was nothing short of catastrophic, as the mental backlash of the collapsing barrier caused his head to literally explode from his shoulders.

In the long silence that followed his arrival two mocking voices spoke up in unison.

"You guys are SO going to get it now!"

Harry's eyes rapidly swept the battleground that the Weasley's front yard had become, the broom shed and the enclosing wall had pretty much ceased to exist, and the front of the house was certainly a lot more open plan than he was used to.

He half turned towards the twins and he felt his insides grow cold and hard when he spotted Ginny's body lying still on the floor between them and Neville, he suddenly felt a fear in him unlike anything he had ever experienced in his life before, it threatened to reach up from inside and stop him breathing, but while he wanted to rush over to them, he knew to do so would invite disaster.

His arrival had somehow managed to stop a raging battle in its tracks, a battle that looked as if it could be lost by the defenders at any moment, he knew he had to take full advantage of the shocked and stunned Death Eaters before they regained both their feet and their momentum.

Wand out, Harry advanced on the nearest Death Eater, the woman was just struggling to her feet, her eyes widened in recognition as he approached, her own wand came up.

"Expelliarmus!"

Harry disarmed her without even breaking stride, making it look far easier than it actually was, and kept advancing, coming to a halt with his wand pressed against her throat.

"I think its time you left now, before you make me do something I might not regret!"

Harry knew he had no chance against the twenty odd Death Eaters that still showed some sign of life, he could take two, maybe even three, not twenty. But it was here for the first time that his reputation was aiding him, the-boy-who-lived, the chosen one, the wizard who had faced Voldemort four times and walked away. Harry knew all that was rubbish, but now it was working in his favour.

Looking into the woman's eyes he could see the uncertainty, although he knew he couldn't take them all, they didn't know it, not for sure, and the doubt was eating away at their self confidence.

"You think I came here alone? I didn't, Ministry personnel will be swarming all over you in a matter of moments, but if it comes to fight more lives will be lost, yours and ours, so I offer you a choice, leave now and live, stay and die, its really that simple."

Harry hoped he sounded more confident than he felt, and while he wanted what he said to be true, he wasn't sure he would be getting help anytime soon, had Scrimgeour taken his message seriously?

The woman opened her mouth to say something stupidly defiant, but before she could utter a word, a small group of familiar figures appeared with a large pop in front of the house, wands out ready for combat. Harry held out his free hand and waved it frantically to stop the fight from resuming.

Luna Lovegood and her father immediately lowered their wands slightly, Amos Diggory took a little longer, he had been spoiling for a fight. Arthur and Percy Weasley just stood there stunned at the state of their home.

Harry turned back to the female Death Eater, and raised an eyebrow, he hoped she and her companions had not noticed the new arrivals were not exactly an Auror taskforce, and that the Death Eaters still enjoyed more than a two to one advantage.

"Alright Potter, we're going, but remember, this isn't over!" Turning to her fellows the Death Eater raised her voice "Gather the wounded, leave the dead".

Within moments the Death Eaters were disappearing, leaving Harry stood alone in the centre of the yard, with a groan he felt the tension bleed from him, lowering his wand, Harry noticed his hands were shaking so badly it took him two attempts to put the wand back in his pocket.

Turning, he ran back to the still form of Ginny, pushing the twins roughly aside, he knelt beside her and afraid of what he might find, felt for a pulse at her neck, It was strong and regular. Sighing in heartfelt relief, he scooped her gently up into his arms and gently kissed her forehead, ignoring the looks the others were sharing, Harry made his way inside the house.

Molly's wand was under his nose the moment he entered, it took only a moment for her to realise her mistake, and a moment more for her to realise what the slight burden was that Harry was carrying.

Harry remembered only too well the form that Molly Weasley's Boggart had taken, it had shown her members of her family, including Harry, dead on the floor in front of her, and it would be a mother's worst nightmare. He needed to move fast to counter what must already be running through Molly's mind.

"Molly, its ok, Ginny's just unconscious, it's ok"

Molly nodded and fought back the tears, it had been a hard day and things were starting to catch up with her. Harry moved to a couch and laid Ginny gently upon it, one entire side of her face was horribly bruised, and there were several small cuts on her cheek, but otherwise she seemed unharmed. Harry gently stroked the uninjured side of her face.

"Can I get some help here?"

Percy entered the kitchen, half dragging, half carrying a semi conscious Ron, Molly looked on in astonishment as Neville followed, supporting Bill, then came the twins either side of a groggy and bleeding Remus. Arthur, Amos and the Lovegood's, all unharmed, brought up the rear.

Molly went into super mum mode and with her husbands help conjured enough couches to comfortably seat all the injured. It was only when she stopped to take a breath that she found herself face to face with Percy, for a moment nothing was said, and then she too scooped him into her arms and hugged him so hard that his face went bright red.

"Mum, I'm so sorry, I've been a fool."

"Percy dear, we all make mistakes, it takes real courage to admit to them!"

It was only then that Harry stood up and took in the rest of the kitchen. Fleur was laid, curled up a tight ball in an armchair shaking uncontrollably and sobbing slightly, Emma Granger was sat on the chairs arm, gently stroking Fleur's head and making reassuring sounds.

But the figure on the table drew his attention.

"Oh god! Hermione!"

He was at the table in an instant, although the blood had now stopped flowing from her wounds, and a blanket had been placed over her back, it was obvious how serious the injuries were from the amount of blood on the table and on the floor.

It was a thousand times worse than the day when Professor McGonagall had led Ron and him to the infirmary at Hogwarts, to find Hermione petrified on a bed. Like that time many years ago he gently touched her hand, and just like then she was cold to the touch now.

Harry was suddenly aware of the silence in the kitchen, looking up he saw every eye resting upon him, and he knew with a chilling certainty that they all blamed him for what had happened, it was all because of him.

No one would have been hurt if he hadn't ever been connected to these people, god how they must hate him, even Molly must now be dreading the day her children had become involved with him, especially considering three of her children were now lying on couches injured.

Turning away from the room full of gazes he came face to face with Dan Granger, there was a hard set to his face, nothing friendly in his eyes, Harry never saw the three Death Eaters bound on the floor, there were sudden tears in his eyes as the realisation hit him that he had lost everything and everyone that cared about him in one fell swoop.

"I'm so sorry, this is all my fault!"

He closed his eyes, suddenly filled with tears, and tried desperately to think of some place to apparate to, but the truth be told he had truly nowhere left to go.

When Dan grabbed him by the shoulders Harry flinched violently back from the blow he expected to follow, he thought he was being attacked, and he offered no resistance, in his eyes he deserved it. So it came as some surprise to Harry when Dan just shook him gently and then pulled him into a loose embrace. It stunned him into silence. After a moment Dan released him but kept a hold on his shoulders, and looked into his eyes.

"Harry, you're talking like an idiot! None of this is your fault" Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Dan ploughed on regardless.

"It wasn't you that come to my house tonight to kill my daughter, you didn't send Dementors to Neville's house, nor did you send Death Eaters here"

Harry, still in denial pulled away from Dan, and turned straight into the arms of Molly, she gathered him up into a hug so intimate he knew what Percy had just felt like.

"Nothing that happened tonight is your fault Harry dear, Ginny and Hermione or the others were not injured because of you, in fact they may all be alive now because of your arrival"

Harry laid his head on Molly's shoulder and cried, Molly just held him and made gentle noises, she sometimes forgot that despite the weight of the responsibility that rested on his young shoulders, he was still just a boy, a boy who had much less experience with the emotions rushing through him now than most.

He had spent his childhood in a home devoid of any love a family would normally provide, in some respects this had matured him faster than any of her children, especially the twins, in others it had left him woefully inexperienced. He just needed someone to show him what it was to love and be loved, in a normal family environment. Molly had taken it upon herself to be that person, and once she had sat down with the rest of her family, she was sure they would agree.

Harry sniffed, and wiped his eyes dry on his sleeve, Molly gave him a reassuring squeeze and released him.

Pop!

Harry and Molly both jumped as Dobby appeared beside the table, along with an unknown blond dressed in the uniform of a healer, she looked to be about the same age as Tonks, and who for some reason looked quite irate.

"What the hell! What gives you the right to abduct me! I demand you return me to the Ministry! I am an on call Ministry healer and was on my way to some place called the Burrow!"

The healer paused in mid rant, raised an eyebrow and looked around her in a bemused manner at the long list of injuries in plain sight, and shivered slightly, in a somewhat quieter tone of voice she continued.

"Let me guess, this place is called the burrow right?" At Molly's surprised nod, the healer sighed and drew her wand, "My name is Amanda Coombs, and I shall be your Healer tonight. If you have had a chance to assess the priority of treatment I would be grateful for your help"

Molly directed her straight to Hermione, and the healer got to work, her wand tip glowing and muttering incantations to herself.

Harry knelt down so that he was on roughly the same eye level as the loyal little elf.

"Dobby who asked you to bring the healer?"

"Dobby took it on himself to fetch the healer as soon as the barrier fell Harry Potter. Has Dobby done wrong sir? Dobby did not want any of Harry Potter's friends to be in pain!"

Harry Potter pulled the elf into a fierce hug, his eyes misting up, Dobby had performed above and beyond that expected of any house elf, although they by their very nature always carried out a task given to them by their lawful masters, they seldom displayed such initiative, or took such extreme actions unasked.

Especially since Dobby was not actually indentured to the Potter family and was a 'free elf', although Harry was sure that Dobby would argue this point until he was blue in the face, as far as Dobby was concerned he served Harry Potter, and no one could persuade him otherwise.

Harry of course already had a house elf indentured to him, but somehow he doubted that the crazed and twisted Kreacher would have bothered to do anything for him unasked, let alone something this important,

"Thank you Dobby, I shall not forget what you have done for me tonight"

The elf muttered something under his breath about just doing his duty, and how it was an honour to serve Harry Potter, Harry knew that somehow he'd have to come up with a way of showing how much the house Elves steadfast loyalty meant to him.

"This young lady is extremely lucky to be alive, from the amount of trauma she has received I don't know how you managed to get the blood replenishing potions in her quick enough to stop her bleeding to death!"

Healer Coombs had looked up from treating Hermione's wounds,

"She's out of danger now, however the head injury is the worry, the mind is a fragile and unpredictable thingand in her current condition i am loathe to move her any further than i have to. I'm afraid I cannot give any solid assurances that she will make a full recovery, however she is certainly a fighter, so I won't be placing any bets against her. Right, let's have a quick look at the rest of you!"

Emma and Dan quietly hugged for a moment at the news, they had no doubt their daughter would be fine, she had already come through so much.

"I really think you could do with some more help" Molly said after watching Healer Coombs skill with some appreciation for some moments, with some aspiration in her voice. She had barely finished when all the wards began going off at once, the apparation, portkey and Floo wards all screaming to outdo each other, in a deafening crescendo.

Suddenly the kitchen and front yard were filled with Ministry personnel, Aurors, hit wizards and healers. So many that the pops from their arrivals rolled into one continuous sound. All arrived with their wands out, ready for combat.

"Oh great timing…"

"…the cavalry arrives…"

"…just in the nick of time now"

"…the battles over, brilliant!" The twins seemed a little deflated now all their 'fun' was over.

"Well, as my exceptional mother always says, better late than never!" Bill's comment caused snickers that built up to full belly laughs, as relief at the night's events being over replaced the tensions and stresses of the night.

OoOoO

AN/ Now all the players are in place, let the fun begin! This is the last Harry-lite chapter, i just needed to get all those pawns in position before the off.

AN/ This story will significantly feature Draco Malfoy seeking redemption for past deeds, so if you object to the idea of Malfoy as a good guy (or maybe just less of a bad one) this might not be the story for you.

AN/ Yes, his name was Bell.

AN/ Sleep well, don't let the Nargles bite


	4. 4 Aftermath

AN/ Hopefully this chapter will answer at least some of your review questions.

AN/ These first four chapters have been posted here faster than i had planned because i have to travel overseas for an unspecified amount of time very soon because of work, and i'm not sure when the next update will come as my internet access will be severely restricted. And while i won't tell you what i do, read the story, the clues are there.

* * *

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

"Life's greatest happiness is to love, and be loved in return"

Victor Hugo

Chapter Four: Aftermath

**Somewhere In England, 09:30 26 June**

From where he stood, in the messengers' position, to the right and behind the Dark Lord's throne, Draco was mostly hidden from the sight of those entering the chamber by the deep shadows that no matter what the lighting level, seemed to be permanently cast around the chambers edge. But when Severus Snape entered the chamber that morning, Draco automatically withdrew even further into the shadows.

He and Snape had not shared more than a dozen words since the events at Hogwarts, and Draco always had the fear that the tall, dark former professor would see right through his pretence of support for the Dark Lord, and instantly report his lack of faith.

The prospects of this act did not sit well with Draco, torture was not something he saw in his future if that future was anything to do with him, so he was trying to avoid Snape, while appearing nonchalant and casual at the same time.

He need not have worried today, Snape was angrier than Draco had ever seen him, the very set of his shoulders, and the way he stalked into the room indicated absolute fury. Draco found his curiosity getting the better of him, and against his better judgement he moved forward slightly so he could hear Snape's report more clearly.

Snape told of his attack on the Granger house, how despite the speed of the attack, Hermione Granger had been prepared and had delayed the strike team long enough to evacuate the house, though not before she had suffered some serious injuries.

Draco had mixed feelings on the subject of Hermione Granger. For so long Hermione Granger had been everything he had been taught his entire life to despise, a mudblood, so called 'dirty blood', unworthy of the title witch.

Having said all that, Draco had also always held a certain secret admiration for her, after six years of torment and ridicule from the bullies of Slytherin house, himself chief among them, she had never once backed down from a fight, or let her temper get the better of her.

She was loyal, brave, intelligent, and utterly devoted to her friends. In this respect Draco felt more than a little envy, at Hogwarts he had had the companionship of Crabbe and Goyle, but they were hardly what he considered friends, followers and lapdogs certainly, but never friends.

And now Hermione Granger, for all her supposed 'dirty blood' had managed to humble one of the Dark Lord's more dangerous servants, a wizard of some power, how could anyone think of her as unworthy after this!

"So young master Malfoy, you think you could have done any better than Severus here?"

Draco froze in place as Voldemort leaned around in his throne and fixed his evil gaze upon him. The question sounded innocent enough, but nothing that passed Voldemort's lips was innocent, Draco knew with some dread that he was now in serious trouble.

Voldemort had the uncanny ability of picking up on the thoughts and feelings of those around him, he was also exceptionally skilled at Occlumency and Legilimency, and it was virtually impossible to lie to him, and now Draco had foolishly drawn that dangerous attention down onto himself.

Concentrating as hard as he could, Draco drew to him all the memories from six years of school where he had done nothing but belittle and attack Granger, and while he found no satisfaction in them, he used those memories now to save himself from discovery. Focusing on every strong negative feeling he could pull from those six years, every slur and insult, every dirty trick played, every gloating remark that must have stung her deeply.

"I would not have let that mudblood bitch best me one on one lord!"

Draco put as much feeling into his comments as he could, letting his anger and frustration at his current situation spill over into his words. Voldemort narrowed his eyes, those scarlet pupils seeming to bore straight into him and Draco felt like a hot needle had been inserted into his mind, Voldemort studied the youth intently for a long moment, then turned away, apparently satisfied with what he had found in Draco's mind.

"Maybe you will get your chance to prove that sooner than you think young Malfoy, thank you Severus you may go."

Draco, released from the eye contact, let out a shaky deep breath and stumbled backwards, he put a hand on the chamber wall to steady himself, his knees felt as if they might buckle and he was sweating heavily.

Sliding back deeper into the shadows, Draco counted himself lucky, that had been too close for comfort, he wasn't sure he could keep this façade up for much longer. He had to make his break for freedom soon, he just needed an excuse, a reason to absent himself for a long enough period.

Peter Pettigrew came forward, oh all the dark lords servants it was Pettigrew that Draco despised the most, there was something about the snivelling wretch that turned his stomach.

"Come forward Wormtail, what news do you have for me?"

"My lord I have conceived a plan, which will draw Potter here for you to do what you will with him, I have set this plan in motion already and hope to have positive results to report soon"

"Good, Potter is the only obstacle to my plans, I have already started positioning my pieces in preparation for our victory, the Dementors, werewolves, Vampires, and even the muggles all have parts to play in the grand scheme of things."

Draco listened intently, Voldemort liked to impress his followers about how clever he was, the more information on the Dark Lord's plans he could glean, and the better his position would be with Saint Potter and his crowd, when the time finally came to make his escape.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

It was mid morning by the time Harry padded quietly down the stairs to find a much less crowded kitchen than when he had gone upstairs to grab a quick nap, at Molly's insistence he had used her bed. The injured had also been sent off to bed, despite, in a few cases, some quite vocal objections.

The twins had departed back to the flat above their shop in Diagon alley, but not before they had complimented Harry on his sense of timing, and threatened him about hurting their sister at the same time, when they wanted to be, the twins could be deadly serious.

Tonks, once she had satisfied herself that Remus was not badly hurt, had accompanied Neville to visit his Grandmother at the Ministry infirmary. Percy had also gone back to the Ministry to do what he could to bring some resemblance of calm after the night's events, but not before Percy and his parents had had a long chat and rebuilt many bridges burnt in the last two years. Percy's reconciliation with his parents had been a huge weight lifted from Harry's shoulders, he felt at least partially responsible for the original break.

Amos Diggory and Jonas Lovegood had returned to their own homes, although Luna had opted to stay in order to aid Amanda Coombs, upon the news that Hermione could not be moved to St Mungos, the Ministry had decided a healer should stay, at least in the short term, to keep an eye on Hermione, and Amanda Coombs had put herself forward for the job, a decision met with considerable relief by Dan and Emma Granger. The Grangers had also been offered accommodation in the short term so to be near their daughter.

Molly had also insisted Neville stayed at least for one night upon his return to the burrow, perhaps longer, so he didn't have to return alone to his own house, Harry knew Neville well enough to know he had not been looking forward to the experience.

It was just another example of the two extremes of family life he had experienced in his own short life, the abuse he had suffered at the hands of the Dursleys, and at the other end of the spectrum, the seemingly endless love and comfort that the Weasleys offered to all those around them.

Now included under the umbrella of Weasley protection were the two Bell sisters, Katie and Helen, they had arrived, escorted by Tonks, after the wave of Ministry reinforcements, once the burrow had been cleared of bodies and the three captured Death Eaters had been taken into custody.

Harry had seen the haunted, almost vacant look on Katie's face before, most recently on the faces of the mourners at Dumbledore's funeral, but before that on the face of Amos Diggory after the death of his son.

Katie had arrived and had sat in the kitchen in an armchair with her younger sister clinging to her, neither seemed willing to let the other go, Katie had barely said a word to any one as the nights events finally caught up with her. They were in the chair even now, and both appeared asleep, which in Harry's opinion was the best thing for them.

The group at the table looked up as Harry approached, Arthur smiled at him, and waved to a vacant seat. No sooner had he sat down than Molly placed a huge, steaming bowl of porridge in front of him and physically forced a spoon into his hand.

"You have to eat, Harry dear, got to keep up your strength" Emma and Dan both grinned at him, both indicating the empty bowls in front of both of them, while Arthur just rolled his eyes, he was very used to his wife and her mother hen routine.

Taking a small mouthful of the hot porridge, Harry was surprised to discover he was in fact extremely hungry, he had not eaten a meal since before Dumbledore's funeral…yesterday? Had it only been a day, that didn't seem possible, so much had happened.

After quickly finishing the contents of the bowl, he asked for a second helping, much to Molly's obvious approval, which he also rapidly finished off. Harry looked up at those sitting at the table.

"Ginny's asleep, Luna is sitting with her, she claims it's to keep the three horned snortle beetle away, but I don't believe her"

Harry shook his head, sometimes he just didn't get Luna Lovegood, she often appeared to have such a tenuous grip on reality, but Harry knew from experience that not much happened that Luna didn't notice, and he had discovered first hand that she was loyal, brave and a good friend. Luna was unusual in that she was one of only two that seemed able to lift him out of one of his deep bouts of depression, the other one of course was Ginny.

Harry looked up at the four adults at the table, and summoned up the courage to say what had been on his mind all morning.

"I owe you all an apology, I made a huge mistake, one I deeply regret" Harry rose from the table and started pacing "I made the mistake of imposing my own morals and values onto Voldemort, I thought that just because I had distanced myself from people they would be safe. I now know that he doesn't think that way, he knows that just because I am not currently with someone, that doesn't mean I stop caring about them. What happened last night and this morning was all because of me, Voldemort reached out and attacked those I cared about."

"But Harry, what Voldemort does, that is not your fault" As a muggle, Voldemort's name held no fear for Dan Granger, and he insisted on using it despite Molly and Arthur shivering every time he said it. "So stop feeling so damn sorry for yourself, if she was awake Hermione would be so annoyed at you right now."

"As much as I hate to say it, Dan's right, stop beating yourself up over things outside of your control, it's a complete waste of energy and it hurts too much for a start!" Emma ignored her husband, who was sat at the table rolling his eyes madly at her.

"See what I've had to do now, his ego won't fit through the door, yes Dan, I said you were right about something, it had to happen sometime!"

Harry watched this interplay and smiled, the Grangers seemed so comfortable with each other, in a different way from Molly and Arthur but no less loving.

Harry couldn't help but wonder if his parents Lily and James had been like this around each other, teasing and joking, he would like to think so, it certainly seemed to fit with what he already knew about his father's personality.

He made a mental note to ask Remus about it when he was back on his feet, Remus was his sole remaining window to the past, a past he knew so very little about.

A knock at the door broke into his reflections, two men entered, both were about Arthur's age, but while Arthur Weasley had about him the image of some absent minded professor, these two men presented themselves completely differently.

Both men reminded Harry somewhat of the Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt and also Tonks to a lesser extent, something about the way they moved, they way they held themselves, the way their eyes had searched every corner of the kitchen when they entered. The first was man was tall and fair-haired, the second short with hair as dark as Harry's own.

Arthur rose from his seat at the table to greet them.

"Marcus, Peter, its good to see, please won't you have a seat, this is my wife Molly, Dan and Emma Granger, and of course Harry Potter, everybody, these fine gentlemen are Senior Aurors Marcus Washburn, and Peter Deacon"

The two men sat down at the table and both gratefully accepted steaming cups of tea that Molly levitated across the kitchen to them.

Both men regarded Harry with an intense scrutiny for a moment, especially Marcus Washburn, he made Harry feel slightly uncomfortable with his deep penetrating stare, but before Harry could say anything Auror Washburn turned his attention back to Arthur.

"We have placed ten Aurors on your protective detail under our own authority, we'll clear it with the Ministry later. All the personnel will remain here"

He held up his hand at the wide-eyed look of concern that suddenly filled Molly's face.

"Don't worry, they won't require accommodation or feeding, we will sort out those details, we may even increase that number, depending on how stretched we get."

Auror Deacon had spotted the sleeping forms of the two Bell sisters, and the expression on his face tightened, there was sadness and a dread that showed in his eyes.

"Mrs Weasley I think we are going to need your help, we have some very bad news to break to the Bells, their parents were both killed last night, and their home destroyed, I need to know if they can remain here for a few days until the Ministry can place them somewhere." Molly nodded her eyes welling up in sympathy.

Harry shuddered, another child made an orphan, for a moment he struggled with his emotions, feelings he had thought long buried tried to push their way back to the surface.

He alone of those in the room understood what was about to happen to Katie and her sister, how their entire world was about to fall apart around them. It made him want to rage against the unfairness of it all, he vowed he would be there for when either sister needed him.

Molly, Arthur and the two Aurors rose and crossed to where the Bells were sleeping, gently shaking Katie awake Molly asked her to come with them outside for a moment.

Helen did not want to be parted from her sister, clinging on around her sister's neck as if her very life depended on it, but Harry knew she must not hear the dreadful news like this, she was too young to understand. Harry crossed over to the girls and sat down beside them.

"Hi there, my names Harry Potter, what's your name?"

Helen Bell looked at him for a moment, and with the snap judgement call only a child can make, decided he looked trustworthy and interesting.

"I'm Helen Bell, I'm five years old, and three months! When I'm eight my daddy will get me my first broomstick, then he said he would teach me to play Quidditch!"

Harry laughed as the stream of conversation came out in one unbroken sentence.

"Hello Helen, I'm sixteen and a half, I used to play on the same Quidditch team as your sister when she was at school"

With Harry's plan a success and Helen distracted, unnoticed by her sister, Katie had slipped off the seat and followed the four adults outside.

"Oh, you're that Harry Potter!" Harry grinned down at the little girl, how many Harry Potters were there? "Katie told me all about you! She said you were the best seeker she had ever seen, but I think Viktor Krum is better, that's what I want to be, a seeker, will you teach me?"

Harry couldn't help himself, he laughed out loud, he played seeker for a Hogwarts house team, Krum played for the Bulgarian national team, a team that two years ago had made it to the final of the Quidditch world cup, and although the Gryffindor house team was consistently the best in the school, there really wasn't any comparison to be made between the two of them. He wondered what Viktor himself would make of the five year olds comments.

"I agree, I saw him play in the last world cup final, Viktor Krum is the best seeker in the world, he was brilliant, and I met him when he came to Hogwarts for the triwizard tournament. As for teaching you, well if Katie says it's ok, maybe I will take you up for a short flight one day"

"You've met Viktor Krum, wow!"

If possible, Harry's stock had just gone even higher in Helen's eyes, someone that had actually met her idol, well that was important in her opinion.

Helen suddenly reached up and touched Harry's scar, while most people just stared at it, with the innocence of youth the little girl seemed fascinated by the lightning bolt shaped mark. She ran her little pink fingers over it, which Harry had to admit was more than a little ticklish, the scar had always been extremely sensitive to the touch.

With only a little bit of playacting Harry giggled, retaliating he ran his fingers down the girls side until he found her sensitive spot, causing the child to giggle too.

Emma and Dan watched as Harry effortlessly entertained the little girl, Emma leaned in and rested her head on her husbands shoulder.

"He's a keeper, and she's adorable" Dan smiled, and turned his head slightly and kissed the top of his wife's head.

"Making you feel like you want to add to our family honey?" Dan asked innocently, Emma smiled, reached up and tenderly touched her husband's cheek.

"The idea is not completely repellent to me."

Emma admitted with a grin.

"Sort of like me then?"

"Yes dear, exactly like you."

OoOoO

**Ali Al Salem Air Base, British Forces Logistics Base, Kuwait**

It had been two hours since the ten man SAS strike force along with the two rescued aid workers had stepped off the RAF Chinook helicopter back at Ali Al Salem air base. But in that time the aid workers had recieved much needed medical attention, and had heaped praise upon the soldiers, much to the soldiers embarrassment, they after all were just doing thier jobs. The ten soldiers had then attended a full debrief.

The two assualt teams, Charlie and Delta, and the two man sniper team had then been stood down to sort out the equipment, grab much needed showers and eat. They replenished any expended ammunition and explosives, replaced any damaged equipment, and went back into the regular daily routine as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Ali Al Salem Air Base had been their home for the last three months. The base had affectionately been christened 'the rock' upon arrival because it was located in some pretty bleak and unforgiving territory some 39 miles south of the Iraqi border.

The air base was mainly occupied by British forces, with the odd American unit passing through, there were twelve RAF Tornado F3 fighters permanently stationed there along with a ground intercept unit of RAF air traffic controllers, a company of infantry provided perimenter security. But the most important residents on the base were the special forces detachment, the base was ideally suited to the clandestine world, barren, out of the way, desolate, in fact just the way they liked it.

Thomas Bell raised the stripped down barrel of the MP5 to the fluorescent light strip mounted to the ceiling and squinted down it. Despite not being able to see any remaining carbon deposits, he pulled the barrel cleaning tool down through the barrel again, inspecting the new piece of flannel cloth for a sign of dirt. As with the last four times he had pulled the material down the barrel, it came out spotlessly clean.

As with most SAS soldiers, Bell was almost an obsessive compulsive when it came to cleaning his personal weapon, while all soldiers were encouraged to take pride in the cleanliness of their weapons, most did not rely on them as often, or in the conditions that Bell and his team were asked to operate.

Whether he had fired the weapon that day or not, Bell withdrew his weapon from the armoury daily and cleaned it thoroughly, he never took a chance on his MP5 having a stoppage and jamming at a crucial moment.

Satisfied with the barrel, he laid it down beside the other parts of the MP5 arrayed in a logical order on the desk and closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he counted to five, and with his eyes still firmly closed, reassembled the weapon with a speed not many could match with their eyes open. Slapping an empty magazine into the receiver, he lifted the butt of the weapon into his shoulder and squeezed the trigger.

It was the worst sound a professional soldier could hear while in action, described in the British Army as 'the dead mans click', when a soldier pulled the trigger of his weapon and there were no more rounds left in the magazine.

That sound in combat could be the last sound a soldier ever heard, it was why SAS troopers changed magazines more frequently than most other soldiers, often removing a half full magazine in favour of a fresh full one, because you never knew when you would walk around the corner and find a room full of hostiles, or tangos. That was the worst time possible to hear that click.

Outside, the rumble of a tracked vehicle caused a moment of distraction, Bell looked up as the Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicle trundled past the window, its running gear and tracks making a distinctive sound, on its way to do a patrol of the air field perimeter. Every so often some misguided, poverty stricken soul tried to enter the camp by cutting or scaling the fence, but with the Army's thermal imaging and night vision equipment, none did it successfully without detection.

There was a knock on the office door, and Trooper David Wilks, another member of C Squadron's mobility troop, and one of Bell's four man assault team, sauntered in, hands in his pockets, looking very smug and pleased with himself, like Bell he had changed out of the black assault clothing worn that morning, and in its place put on the standard yellow desert camouflage worn by the British Army, but without the usual regimental or rank insignia insignia. Both men wore black nylon shoulder holsters containing Sig Sauer P226 automatics.

"What are you looking so smug for Wilky?"

"Well boss, I finally got myself a date with that RAF air traffic controller?"

"What! Old Burt, with the potbelly and the tache, and the BO? You Wilky are a sick man!"

"No you arse, the good looking one! Belinda, well she has finally agreed to spend some quality time with me tonight, she wants to hear all about my heroics today"

Thomas Bell snorted with barely contained laughter.

"Your heroics! You're just lucky you managed not to shoot yourself in the foot, you tit"

Leaning back in his pillaged swivel chair, Bell reached into his personal fridge and pulled out two gloriously chilled cans of coke, tossing one across the room, he put his feet up on the desk. As the troop sergeant, one of the perks of the job was having a desk of his very own, that along with the chair and the fridge.

Facilities at 'the rock' were extremely limited, resulting on several raiding parties being sent out to nearby US bases, snatching everything from chairs, paddling pools and desk top fans, all the way up to an air conditioned Humvee that was the troops new runaround (Bell was fairly sure the Americans would be missing that item by now).

Wilks' hand snapped out lightning fast and snatched the can from the air and sat down on the over turned packing crate that had been pressed into service as another chair.

"That's harsh boss, we both know that without me looking out for you, you wouldn't be able to find your own butt with both hands" Cracking open the can Wilks took a long drag and sighed with genuine pleasure.

The SAS took a very different view of military discipline than the rest of the Army, The Regiment had a very much more relaxed and informal rank structure, with the command of any assigned task being given to the most experienced man in the troop or squadron at that task, not always the highest ranking.

Thomas Bell was C Squadron's junior Sergeant, but he had at his disposal the most current counter terrorist training, having spent the previous six months on dedicated assault and hostage rescue duties in Hereford, and he had therefore planned and led the day's attack.

Regardless of rank, all members of 'The Regiment' called each other by first names, nicknames, or the title 'boss' if they were of a much higher rank, there was none of that mundane saluting or drill that the rest of the Army had to endure, the SAS had plenty of other, much more important things to be concerned about.

"So, Belinda has agreed to go on a date with you, here, right here, smack bang in the middle of one of the busiest military camps in this part of the world, ignoring the fact its against Queens regulations to consort with the opposite sex while on operations, ignoring the fact its also against Queens regs for a junior rank to date an officer, just where in hell are you planning to take her!?"

Wilks just shrugged and tried to adopt an innocent expression, which he completely and utterly failed to pull off. If you could forget for just a moment the fact he was a long-standing member of the highest trained, and without doubt the most infamous Regiment in the British or any other Army. This by default made him one of the most dangerous men ever to put on a uniform, his freckles and boyish good looks always turned the ladies heads. Thomas was not surprised Belinda had agreed to spend time with him.

"A romantic twilight walk, hand in hand along the runway? Or a shared tub of ice cream in the cookhouse? Or perhaps a candlelit 24hour ration pack in the air raid shelter, oh the possibilities are endless"

Wilks just grinned at him despite the evident sarcasm, rising to his feet, he made a mocking salute.

"At least I shall have some female company, unlike yourself. I shall leave you and your date in peace" Wilks indicated the black sub machine gun on his desk "I'll let you know how things work out."

"You do that Wilky, remember, Speed Aggression Surprise, oh and please don't end up the platoon buffoon, be good, and if you can't be good…"

"…Don't get caught!" Both men chorused grinning. Wilks casually waved and sauntered back out of the door, it had hardly closed behind him when it opened again.

"Wilky just piss off on your date and leave me to oil my gun in peace will ya!"

"Er…boss, there's…something out here…that I think you should see…it's hard to explain" Thomas looked up with a twinge of annoyance.

"What the hell is it!"

"There's an Owl out here, and it appears to have a package for you" Wilks had seen a lot in his relatively short span of life, but this was more than a little outside his experience.

"There's an…there's a what!"

"An owl!"

In the four years David Wilks had known Thomas Bell, he had seen him face Irish terrorists, Iraqi secret police, bombs, bullets, high altitude parachute jumps into pitch black skies, and he had never once seen a flicker of the fear on the man's face, until that very moment.

"Well in that case you had better let it in then hadn't you."

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Harry looked up as the Katie re-entered the kitchen, closely followed by a concerned looking Molly and Arthur, despite a slight redness around her eyes, Katie gave no sign of the sadness that must be welling up inside her.

Harry felt desperately sorry for both of them, but for Helen especially, her childhood innocence was about to be shattered beyond repair, and it was something no child should have to go through.

"Come on you, lets see about getting you some breakfast shall we"

Helen smiled up at her older sister. It was obvious from the expression on her face that she hero worshipped Katie. The Younger Girl was unable to detect the forced cheer in Katie's voice, and for now everything was right with her world, but everyone there knew it would not remain so for much longer.

Harry stood and watched as Molly took Helen to the table to get her breakfast, then he turned his attention back to Katie, for a moment their eyes met and they shared a look of joint misery. She knew his history as well as any Gryffindor, and knew he of all people understood what she was going through.

Katie Bell's composure crumbled to dust and her eyes welled up with unshed tears, Harry reached out to her, and suddenly Katie found herself held tightly in his arms, crying quietly onto his shoulder.

"I never should have left them! I should have stayed and fought"

Harry placed one arm around Katie's shoulders and pulled the sobbing girl closer to him. He knew all about blaming himself for events outside of his control, he was after all the god emperor of self blame.

"What would have happened if you had stayed? I can tell you, you and Helen would be dead now, and your parent's sacrifice would have been for nothing. They loved you both so much that they would have done anything for you, including given their lives to ensure your survival"

Katie's shoulders gave a gigantic upward heave and Harry could feel the spreading dampness of her tears soaking through his jumper.

"Shhh, its ok, I'm here for you, I'll always be here if you need me Katie, you or Helen, I promise!"

Katie sniffed, and pulled away, turning away with embarrassment and wiping her face so her sister would not see how upset she was. Helen however was far to preoccupied with her breakfast bowl to pay any attention to what was happening around her.

"Oh Harry, how do I tell her, what do I say?"

But Harry had no answers to this question.

"We'll figure it out, we'll find a way to make it better, ok"

Katie sniffed again and gave him a little smile.

"Thank you Harry"

Katie touched him on the arm in gratitude, and then went and sat beside her sister and picked up the spoon for her own bowl of porridge, although it was clear she didn't feel like eating any of it.

Harry turned away and slowly walked outside, he stood leaning up the recently repaired doorframe, despite the fine and bright Devon morning he felt very grey inside.

"It makes you appreciate what you have all the more doesn't it?" Harry jumped in surprise, he hadn't heard Arthur Weasley come up behind him.

"I suppose so, I just have to wonder where all this will end, how many more people will have to suffer like that"

Harry inclined his head to indicate into the kitchen, and the two sisters, one swooping her spoon through a series of complicated Quidditch manoeuvres, the other sat silently playing with her food.

"Harry, you can only do your best, its all any of us can do, these bonds of love we form, while they cause us the greatest pain, they also provide us with the strength we need to go on."

Harry was about to reply, when Tonks and Neville appeared by apparation in the yard. Because they had both been keyed to the wards no alarms sounded to herald thier arrival.

Tonks stood with her arm protectively around Neville's shoulders, and Harry had only to glance at Neville's pale face and the despair evident there, and he knew with a dread certainty what had happened.

"Oh not Neville, no, no, no, oh god"

Harry grabbed his friend and pulled him into an embrace, he found himself having to do a lot of that this morning, Neville just stood there, arms hanging limply by his side looking off into the distance.

"They said there was nothing they could do for her, she was too old, too frail to withstand the Dementor, it was too much of a shock for her system to take!"

Neville's voice had a strange quality to it, as if he wasn't really aware of whom he was talking to. Harry released his friend and looked carefully at him, he was in shock, but the reality of the night would hit soon enough.

"I'm alone, all alone."

Neville's voice came from some dark place deep inside him, the sound of despair and heartbreak, the sound Harry knew his heart had made for many years while living at Privet Drive.

"No Nev, you're not alone, and you never will be."

Harry looked over his shoulder.

"Tonks, can you get healer Coombs, I think Nev could probably use a dreamless sleep potion!"

Tonks nodded and ran inside. Arthur moved closer and gripped Neville's shoulder, adding his own support. The physical contact seemed to drag Neville back from wherever he had been, he blinked and focused on the two figures in front of him, his complexion somehow paled even more and he stammered.

"Mr Weasley, Harry I'm so sorry, it's all my fault, please don't be mad!"

Harry and Arthur swapped completely baffled looks with each other, what could he possibly be talking about now.

"Neville what are you talking about, why should we be mad with you?"

"It was me, my fault, I was aiming at a Death Eater, but she sat up, right into my line of fire, there was nothing I could do, the bludgeoning hex hit her in the head!"

Harry suddenly realised what Neville was talking about.

"Ginny, you're talking about Ginny?"

Neville nodded, Harry just couldn't believe it, how could Neville think himself responsible for anything that had occurred during the attack this morning, especially after what had just happened to him.

"Neville, I already know what happened, George told me, he also told me that without your skills, Ginny would have died this morning along perhaps with all the others, we both owe you our thanks, you kept my daughter from harm and for that I cannot ever repay you."

Arthur gave Neville a reassuring smile. Neville dropped his head and closed his eyes, he seemed to sag in relief to find he was not held responsible for Ginny's injuries.

Amanda Coombs chose that moment to come running outside, followed by Molly, under the strict but gentle direction of the two motherly women, Neville was guided inside into their care.

Harry let out a shaky breath and ran his hands through his trademark unkempt hair, he wasn't sure how much more of this he could take, so much loss, so much heartache. And despite what everyone said, he still felt responsible, after all it had been placed upon his shoulders to kill Voldemort, it was up to him to stop this rampage.

"You two are so much alike it's scary"

Arthur had moved up to Harry's shoulder. Harry looked over at him quizzically unsure of which 'other' he was talking.

"You and Neville! Always blaming yourselves for everything, even things that cannot possibly be your fault, always putting your concern for others before concern for yourselves, always pushing yourselves further than you can safely go!"

A hard look came over Harry's features and he turned to look Arthur Weasley in the eye.

"So what are you saying? Now Neville and I have something else in common, no family! All alone in this world, that's something I wouldn't even wish upon even Draco Malfoy!"

Harry was sorry he had shouted at Arthur the moment the words had left his mouth, and he smiled at him to try and take any sting out of the words. But he saw nothing but understanding and compassion in the older mans eyes, and it made him realise how lucky he was, he was not alone, and he never had been.

OoOoO

**Ali Al Salem Air Base, British Forces Logistics Base, Kuwait**

For a long moment Thomas Bell and the large tawny owl regarded each other in complete silence, a scene frozen in time, not even the presence of an utterly bemused Wilks had intruded on the shock Thomas felt at seeing the magical mail bird, here in the middle of the desert of all places.

"You'll have to forgive me, but it's been such a very long time indeed since I received anything by owl mail"

The owl just cocked his head at him and continued staring, it lifted its leg and shook it meaningfully at him. Thomas smiled ruefully at the bird.

"Yes I get the point"

Untying the package from the owl carefully, he placed it on the cluttered desktop and stared at it for a long moment, he was pretty sure in his heart of hearts he knew what this was, and he really didn't want anything to do with it.

Its task complete, the owl barked once at him, and took to flight, circling the room once to allow the second man to reopen the door it had entered by. With a graceful beat of his wings the owl glided across the office beyond and disappeared through an open window into the late afternoon sun, on the first leg of its long and tiring journey back to Gringotts bank.

"So, are you going to open it then, or what?"

Wilks was being very calm about this whole affair, too calm by far, as if reading his mind the soldier explained.

"You may not remember, 'cos you're such a lightweight when it comes to alcohol, but that night after the Banja Luka mission went so badly wrong, in that bar in Dubrovnik three years ago, you got very, very drunk and preceded to tell me all about the world you were born into. About the magic, wands and about owls, of course at the time I thought you were just plain mental…well actually I still do point of fact. However having the constitution of an ox and a photographic memory has its upside!"

Wilks, grinning tapped the side of his forehead with a finger.

"Anyway, you look like you need some alone time, I'll come back after my date and find out who has written to you, and if she has any cute single sisters!"

With a wave he was gone, leaving Thomas alone in the office. He had not had anything to do with the magical world for so long. He could not believe his ears, he had been so careful for so many years, then after all this time and he had blabbed about the magical world in some foreign bar, to the one man he thought he could have trusted until tonight to tell all his gossip to everyone within earshot. Obviously he wasn't the judge of character he thought he was.

Snatching the package up from the desk, Thomas considered throwing it immediately into the waste bin. But he found he couldn't do it, instead he pulled an expensive flick knife from a pouch on his belt and with great care slit the package open, before emptying the contents out onto the desk.

Two bits of wood fell out of the package onto the table, along with a small box and a rolled piece of parchment. Thomas stared at the two mangled bits of wood in utter shock, of all the things he had been expecting to arrive in the package, his wand was not on the list, he hadn't seen his wand in nearly fifteen years.

He still remembered when he had picked up the wand for the first time. It had been eighteen years ago and he had been eleven years old, he had been about to start at Hogwarts and as part of getting all the required school supplies his mother had taken him to Ollivander the wand maker.

He remembered the small, gnomish man with fondness, he had the patience of a saint, it had taken over four hours to match him with a wand, in fact some of the rejections had been quite spectacular, leaving a swath of destruction along the shelves of Ollivander's store, but when he had touched this particular wand, the feeling he had was unlike anything he had ever experienced.

But that had been nothing like the intense feeling of loss he had suffered when they had taken the wand away from him, when the Aurors from the Ministry of magic had placed him under a lifetime magic ban, snapping his wand before his eyes. It had taken years to get used to living without that feeling, it was like having a part of you surgically removed, a part you relied on.

And now here it was in front of him once more, sat there within easy reach, yet he was afraid now to touch it, even in its current condition, afraid he would feel the power so long denied to him flow once more. More than afraid, he was terrified, of feeling the power and liking it.

Ignoring the snapped wand for a moment, Thomas picked up the parchment and began to read.

_Thomas my son,_

_I enchanted several different parchments to cover every eventuality, the fact that you now hold this particular parchment in your hands is the proof that my preparations, although morbid, have not been wasted, that your father and I have died in a fashion other than natural causes. With all bitterness and hate you must feel towards us, the news of our deaths probably will not cause you to lose a great deal of sleep, for that I am deeply sorry. However if you hold this parchment it also means that your sisters still live, and they are the reason I write to you now._

_Darkness stalks our land once more Thomas, a darkness you will remember from your youth only too well, as it was the cause of everything ill that befell you. This darkness has a name I'm sure you remember but that I will not mention here, and death is his companion, he will not stop and he will not rest until all bow down before him, not just those of the magical world, but those of the world enforced upon you too. Everyday his power grows stronger, and everyday those that stand against him grow more desperate and more convinced of defeat, hope is fading. _

_Our family has long stood on the front line against those who would welcome and aid the darkness, indeed your sister Katie has recently entered the Auror training program, carrying on the family tradition for another generation. But despite our stand and that of others, the light is dimming, and darkness stretches out before us. _

_So now I come to you in our darkest hour, I ask something I have no right to ask of you, and I have no right to deserve an answer in return from you. I ask that you lay aside the bitterness you feel for the magical world, the world that has treated you so badly in the past, and return to our world now at the time of our greatest need._

_I ask this only as a private citizen and a mother who loves her family very much, every part of it. I cannot ask this in my capacity as a Ministry Auror, because should you decide to return, and you use any magic to do so, you will be considered in violation of your lifetime ban and deemed a criminal and an outlaw, perhaps even actively hunted, but from what I gather from talking to those in the know, the skills you have learnt in your long absence would set you in good stead for the coming battle. Muggle skills are something the enemy knows nothing about how to counter, an advantage that could prove vital._

_Seek out your sisters Thomas, they will need you before the end, your strength and your protection, I have also entrusted an artefact to your care, please see it into the safekeeping of Albus Dumbledore, headmaster at Hogwarts, he will aid you in finding your sisters, I trust him completely. _

_Time is a very precious commodity, we always believe we have more of it than we actually do, well now it appears that I have run out, I had always hoped that one day to be reconciled with you, now it seems that this is not to be, and you will never know how sorry I am that all that I had wished for never came to pass. Despite the distance the years have placed between us, I have always loved you, and I always will regardless of the decision you make._

_This parchment has been enchanted as a portkey, it will bring you directly home, just hold it, touch it with a part of your wand and speak the words 'take me home' if you decide not to return, burn this parchment and the wand, but guard the artefact._

_Yours always_

_Your mother._

Thomas felt a tear roll down his cheek, he hadn't expected his parents' deaths to hit him so hard, he had thought he had cut that part of his life away many years before, like a surgeon removing cancerous tissue and leaving only the healthy behind. He had decided long ago to turn his back on all that had once mattered to him, and walked away from it, better that than standing on the outskirts of the magical world, never quite belonging, he had struggled hard and built a new life for himself.

Now he stood at a new crossroads in his life, continue on his set path, abandon what little remained of his family, his two sisters Katie and Helen, and ignore this darkness until it came within reach of his current sphere of influence, where he could fight it with all the muggle means at his disposal.

Or choose to take a new path, return home, seek out his sisters, be prepared to fight a war in a way unlike any in the magical world had ever seen. Become a wanted criminal in both the muggle and magical worlds, for he would be abandoning his military post in the face of the enemy, they could still shoot him for that.

He didn't really have a choice of course, he had known that from the moment the owl had arrived in front of him, but he had still needed to convince himself of it anyway.

Closing his eyes against what was coming, Thomas reached out and grasped a wand half in each hand. For the barest instant nothing happened, there was no reaction at all, and he opened his eyes, a little disappointed. Then everything changed.

There was a slight glow of amber light from inside his closed fists, and a long absent warmth spread rapidly up the length of his arms, from somewhere a light breeze sprang into existence, blowing the pile of paperwork off the desk and onto the floor.

A part of him that even he had denied existed for so long revelled in the return of the power long missing. Closing his eyes, Thomas was taken back eighteen years to Ollivander's shop in Diagon Alley, when he had first felt the magic rushing through him.

_**"Peculiar, most peculiar, I had never thought that this particular wand would ever chose a wizard, I will watch your career with great interest master Bell, 12 inches long and very supple, Mahogany, with a strand of unicorn hair, outstanding for defensive charms"**_

It was if he was hearing Ollivander's voice again for the first time.

Thomas unbuttoned his map pocket in his trousers and placed the wand inside, quickly followed by the small box. Moving to a locker near the door, he pulled out a large black kit bag from its depths, which he laid on the floor at his feet.

If he was going home to fight a war, he would need to gather a few things first. The magical world was about to get one hell of a wake up call.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Re-entering the kitchen, Harry was caught by surprise when with a beat of powerful wings, a white blur leapt off the table at him. For an instant thinking he was under attack Harry raised his hands to protect his face, until he realised he had nothing to fear from this particular winged attacker.

"Hedwig! I've missed you!"

The snowy owl swooped around his head several times, barking in joyous welcome before settling onto his shoulder, his friend leaned in and gave the top of his ear a gentle nip. Harry smiled and reached up and ran his fingers down the owl's soft breast.

Hedwig made a sound akin to a cat purring, and took off again, gliding effortlessly across the kitchen, landing over on the windowsill, Harry saw his friend had plenty of company, the elderly and often disorientated Weasley family owl Errol, Ron's excitable little owl, Pig, and the stately looking Hermes, Percy's owl.

All four seemed to be deep in conversation with each other, apart from pig, who just seemed to squeak a lot. Harry often wondered what the owls talked about, somehow he doubted it was Quidditch.

Dan sat alone, the daily prophet spread across the table in front of him, he looked up as Harry approached, and he smiled sadly.

"Hell of a morning Harry, Molly and Amanda took Neville and the two girls upstairs, Emma has gone up to sit with Hermione for a while, she said you are more than welcome to go and join her"

Nodding in gratitude, Harry turned and made his way upstairs. Hermione had been given Percy's old room on the second floor, it was the largest room with a single bed in the house. Quietly opening the door, he slipped inside, he had never been in Percy's room before, the decoration was fairly non-descript and bland, nothing like Ron's 'Chudley Cannons' decorated room.

Hermione lay in the bed, the pale skin of her bare shoulders and arms not much in the way of contrast with the white of the sheets, Starting an inch above her eyebrows and continuing back to encase nearly all of her head was a tightly wrapped white bandage, only a few strands of her bushy brown hair had escaped, to lay like frizzy brown lines down her cheeks. Her face was unmarked and she seemed to be at peace.

Emma was sat in one of the two comfortable chairs pulled up to the bed, she was holding Hermione's hand, she looked up as Harry entered and smiled at him, she waved at the vacant seat on the other side of the bed.

"Harry, come in, please have a seat"

Harry moved over to the chair and sat, reaching over he carefully took Hermione's free hand in his own, unlike the last time he touched it, this time her hand was warm to the touch. Harry took this as a good sign.

"How is she?" Emma turned to him and smiled sadly.

"Amanda says physically all the injuries will heal, but that she just doesn't know if there will be any long term effects from the head injury. At the moment Hermione is in a potion induced coma, and when she is ready Hermione will wake up."

Harry reached over with his free hand and took Emma's in his own.

"Hermione is a fighter, she has never backed down from anything in the six years I've known her, and this will be no different, you'll see, in no time she'll be back on her feet." Emma smiled back at him, grateful for the small piece of reassurance.

"I really miss her, she truly is the smartest witch I know, and I have always relied on her for good advice and guidance, and now more than ever I need some of that."

Emma looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, as if considering exactly what she was going to say next.

"Well Harry, you know that Hermione has got to have got her good sense from somewhere, and god knows it didn't come from her fathers' side of the family. So if there is something I can help you with you know you only have to ask."

"Well, I er…wanted to ask…well…it's about Ginny!" Harry's voice trailed off into silence, not sure how to continue, he took a few moments to make some sense of his thoughts.

"The last words I spoke to her back at Hogwarts were to break up with her, I made a terrible mistake and now I'm afraid, what do I do if she doesn't want to take me back!"

Harry didn't want to even think about what such a rejection would do to him after the heartache of the last few hours, he was already an emotional wreck.

Emma was smiling and shaking her head at him.

"I don't think you need to worry Harry, from what I have seen and heard, I think when she wakes she's just going to be pleased to see you here safe and sound, the last few days have been hard on everyone."

Emma cocked her head to one side and looked at him hard for a moment.

"You love her, don't you?" Emma asked gently, Harry shrugged his shoulders in frustration.

"That's just it, I don't know, I've never even had a girlfriend before, not properly, with Cho I only managed one disastrous date. How am I supposed to know?"

Emma tried not to laugh at the earnest young man, which would really not help at all to build his confidence.

"Well, I know it's been a long time Harry, but I was in your position once upon a time, why don't you tell me how you feel about Ginny, it might help if you actually talked about it"

Harry didn't look at all convinced at spilling such private thoughts, but after a moments hesitation he began to speak in a quiet voice.

"Whenever she's not there, I feel an ache right here" Harry pointed to his midriff, "when I hold her hand or when we kiss, I feel a sort of electricity travel through me…God that sounds so stupid, I'm not explaining this very well!"

"On the contrary Harry, I think you're doing fine, keep going"

"All she has to do is smile at me, and…it's like nothing else matters in the entire world, and knowing she once trusted me is…well it was like the best feeling there is, and knowing that she might not trust me again makes me feel like there's an empty hole inside me. When I saw her lying there, still, on the ground in the yard, with Death Eaters all around her, it was like something out of my worst nightmare, as if someone had plunged a ice cold knife into my heart, I had trouble breathing, and all I wanted to do was run to her."

Emma looked at him with compassion and understanding, well, well Mr Potter, you really have got it bad.

"I may be wrong Harry, but it sounds to me like you're in love alright. When she's healed, you really need to tell Ginny what you have just told me Harry, I think you might be surprised to find out she feels pretty much the same way about you."

The bedroom door opened at that moment and Dan came in, Harry stood up, because he knew Hermione's parents deserved some time alone with their daughter.

"I just want you both to know that I will speak to the others later, we will arrange it so there is someone in here sitting with Hermione around the clock, to talk to her and keep her company. I think it will help her wake up sooner if she knows how much she is loved, and missed" With that Harry turned and left the room.

Dan turned to his wife and gently kissed her forehead.

"You know honey, I think our daughter is very lucky in her choice of friends!"

OoOoO

**Ali Al Salem Air Base, British Forces Logistics Base, Kuwait**

With the black kit bag slung over his shoulder, Thomas Bell re-entered the mobility troop's office to find David Wilks sat behind his desk with his feet up on the desktop, can of coke in hand. He looked a little flustered, and his uniform was dishevelled.

"What the hell happened to you, Wilky?" Thomas asked, placing the black bag carefully down on the floor.

"It turns out that Belinda is a bit of an animal, she used a deception plan to distract me, then proceeded to outflank me and storm my position."

Thomas laughed, it was unusual indeed that a woman outmanoeuvred Wilks, he prided himself on being the hunter/gatherer in any such pair.

"So, are we planning on going somewhere?"

Wilks was eyeing the black kit bag, and since the MP5 submachine gun was no longer on the desk, he guessed it was packed away in the bag, so he mentally planned what items he would pack.

The perks of their job was that with little or no notice they could lay their hands on some very pretty, shiny toys. Things the regular army bods didn't get to play with very often, or in some cases at all.

"I have some family issues I have to sort out, and while I would welcome your company David, one of us deserting and going AWOL is plenty for now I think, but I thank you for the offer"

Wilks swung his feet off the desk and came around until the two men were face to face, he stuck out his hand and the two men shook.

"I don't know much about your family or the world you left behind, but I would not have thought you required an MP5 and a kit bag full of toys for 'family issues' Tom. However, if you feel you have to go, I'll do my best to cover for you as long as I can, but the hounds will be released and be coming for you eventually, run hard and run fast my friend, remember, who dares wins!"

With that Wilks walked out of the office and the door shut softly behind him.

"Who dares wins" Thomas softly repeated The Regiments official motto, the unofficial one was 'speed aggression surprise' well he was about to be stupidly daring, as to whether he would win or not, well that was in the hands of fate.

Picking up the kit bag, Thomas picked up the parchment, and fished part of his wand from his pocket, touching the wand to the parchment he paused for a moment and took a last look around the office and the life he was leaving behind.

"Take me home!"

It had been a very long time since he had last used a portkey and then only once, and he had forgotten the gut wrenching sensation that grabbed him behind his navel. The office began to spin until it was just a blur, then with an intense flash of blinding light he found himself somewhere else.

It took a few seconds of furious blinking until he was able to see his surroundings clearly, but by the time he could see where he had landed, he dearly wished he couldn't.

He was stood in the garden of the big town house he remembered so fondly from his childhood, but now the house was just…gone. The large, three storey building had been solidly constructed, and magically strengthened, but the fire had destroyed all that, nothing remained above the height of the ground floor apart from a few blackened and charred timbers.

Falling to his knees, Thomas found hot tears running down his face, it had hit him much harder then he thought it would, although he had not set foot in the house for nearly ten years, all the memories he had of living in the house had been happy ones.

He had not spoken to his parents face to face since the birth of his younger sister Helen over five years ago, and now it was all gone.

Perhaps, like his mother, in some part of his heart he had kept the hope alive that one day they would be able to patch the differences, to heal the rifts in their family, but now that hope had been cruelly stripped away, leaving him with a hollow, empty feeling inside.

Climbing to his feet, wiping dry his eyes, he became aware of a steadily growing feeling that he wasn't alone, that someone was watching him, over the years of service in many hostile parts of the world he had come to trust such feelings.

Squaring his shoulders, he slowly reached up and for a moment considered drawing the black automatic pistol from its shoulder holster, before dropping his arm back down to his side, he didn't want to start off his return by blowing large holes in someone that might or might not be hostile.

Instead, he reached down to the kitbag laying by his feet, which was blessed with more than enough pockets for every occasion, and pulled out an object from one of them. With a flick of a switch, the object started to hum quietly, and raising the object to his face Thomas turned in a slow circle.

SOFIE was the latest hand held thermal imager in the British Army, it hadn't even entered service yet with the line regiments, and it worked by taking in all the different temperatures in its view, comparing them and presenting them in the form of an electronic picture to the operator. Lightweight, and easy to operate, they were almost as popular as night vision goggles.

Thomas lowered the device and smiled to himself, wizards, always so arrogant in their belief in their own superiority over muggles, most wizards would be mortified and horrified to learn that muggles, with the right mix of technology, could counter nearly everything they could do. Invisibility cloaks and disilliusionment spells, for example, were all well and good at disappearing from the visible spectrum, but they did not do anything to reflect a person's heat signature.

There were three completely recognisable man shaped heat signatures' closing on him, wands drawn, that was enough for him, wands out signalled hostile intentions, and he was not prepared to mess around, he was already in violation of his life time magic ban, having used a portkey. Dropping the Thermal Imager on top of the kitbag, he moved away from the bag to give himself a bit of space.

"Well, don't be shy, I won't bite!"

Stretching out his senses, he used an old muggle military trick for night fighting, closing his eyes, he forced himself to rely more on his other senses. He heard a small sound from behind him, like fabric rubbing together, and there was the sound of someone moving, as if changing his or her stance from his right.

"You are trespassing on a Ministry of magic crime scene, I require you to come in with me for questioning to explain your presence here, and the means of your arrival!"

The voice came from his left, out the corner of his eye, Thomas saw a man appear as if stepping out of thin air, he had a wand aimed squarely at Thomas.

Despite the fact that historically the Bell family had always had a good relationship with the DMLE he knew if he allowed himself to be taken for questioning it would only be a matter of time before they discovered who he was. Then he would be arrested and charged, and would be unable to find and help his family.

"Love to, but I cannot fit it into my busy schedule, sorry!"

Thomas had, unnoticed by the man, positioned his feet carefully, his mind already racing, keeping pace with his beating heart, preparing to launch his body into action.

"I'm sorry too, but that was not a request, Stupefy!"

Despite being nearly thirty, Thomas was in near perfect physical shape, his body honed by years of tough Army service, his reactions would have put a Quidditch seeker to shame.

Thomas threw himself forwards into a shoulder roll, and felt the stunning hex pass harmlessly over his head, continuing the natural momentum of the roll Thomas leapt back to his feet. Before his attacker could adjust his aim to track the fast moving target Thomas was upon him.

Striking the Aurors forearm hard with his elbow, Thomas forced the man to drop the wand as he lost all sense of feeling in his hand, and before the Auror could recover Thomas spun around and struck him on the side of his head with his other elbow, temporarily stunning the man.

Grabbing the front of the man's neck with his hand, clamping down on his windpipe, Thomas swung the stunned Auror around in front of him and drove a knee savagely into the small of the man's back, numbing the man's nerves and effectively but not permanently paralysing him.

The remaining two Aurors taken aback by the suddenness of the assault did the very worst thing they could have done, they gave up the advantage given to them by their invisibility and hurried forward in an effort to help their colleague.

They couldn't fire any spells with the Auror held firmly in front of Thomas, so they attempted to take the stranger on in hand to hand combat. All Aurors were taught basic hand to hand techniques while at the academy, but it was very much a case of last resort, they didn't realise that they were facing a man whose day to day job required he be an expert in many forms of unarmed combat.

The two Aurors assumed that because of sheer numbers the advantage rested with them, but in fact the very opposite was the case. Unless you trained together frequently, all numbers did was ensure you got in each others way.

Thomas released his hold on the first Auror, dropping him to the floor and immediately blocked a punch aimed at his head. With a twist and rotation of his own arm he trapped the second Auror's arm against his side and delivered a savage knee to the man's chest and then struck a blow to the Auror's windpipe with the edge of his free hand. Spinning and dropping into a crouch, Thomas swept the legs of the now preoccupied Auror out from under him, dumping him to the floor.

The last remaining Auror tried to back pedal, trying to get the space required to stun Thomas. As the wand came into line with him the Auror was already mouthing the incantation.

With an almost gentle sweep of his forearm, Thomas brushed the wand aside, he then thundered three rapid blows into the man's body, doubling him over gasping for breath, before dropping him with a side kick that connected under the mans chin and sent him sprawling backwards onto the floor, unconscious.

"Stand still!"

The first Auror had regained his feet and recovered his wand, which he now held on Thomas, although his previously numbed arm was shaking wildly. Thomas had left that man conscious for a reason, he needed to ask him some questions. The man pointed his wand again.

"I won't warn you again!"

Unseen by the Auror, Thomas had removed the flick knife from its pouch on his belt and opened it with his thumb. With a sudden motion he flung the knife under arm, striking the Auror in the shoulder of his wand arm, he didn't want to kill or seriously wound the man, just distract him, and it worked.

Grabbing the man by the thumb on his wand holding wrist, Thomas turned the whole wrist inwards, rotating the whole arm up and around in the shoulder joint. The result being in the space of a second the man had gone from having his wand arm extended fully to the front, to his arm being rotated and held fully extended to the rear at an excruciatingly painful angle. The wand dropped free of the man's already numb fingers.

Tweaking the arm slightly further, Thomas forced the man to his knees, and leaned in closer.

"We are going to play a little game, I am going to ask a question, and depending on the answer I get depends on how much pain I cause you."

"I'll tell you nothing, the Ministry will hunt you down for this, and you'll get sent to Azkaban!"

Thomas sighed, they never made it easy for themselves, and all he'd asked for was a little cooperation. With a lightning fast movement, he slammed the open palm of his free hand into the man's thumb, instantly dislocating it. The man howled at the sudden pain, and struggled to break free, but from the position he was in there was simply nothing he could do.

"From this position I can quite easily break every bone in your hand, arm and shoulder, and then there is your other arm, that's a lot of pain. I don't like you Ministry types much, but so far I have been quite restrained, you really have absolutely no idea of what I'm capable of! So, first question, do you know the family that lived in this house?"

"Go to hell!"

Thomas sighed heavily, he respected bravery, and despite his skills he did not enjoy inflicting pain, so he tried another form of persuasion.

"So far today, four men have died by my hand, do you really think I would lose any sleep by adding you to that figure, look into my eyes and tell me I'm lying!"

The Auror looked back and up into the eyes of this man and found nothing redeeming, no pity, no compassion, just the promise of cold, hard violence. And it scared him more utterly than the prospect of facing a Death Eater without his wand, he knew he had no choice but to cooperate completely.

"Do you know the family that lived here?" Thomas repeated softly, the man gave a reluctant nod.

"The Bells, the eldest child, Katie is in her first year at the Auror academy"

"Very good, you're doing very well. Where are the two daughters now?"

"I don't know, just that they survived the fire and that they have been placed with a family called the Weasley's, I don't know where they live!"

"Tell me how to find them!"

"The father and one of the sons work at the Ministry, they all have red hair"

"How hard was that, now, give me your cloak"

"What!"

Thomas snapped out a punch that solidly connected to the man's temple, he caught the unconscious Auror before he hit the ground, and lowered him gently to the floor. Bending over the man, Thomas pulled his flick knife from the Auror's shoulder, then removed the invisibility cloak and the wizard's robes.

Moving quickly he opened the kit bag, Thomas stuffed the stolen robes inside and replaced the thermal imager in its pouch after tunring it off, he stood up, hoisting the bag over his shoulder and took one last look at the remains of his family home, then he turned away and draped the invisibility cloak over his shoulders, disappearing from view.

"Bloody wizards!"

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

"Harry?"

Harry glanced over his shoulder, Luna was coming down the stairs two at a time, even in a rush the girl seemed to move serenely, almost as if she was floating down each step.

"Ginny's awake, I haven't told her you're here yet, and I thought you might like that honour"

Harry whooped out loud and grabbed Luna around the waist, lifting the surprised girl into the air, he kissed her on the forehead, before lowering her feet back to the floor. As he disappeared up the stairs he didn't see the unusually huge smile that had spread to engulf across Luna's face.

"You're welcome!"

Sighing, the girl quickly schooled her features back to the usual dreamy expression everyone expected to see, and continued downstairs.

Harry pushed open the door to Ginny's room and quietly entered, for a moment he hovered by the door just watching her, she was laid under the covers of her bed, on her side, with her back to him as he stood by the door, her red hair cascading down onto the pillow. She didn't stir when Harry pushed the door shut, and moving silently across the room, Harry took the single chair beside the bed.

"Ginny?"

He said it quietly, reluctantly, almost hoping she had fallen back asleep and that he wouldn't have to face her, despite Emma's reassurances, part of him was still deeply dreading this moment. His heart was pounding so loudly in his chest, he thought if she were asleep it would most certainly wake her.

With a muffled groan, Ginny rolled onto her back and turned her head slightly to face him, Harry bit back a gasp, the bruising he had seen earlier had fully come out and extended from her temple, down one entire side of her face, to her jaw, it was now deep purple, and her eye was swollen tightly shut.

She regarded him with her one good eye, and for the longest moment they just gazed at each other, in that moment every terrible thing that had been running through Harry's imagination came true. She no longer wanted anything to do with him, he had caused her too much pain.

And then, the uninjured side of her mouth twitched upwards in a small smile, for Harry it was as if someone in the room had lit a hundred candles all at once.

It was the one instant of total clarity that Harry would remember for the rest of his life, it was at that moment that Harry knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, knew completely and utterly, that he had fallen in love with Ginny Weasley, and that she loved him too. That one single, lop-sided smile was all it took to push him hopelessly, helplessly over the edge, and his life would never be the same again.

"Hi Harry"

Ginny's voice had a very dreamy, almost sleepy quality to it that reminded Harry of Luna, caused no doubt by the pain relief potion she had been given.

"Hi"

Never in the annals of human communication had a word so completely and utterly failed to convey the wealth of feelings he wanted to express, but it was all he could get out of his mouth, anything more complicated than that and his voice would have failed him.

"You came back" Ginny said softly, It was more a statement of fact than a question.

"How could I not? I was an idiot Ginny, it just took me a while to realise it, as you know I can be a little bit slow sometimes. I made a mistake, an awful mistake. I wasn't here for you when you needed me, I promise it won't happen again, I just hope you are able to forgive me."

Her eye closed briefly and the corner of her mouth curled upwards again, she reached out and touched the back of her hand to the side of his face, he grinned down at her and found himself leaning in towards her touch. Taking her small hand very carefully in his own, he interlinked their fingers and moved the hand to his mouth and gently kissed each of her fingers.

"Consider yourself forgiven Mr Potter, you're only male after all, idiocy is to be expected."

She spoke softly, but it was as if someone had bellowed the words into his ear, Harry's heart nearly exploded it beat so hard in his chest. Ginny was watching him carefully, as the expressions crossed his face in quick succession, he had never been particularly good at hiding his feelings and emotions from her, and Harry was well aware that Ginny didn't require Legilimency to know exactly what he was thinking. She was reading his face like an open book.

"How do you feel?"

"My head really hurts, and I feel so very tired"

Still holding her hand, Harry gave it a gentle squeeze, with his other hand he reached over and gently ran his fingers through her long red hair, Ginny closed her eye and once again smiled that lopsided smile.

"It's going to be ok, Gin, I promise, just close your eyes now"

For a moment Harry thought she had gone back to sleep, but then Ginny suddenly opened her one good eye and regarded him for a moment with troubling uncertainty.

"Harry, promise me you will still be here when I wake up?"

The fact she had to even ask the question told Harry how much work he had to do to rebuild her trust in him. Harry wasn't sure whether it was the fear and uncertainty he heard in her voice, or something else , maybe a need and longing of his own that forced him into the spur of the moment decision, standing, he bent over and kissed her forehead.

"I'll go one better than that dearest Ginny, roll over, and I'll not only be here when you wake up, but I'll be here while you sleep."

Ginny smiled sleepily, reassured by his words. Rolling over so she had her back to him again, Harry carefully removed his robes and folded them over the back of her chair and then removed his shoes and glasses, he still wore a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt.

Lifting the covers off the bed, he sat down beside her, Harry, being extremely careful not to knock into Ginny, lowered himself down to a lying position. Rolling over onto his side so that he was facing her back, he eased his arm gently under her head, and moved up as tight behind her as he could without hurting her, he smiled to himself as he felt the warmth of her body next to his and smelt the flowery scent of her hair, the scent he always associated with Ginny.

Ginny sighed softly in contentment as he placed his free arm around her waist and pulled himself in tight behind her, pulling the covers back over them. She smiled as she felt his breath, warm on her ear, as he leaned in closer to her, she rolled back slightly until she was resting slightly against his chest, feeling his heart beating steadily through his chest.

"Ginny, I promise you, I won't let anyone hurt you ever again!"

"I know you won't"

Ginny smiled softly, knowing how important Harry's word was to him, taking comfort from his presence, Ginny placed her arm on top of the one holding her around her waist and closed her eye and drifted quickly off to sleep, feeling safe and protected in Harry's arms.

Harry lay there for a long time, listening to the sound of Ginny's breathing as she slept, feeling the beat of her heart against his chest, as it seemed to naturally fall into rhythm with his own. In his life there had been very few perfect moments, moments to look back upon and savour, but this was definitely one of them. After a while he too relaxed and closed his eyes, and drifted off to a dreamless and peaceful sleep.

OoOoO

AN/ The **Ali Al Salem Air Base **does indeed exist and 'the rock' was used as a special forces staging base and a fighter intercepter location up until the end of the second gulf war, look it up on google earth for its exact postion.

AN/ Good night, don't let the Vampires bite...unless of course you are into that sort of thing, in which case who am i to judge?


	5. 5 Draco's Decison

AN/ This story is pretty much completed already, the last four chapters, 51 - 54 **(only kidding, just a little bit of Madcap humour)** are just being given a once over, making sure all the plot points are tied up, or at least the ones i want tied up! And i may have even completed 'An old man's parting gift' by the time i return from my foreign trip.

AN/ Be aware there is a serious sexual assualt on two minors near the end of the chapter, nothing too graphic, and the white hats will ride to the rescue, (ok the character involved can more accurately be described as wearing a 'dark grey' hat, but i digress...) but you have been warned.

AN/ Just in case you are getting worried that the muggles are going to have it all thier own way...Not a chance in hell. A quick note from last chapter regarding muggle technology, Thermal imaging systems are able to see through material, foliage, smoke screens and even in some cases, walls, so being able to see through an invisibility cloak is not that big a jump.

AN/ so without further ado, i give you...

* * *

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

"Thinking well is wise: planning well, wiser: doing well, wisest and best of all"

Persian proverb

Chapter Five: Draco's Decision

**The Burrow, 11:00 27 June**

Harry awoke feeling more refreshed than he could ever remember, after the better part of an entire day and nights sleep, but for an awful, confused, disorientated moment he didn't have a clue where he was, there was even a second when he thought he was still at No 4 Privet Drive. Then he detected the faint scent of a familiar and welcome flowery smell on the pillow where his head lay and he smiled as he remembered where he was.

Reaching out carefully with his hand, he found a vacant warm spot in the bed, but no other body.

Opening his eyes in concern, Harry rolled over, and sat up. Ginny was sat at her dresser, looking at her appearance in the mirror. She had not had the chance to catch a glimpse of herself before that point and her bruised and cut face had obviously shocked her, she was busy arranging her long red hair so that it hung down one side of her face, covering as much of the bruising as possible.

Trying to massage some feeling back into his arm, where Ginny had slept on it, Harry rose from the bed, noticing that fresh clothes had been laid out for him. He was suddenly overcome by the embarrassed knowledge that someone, probably Molly Weasley had been in the room while they slept and had seen them sharing a bed together.

Not that anything could possibly have happened, Ginny had been heavily dosed with painkillers and Harry had remained fully clothed, but that wasn't the point, he would now have to face the woman with a guilty conscience. Shaking his head at the utter stupidity of his own mind, Harry crossed to the dresser and knelt down beside Ginny's chair and gently took her chin between his thumb and forefinger.

He turned her head from side to side for a moment, with a look of intense concentration on his face, as if studying her, he then leaned in and gently kissed her on the lips, a moan escaped from her mouth and Harry quickly pulled away.

"I'm sorry! Did I hurt you?" He asked with concern. Ginny's mouth twitched upwards in amusement and she reached out and pulled him back in closer and kissed him back.

"No Harry you could never hurt me, not with a kiss"

Harry stood and gently kissed her again on the top of her head, she smiled and leant back against him.

"How are you feeling?"

"A bit groggy, but I can smell food, I don't know about you but I could probably eat one of my brothers"

Harry smiled with affection at her, he had heard somewhere that having an appetite was a very good sign. Then his smile faded, he remembered what had happened since Ginny's injury, things that she would have no knowledge of.

"Ginny, I have some things to tell you…"

He proceeded to tell her about Neville's grandmother and the Katie and Helen's parents, and gave her an update on Hermione's condition, along with the idea for someone to sit with Hermione round the clock. Ginny grabbed hold of his hand and squeezed it tightly as she processed all this information, it was a lot to take in, in one go.

"Then we have to do what we can to help them all get through this"

Harry smiled and kissed the top of her head again, in the face of larger issues, her self-pity had completely disappeared, she had switched on what Harry called her 'Molly' mode, determined to keep everyone in her sphere of influence happy and safe.

They went out onto the landing and headed downstairs, about halfway down Ginny stumbled slightly. Harry automatically reached out to steady her and for an instant their hands touched, and without really thinking about it, Ginny took hold of Harry's hand. He smiled and said nothing.

The kitchen was empty, but there was a lot of noise coming from the garden, that made sense, with the number of people now at the Burrow, the kitchen was simply too small to comfortably seat everybody. Going outside, Harry noticed a lot of work had already been done to repair the damage from the previous morning's battle, the rubble had been cleared, and the wall partially rebuilt.

Moving around the side of the house, they were greeted by a wall of sound as they entered the garden. A long table, with a tablecloth complete with Gryffindor and Ravenclaw heraldry, was piled high with a large variety of mouth-watering food.

Harry was a little confused, while he was in no doubt of Molly Weasley and her ability to organise and cook, this amount of people should have stretched even her culinary talents.

It wasn't until Harry saw two little heads weaving in and out of the throng, that he understood. Dobby and Winky had somehow allied themselves with the formidable Mrs Weasley. Had they been asked, or was this just another occasion of Dobby stretching out and flexing his initiative?

Emma saw Harry and Ginny first, and nudged her husband, Dan looked over at the two, and smiled when he noticed they were still holding hands, Emma had told him of Harry and her conversation, yep Harry was in really big trouble.

Molly looked up from fussing over Bill and Ron, both still showing signs of their injuries, and spotted Harry and Ginny stood there hand in hand and smiled, as a mother, catching her daughter in bed with a boy, she should have been concerned about her daughter, especially so soon after being injured, but she had spent too much time around Harry over the years to be concerned.

Of some things in life she was certain, Harry's love for her daughter was one such thing. She knew that he would never take advantage of her daughter, never hurt Ginny on purpose, he really was such a nice young man. Molly would have been happier if Ginny had been older when she had met her soul-mate, but since Molly had been exactly the same age as Ginny when she and Arthur had started dating she would have felt like a hypocrite to hold age in the couple's path.

Arthur saw his wife smiling at someone, and followed her eye line, when he saw them both stood there, his smile echoed hers.

Ginny and Harry, suddenly aware they were drawing attention from the crowd, separated hands and both blushed bright red. Harry was only too glad when Ron appeared in front of him.

"Alright there Harry?" Ron's arm was in a sling, other than that there appeared to be no other ill effects from the battle.

"Alright there Ron?"

Harry smiled at his friend, pleased to see him up and on his feet, and Ginny threw her arms around her brother, Ron had quickly accepted the reality of Harry and Ginny, when it first happened at Hogwarts, much quicker that Harry had expected him to.

Ron knew that Harry was a decent man, and that his feelings for his sister were genuine. He also knew there were no shortage of Weasley brothers that would help him exact revenge on Harry should he hurt Ginny.

"How are you feeling?" Ginny was concerned about her brother.

"About to ask you the same question, won't be playing Quidditch anytime soon" Ginny laughed, all three of them had played on the same house team the previous year.

It was then that Ginny spotted Neville, he was stood on his own, a little distance away the main group, and he seemed to be staring unseeing through the plate of food that Harry just knew Molly must have thrust into his hands.

Touching Harry on the arm, Ginny moved towards Neville. She put her arm around his shoulders and leaned in close, Harry could not hear what she said to him but the effect was miraculous. Neville looked up in shock, and then a little sad smile burst onto his face. Taking him by the hand, Ginny led Neville back towards the two boys, Harry approved, anything was better than Neville standing on his own.

Ginny had always had a soft spot for Neville, their friendship had grown since Neville has asked her to the yule ball during the tri-wizard tournament. Harry had never felt threatened by that friendship, even before he and Ginny had become an item, there had never been anything other than friendship between them.

From out of the crowd, Luna appeared, juggling two plates of food, and a glass of pumpkin juice, for a moment the five of them regarded each other, remembering both happier and sadder times, but appreciating each others company.

Ron then launched into his favourite subject, the latest fortunes, or lack thereof of the Chudley Cannons Quidditch team, which is exactly what Neville needed, a conversation about something light that didn't require much input from anyone, Ron could hold this particular conversation all on his own.

With Ginny and Luna aiding Ron as he kept Neville's mind occupied, Harry let his attention wander, until he saw Remus stood with Tonks. Excusing himself, Harry dodged around the Aurors, Savage, Proudfoot and Dawlish, exchanging pleasantries as he passed, until he came to stand before his unofficial Godfather.

"Harry! It good to see you, I didn't get chance to talk to you this morning, Amanda was rather insistent I get straight to bed"

Tonks snorted loudly and looked rather annoyed, she muttered something under her breath, that sounded to Harry like 'its Amanda now is it!' and stalked off, leaving Remus looking puzzled in her wake.

"Sometimes Harry I really don't understand women! Anyway I just wanted to say I was very proud of what you did this morning, fighting for fighting's sake is not the answer, you showed a maturity I sometimes wished James and Sirius had possessed."

Harry grinned at his friend and former professor, he still looked slightly pale, with rings under his eyes, but his smile was warm and genuine.

"Remus I need to ask your advice about something, I don't really know how to say this, so please forgive me if this comes out in a tangle" Remus nodded, and motioned Harry should continue.

"I shall always consider you my godfather, you know that, but because of your 'furry little problem'…" Remus smiled, his eyes twinkling at the term that Sirius and James had used to describe his monthly transformations. "…You have no legal standing, you are not allowed to be my legal guardian, I know that in a very short time I will be seventeen and not need one, but anything could happen. At the moment, as my next of kin and my legal guardians, the Dursleys, should anything happen to me, like I fall off my broomstick, get hit by a rogue meteorite, killed by a rampaging dark wizard, you know, the usual, they get everything, the contents of both the Black and Potter vaults, 12 Grimmauld place, everything! Well I don't want that to happen, what can I do about it?"

Remus looked thoughtful for a moment, rubbing his forefinger on his chin. Then he clasped Harry's shoulder.

"Well, I suppose we could have you legally adopted by the Weasley's, they already consider you part of the family, the Dursley's would have to agree to sign certain legal papers of course, but with the offer of sufficient cash I cannot see them refusing."

Harry thought about it for a moment, he did think of Molly and Arthur as family, they certainly provided the emotional support that would have been provided by his parents if they had lived. But what of his feelings for Ginny, if he became an adopted Weasley would they become brother and sister?

"What would that mean for Ginny and I, does that mean she would be my sister?"

Remus just stared at him for a moment, then started laughing so hard he began to choke on the ham roll he had just taken a bite out of, he bent double and began to turn red. Harry, concerned thumped him hard on his back and the offending bit of roll popped loose.

"Harry, you're unbelievable you really are, leave it with me, I'll speak to some people and get back to you ok?"

Remus was still chuckling when Bill rushed up, carrying another ham roll, without a moments hesitation he thrust it into Remus's unsuspecting mouth.

"Don't worry mate I won't let you starve!"

Then he was gone again, with just a wink to Harry, now it was Harry's turn to double over laughing so hard he could hardly breath. Remus's face went black as thunder for a moment, before he realised the last of the marauders couldn't really be a bad sport, word would get out.

Harry excused himself chuckling, knowing Remus would already be planning his revenge on Bill, because no marauder worthy of the name could let such a challenge go unanswered. Harry went in search of his girlfriend, it still felt a little strange thinking of Ginny in those terms again, strange but very nice all the same.

He saw Fleur Delacour talking intently to the healer Amanda Coombs and Percy, and waved over to them, although she looked much better than the last time he had seen her, Fleur still looked tired, but she smiled sweetly at him and waved back. Percy just gave a small nod of his head, too much time had elapsed for Harry and Percy to be immediately back on speaking terms, but that didn't mean it wouldn't happen.

Harry found Ginny explaining his plan for keeping Hermione company to Neville, Ron, Luna and Bill, they all agreed it was a good idea, and Neville actually looked relieved that he had something else other than the loss of his grandmother to think about.

Harry was about to get a plate and put some food upon it, when he spotted Katie Bell coming around the corner of the house, she looked distraught and in shock.

"Katie! What's wrong? Where's Helen!"

"Oh Harry, She's run off, I told her about mum and dad, I didn't mean to, I don't know what came over me, we were arguing about something trivial and Helen was being difficult, and I just blurted it out, I turned my back and she was gone! What have I done!"

Katie was nearly hysterical, coming so soon after the loss of her parents, Helen's disappearance had completely shattered any self-control she had left. Harry swapped a look with Ginny and Luna, who seemed to understand immediately, they moved to each side of Katie and led her to a seat.

Harry turned to the massed throng stood talking loudly around the table, he took a deep breath, and raised his voice.

"I have something to say, hey, listen to me!" The noise level of the garden did not dip even slightly, taking a further deep breath Harry prepared to try again.

"SHUT UP!" The garden suddenly went quiet, Harry turned and looked with astonishment at Neville, whose bellow had even silenced the wildlife, Neville just shrugged.

"Er…Thanks Nev, right listen up, five year old Helen Bell has wandered off, she is upset and not thinking straight, she doesn't know the area but she could not have gone far, I need some help to find her." For a moment no one said anything, and then a decisive voice rang out.

"Right you lot, we need to divide into search parties, I want a Weasley in every party, we know the area better, its going to be getting dark in a few hours, so we need to get started."

Harry nodded in gratitude to Arthur for so quickly taking charge, the adults were clustering around the table waiting to be assigned a search party, but for the moment, as normal, the teenagers had been pretty much ignored.

Harry turned to Neville and grinned at him.

"Feel up to a little broom ride Nev?"

Neville nodded and smiled, Harry still remembered Neville's first wild and painful broom experience at Hogwarts, since then he had become a fair, even competent rider, he would never play Quidditch for a house team, but he never injured himself in flight anymore either.

"Girls, stay with Katie, just in case Helen comes back, we'll be back, Ron, can you keep an eye on things here mate?"

Harry could tell from Ron's eyes that he dearly wanted to come with them, but even he could see the stupidity of trying to ride a broom with an arm in a sling, he just smiled and nodded at his friends.

"Sure thing, Neville you can use my broom if you like, if you find her send up red wand sparks, good luck!"

Harry and Neville jogged around the side of the house, to the broom shed, and Harry left Neville pulling Ron's broom from the shed while he ran inside to get his firebolt from his school chest.

Neville and Ginny were both waiting for him when he came outside, and both had brooms, Neville had Ron's cleansweep 11, and Ginny had a firebolt, exactly the same model as Harry's, although Harry knew she did not own a broom of her own.

"Ginny, you can't possibly be thinking of coming with us, you can't even see out of one eye! Don't be stupid!"

Neville just began to shake his head, Harry still had a lot to learn about girls in general, and Ginny in particular. Although she was a year younger than him, Neville had always gotten on especially well with Ginny, she shared his passion for dancing and also liked herbology. And one thing he had learned through his friendship her was that you never told Ginny she couldn't do something she had set her heart on doing, the result was never going to be pretty.

"Don't be Stupid! How Dare You! Harry James Potter! Just because you are my boyfriend, you do not have the right to tell me what to do or when to do it, there is a little girl out there, scared and alone, and she needs all our help to find her, so are you going to stand there and argue or are you going to help me look for her!"

With that Ginny smoothly and skilfully mounted the international standard racing broom, kicked off, and shot into the sky. Harry was left looking up at the sky with his mouth hanging slackly open, he turned to Neville for some support, but Neville was just grinning and shaking his head at him.

"Thanks for the support mate! Where'd she get the firebolt?" Harry snapped angrily, Neville shrugged.

"It's Katie's, said she could use it, I think we'd better go!" Harry sighed and mounted his firebolt and he and Neville rose to join the orbiting Ginny.

OoOoO

**Nearby**

Somewhere, deep down inside, some small shred of humanity still clung to Peter Pettigrew's soul, because as he stood looking down at the small body laid out before him, he did not know why he had not killed her. It was not like the plan required the child to be alive at this point, she had already played her part, but to his own considerable surprise, Peter had found he had been unable to do it.

The plan was simple, and yet utterly brilliant, and it had been so very easy to implement, he had entered the house in his animagus form to seek a likely candidate, after all no-one would suspect he would show his face anywhere near the Burrow after being exposed three years before.

He had heard the older sister fumble the news of the parents death, and seen the little girl dash outside crying her eyes out. He had followed, in rat form of course, and when no one was looking had transformed and used the Imperius curse to get her out of sight into the woods.

When she had arrived at the desired location, Peter had levelled his wand, prepared to use the killing curse, but found he could not bring himself to do it, so he had stunned her instead, then positioned her small body how he wanted it.

Bending down, Pettigrew pointed his wand at the little girls top, and imagining his master's chamber, spoke the correct incantation.

"Portus!"

Then he moved back into the trees and waited for the fun to begin.

It was surprisingly Ginny that spotted her first. They had been airborne for only ten minutes, starting at the burrow and spiralling outwards in an ever-expanding search pattern. Below them they saw the other search parties spreading out and checking outbuildings.

Ginny caught sight of a shape at the base of a tree, just off the main track that led to the nearby village of Ottery St Catchpole, she banked gracefully out of the search pattern and circled the spot for a moment. She did not want to admit it to him, but Harry had been right, her vision was really suffering with only one eye, her depth perception was totally messed up.

As Ginny dipped even lower, she was aware of both Harry and Neville converging on her, they would have been aware that something was wrong the moment she had left the search pattern. Now that she was close enough, Ginny was sure, it was Helen.

Bringing the firebolt in fast, Ginny, unused to the racing broom's speed and misjudging her height due to her injured eye, nearly made a complete mess of the landing, despite the skilful recovery it was still slightly too fast, causing Ginny to overshoot the little girls position. By the time she had recovered, dropped the broom and raced back up the track, Harry was touching down right alongside the little girl, with Neville scant moments behind.

As Ginny approached, she could see Helen, she was sat with her back against the trunk of a large tree, her chin was resting on her chest and her eyes were closed. Harry was already there, he was standing over her, his brows furrowed in concentration, Ginny exasperated at his seeming unwillingness to aid the little girl, pushed past him.

Something was very wrong, Harry had a similar feeling to the one he had gotten at Privet Drive, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up straight, something truly terrible was going to happen.

Helen seemed…posed, her skin was pale, but she was still alive, he could see her chest rising and falling. Harry had just opened his mouth to issue a warning, when Ginny pushed past him and touched the little girl.

There was an intense flash of light and a slight feeling of nausea, and when his vision cleared they were both gone, vanished from sight.

"NO!"

Harry was shocked and surprised when the cry issuing from his own throat took on a stereo quality, his head snapped around and he found himself looking into the face of the last person he had expected to find anywhere near the burrow.

"Why couldn't you have touched her first, damn you Potter, the master would have rewarded me well for your capture, instead his servants get two new playthings while you remain free!"

"WORMTAIL!"

Harry screamed the name as a challenge, he had long awaited this moment, the man who had betrayed his parents to Voldemort, the man who had ensured his rightful Godfather had spent twelve years incarcerated in Azkaban prison, the man who had killed Cedric Diggory right in front of him, and now here he was, now responsible for Ginny and Helen's disappearance.

Something inside Harry snapped, the civilised and caring personality was pushed violently aside and something primeval rose to the surface in its place. He screamed in anger and hatred, the sound was that of a wounded animal, the use of magic was the last thing on Harry's mind as he flung himself at the Dark Wizard.

It only took four paces for Harry to reach Pettigrew, but in that time Neville had raised his wand to the sky and fired off a shower of red sparks to summon aid, not for Harry, but for Pettigrew, because if Neville was reading Harry's eyes correctly, his friend had every intention of killing the man.

Harry cannoned into Pettigrew with such force that both men went over in a tangle of limbs into the undergrowth, for a long moment they rolled over and over, neither man able to find an advantage. But in the end, for all his dark wizardry, Peter Pettigrew was still a small weasel of a man, while Harry was just entering his physical prime. It was only a matter of time before Harry gained the upper hand.

Harry found himself in a position where he was sat over Pettigrew, and the blows began to rain down, there was no skill involved at all, just a primeval need to inflict as much pain as he could on this evil, little, spiteful man.

But Pettigrew was not without protection of his own, lashing out, he struck Harry with a backhanded blow from his silver metallic hand, rocking Harry's head back, and breaking a cheek bone.

Stunned, Harry shook his head in an attempt to clear it, Pettigrew, seeing his chance, reached up and taking hold of Harry's hand, closed his own monstrous silver hand around Harry's and squeezed as hard as he could. Harry was aware of the awful sound of crunching bones, and was dimly aware the sounds were coming from his own hand, but he paid them no heed, somehow drawing the pain into a specially created space inside him, if anything the pain helped clear his head.

Driving his elbow savagely into Pettigrew's face, he used the moment's grace the blow had bought him and pinned the metallic hand by the still human wrist it was attached to, under his knee.

Harry snarled and threw furious punches with both hands, he was so caught up in the hate and anger that he neither felt the impacts of his blows or the pain from his own broken bones, he was not even aware of when exactly Pettigrew's resistance to the blows ceased. There was nothing now to stop him exacting revenge for all those good people dead by this beast's hands.

Several strong arms grabbed him by the shoulders and arms, and dragged at him trying to pull him clear, but he was having none of it, screaming in anger and frustration he lashed out at those who trying to prevent long overdue justice, several blows landed. But the arms were too strong, he was carried, kicking and screaming away from the bloodied form on the ground.

Harry found himself locked into an embrace that refused to let him go no matter how many times he struck out in anger, the blows caused no retaliation, but he was just held, until finally the anger began to bleed off, to be replaced by pain, fear and to some extent, shame.

"Harry, shhh, its going to be ok"

Remus kept up the stream of reassuring comments, and maintained the tight embrace until he felt Harry's slender frame shudder as he was racked by deep sobs.

Leading Harry, unresisting now, away from Pettigrew's body and back onto the track, Remus nodded his thanks to Neville, who was sporting a bloody lip and the makings of a great shiner of a black eye from Harry's wild blows, the teenager had been instrumental in dragging Harry clear.

"Bloody Hell Potter, I hope you're never that pissed at me!"

Auror Ryan Savage was stood looking down at the still body of Pettigrew with astonishment, he had accompanied Remus when they had seen Neville's red sparks.

Raising his own wand to the sky, and he fired off another series of flares. Within seconds the flares were answered.

With a series of pops, Bill Weasley and the Aurors Proudfoot and Andy Dawlish appeared on the track. Catching sight of Remus, Harry and Neville, Bill bounded over.

"Did you find her? What's happened? Where's Helen? For that matter where's Ginny? She was with you before wasn't she?"

"Pettigrew, its Peter Pettigrew, over here fellas"

Savage called out to his fellow Aurors, the two Aurors drew wands and moved quickly into the undergrowth, where they stopped and looked down in amazement.

"So where's the troll that did that to him?" Dawlish asked quietly, amazed at the state of the man stretched out before him, Savage just nodded at Harry, being held still by Remus.

"It was Potter"

"You're kidding me?"

Savage just shook his head.

Proudfoot, the native american Auror, who rarely spoke gazed down at the Death Eater, then lifted his eyes to Harry Potter. There was a lot of damage delivered for such a small frame.

"The kid sure packs a punch"

"But where's Helen and my sister?" Bill asked urgently of Remus.

"She's gone, Ginny's gone, a portkey!" Harry spoke, his voice so full of emotion it was quaking, "I tried to stop her, oh Bill I'm so sorry, I couldn't stop her!"

OoOoO

**The North Sea**

Despite the immense size and bulk of the mass cargo vessel, the ship was still being tossed around like a child's plaything in the savage storm. It was Mother Nature's way of levelling the playing field, of letting the puny humans know that she was still firmly in charge despite all evidence to the contrary.

The _**Sovereing Maersk**_ of the Danish Maersk shipping line was heavily laden with nearly five thousand of the forty foot containers that could, with the right equipment, be mounted onto the back of heavy goods vehicles when the ship made port. The containers held such diverse cargo as bulk cloth all the way to the other extreme of heavy farm machinery, all destined for the port of Teeside near Newcastle.

On the bridge, which was set slightly aft of the vessels midpoint, Captain Fredrick Ivorson settled himself more comfortably into his chair and checked his harness was secure, holding him in place. Each bridge station on the new ship had seats and harnesses to keep the crew at their post in the roughest of seas, gone were the old days of having inattentive crewmen flung about the bridge in a storm.

Despite the severity of the storm, Ivorson was not at all worried about the sea worthiness of his command, the _**Sovereing**_ had only been released for commercial use a few months before, having undergone extensive sea trials. He was a little concerned about his crew however, most were new to his command on this voyage, although all had in theory recorded ample sea hours to be able to cope with this kind of weather.

The ship had quarters to carry forty crew members, but with the degree of sophistication and automation built into the ship's systems the normal crew complement was only fifteen. Of those, only Ivorson and the chief engineer were actually Danish nationals, the others came from a wide range of countries.

"Captain, weather scan reports we'll be through the worst of this storm in a little under three hours, should be clear all the way to Teeside after that."

Ivorson looked over and nodded to his British first officer, James Bradley was one of those who had just joined the ship, according to his file he had served as an officer in the Royal Navy for several years, and so far the Captain had no complaints about the man, he was intelligent and capable, and would one day be the master of his own vessel.

"Captain, stationary radar contact dead ahead, range twenty nautical miles!"

Ivorson inclined his head and Bradley nodded, picking up on the unspoken order as if they had worked together for years, the first officer unclipped his harness and expertly timing his movement across the bridge to the erratic storm tossed movement of the ship, came to stand beside the radar operator, at a repeater screen of what the operator was seeing. Clipping himself into the seat, the first officer leaned over the crewman's shoulder and made some adjustments to the screen.

"Radar contact confirmed Captain, suggest coming to course 110 degrees magnetic to pass well clear of the contact."

Ivorson, puzzled at what could possibly be stationary out here in the middle of nowhere in weather like this, nodded his agreement and turned to his helm officer.

"Make your course 110 degrees."

"Aye sir."

There was no longer a traditional ship's wheel to be turned when changing course, it was all controlled by a joystick like a computer flight simulator, turning the stick in either direction turned the massive rudder at the rear of the 347metre long vessel.

However the sheer size of the vessel meant she didn't exactly spin on a dime, in fact if the crew relied upon visual sighting, especially in weather like this, then by the time they had started turning then they would have hit whatever they were trying to avoid.

The ship was equipped with a state of the art radar system, which was deliberately underpowered to reduce the range, it put some military systems to shame in its degree of sophistication, and could see objects on a good day out to forty nautical miles from the ship.

Other than the digital compass and it's rotary, old fashioned back up, there was no indication that the big vessel was turning ponderously onto the new heading, the course change had been made at a sedate and leisurely speed, because with the warning time nobody needed to panic.

"Captain, the radar contact is now moving, closing on us."

The radar operator sounded worried, the Captain noted.

"Is it a ship?"

Bradley asked from his position by the repeater screen, his expertise was engines, cargo, and what seemed a lifetime ago, weapons systems, not radar, so the operator was the expert onboard. The operator frowned and adjusted his screen before turning to his Captain.

"The contact is indistinct, almost cloud shaped, yet it registers as solid to the radar, at this time I would have to say that I don't have a clue what it is. What I do know is that it is fast moving and coming directly towards us."

The first officer turned to his Captain.

"Recommend a further course change Captain, and possibly an increase on speed."

Captain Ivorson carefully considered the request, the ship's engines were their most cost effective at 10 knots, any increase would eat into the companies profits for the voyage, however to make any profit the ship would have to actually reach port.

"Do it."

"Helm, come to course 85 magnetic, make revolutions for 18 knots."

As the helm officer made the course correction a deep throbbing could be felt through the deck plates, as the powerful gas turbine engines many decks below began to work harder to increase the massive ship's speed.

"Contact is increasing speed and adjusting course to intercept, time to intercept four minutes."

There was real fear in the radar operator's voice now, this was something outside his experiences and he feared the unknown.

"Flank speed Mr Bradley, steer as you see fit."

The Captain commanded. He was also willing to admit this development was outside of his experience range, and handed command over to the military sailor.

"Flank speed, aye sir, make revolutions for 25.5 knots, helm come to course 295 magnetic."

The throbbing grew into a steady whine as the ship's engines were pushed harder even than they had been on their sea trials, the second in command was handling the massive cargo vessel like the warships he had started out in. The ship responded quickly for a vessel of her size and heeled over smartly onto her new course and accelerated. For the first time the monstrous vessel was causing a huge bow wave of water to be thrown up either side of her bulbous front

"Where is the contact?"

The Captain was still maintaining his outward calm despite the tension on the bridge.

"Contact is off our beam at two nautical miles and closing rapidly."

"Sound the collision alarm, try and raise the British coast guard, give them our position and inform them of our situation."

A strange whooping sound started playing out of speakers throughout the ship, sending off duty crew scurrying from their beds to seal water proof bulkhead doors and grab life vests.

James Bradley had crossed the bridge and was stood staring out of the rain splashed windows, scanning the horizon with a powerful pair of Swiss made binoculars. From the size and distance to the radar contact whatever it was that was out there should have been within visible range, yet he could see nothing except the storm lashed seas.

"I can't see anything out there, confirm distance to the contact."

Bradley commanded.

"Contact is right on top of us! Within five hundred metres, still closing rapidly!"

Bradley suddenly noticed that the radar operators breath was misting as he spoke, the bridge was air conditioned to provide the optimum working environment. Turning he was amazed to see ice appearing on the window and he shivered involuntarily with the sudden cold.

"Captain, the temperature outside has just dropped 15 degrees and is still dropping."

The helmsman announced.

Bradley turned his back on the bridge and turned his head to slowly to regard the windows as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, the handle of the door to the observation deck outside had started to turn, and yet there was no one stood outside the door. He was just moving to the door to ensure it was secured when it was thrown violently open.

With a blast of freezing cold air, something brushed past him, something that felt cold and damp, Bradley knew something terrible was happening, but he also knew that he was powerless to act against it, there was no hope left, no chance of escape.

Cold, invisible hands suddenly gripped his face and forced his head upwards, and the last thing James Bradley heard was the screaming of other members of the bridge crew as something unspeakably evil befell them.

OoOoO

**Somewhere Else**

Ginny stumbled backwards in shock, and fell to the cold stone floor, despite her confusion, she recognised the effect of a portkey in operation, but what could have been the key? Not Helen herself, she knew from her lessons at Hogwarts that portkeys could only be created from inanimate objects, maybe an item of clothing the child had been wearing?

Ginny scrambled quickly across the stone floor to the unconscious girl and began to touch items of her clothing at random, most portkeys operated like a two way gate, and the second touch delivered you right back to where you started, but this time nothing happened, she was stuck here, and although she didn't know where 'here' was, she was fairly sure she wouldn't like the answer.

"Ah, I see that once again my expectations have been cruelly dashed, Wormtail it seems has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, I shall have to have words with him upon his return. Welcome, my dear, you'll have to forgive the state of the place, I wasn't expecting visitors, and I had the cleaner killed some time ago."

Ginny froze and started to tremble violently, She had immediately recognised that cruel, menacing voice, she had first heard it five years before, and it had featured fairly prominently in her nightmares ever since that time.

That voice had told her to do some truly awful things, and she had been completely powerless to resist it. But she was no longer the terrified and lonely eleven-year-old girl she had been back then, she had fought in the department of mysteries and proven herself quite capable of taking care of herself.

Standing slowly, Ginny used the movement to hide the action of drawing her wand out of her robe pocket. Then with a speed and grace that would have done any trained Auror proud, she spun, her wand coming up and around in one smooth continuous flowing movement.

With a disdainful flick of his clawed hand, Voldemort disarmed the young witch, sending her wand spinning through the air to strike the far wall of the dark and dank chamber. In his other hand he held his own wand aimed directly at Ginny's throat.

Ginny stared in horror at the twisted visage of the dark wizard, the last time she had seen him, he had been the tall, dark, handsome Tom Riddle, not this…thing sat in a throne before her, pasty white complexion, burning red slits for eyes and two slits for a nose, how could he have done this to himself?

Ginny's attention was drawn to his wand, which hovered menacingly about six inches from her nose. A magic user with enough power was able to get a 'vibration' from a wand in very close proximity, and if the magic user knew the wands bearer, then that wand would always be associated with its owner.

But this wand confused Ginny greatly. The wand had an eerie familiarity to it, although in outward appearance it was totally different from Harry's wand, Ginny somehow 'felt' the connection between the two, after all the two wands both had a tail feather from Fawkes the Phoenix as their cores.

Because wands choose the wizard, and not the other way around, for a magic user to make efficient use of another's wand they have to be very powerful to overcome the wand's natural resistance to another's magic, but with these two wands, Ginny suspected either wizard could use either of the wands without too much difficulty.

"Well young lady I see the manners and breeding of the Weasley family are living up to expectations, tut tut! I had hoped of more from you, you were such a lovely child, but I suppose that's what comes of spending so much time in the company of dear Harry."

Ginny squared her shoulders and faced Voldemort, her eyes flashed at the insult to her family and her boyfriend. Although she was terrified at being in such close proximity to Voldemort, she was surprised to find that her mind had remained calm and calculating.

"Who are you to judge my family and friends, things you've never had in your whole life, Tom? You must be very lonely!" Ginny marvelled at the strength and calmness of her voice.

"Crucio!"

Ginny felt a pain unlike anything she had ever experienced, it was if every single nerve ending in her entire body had started burning. Her legs buckled and she hit the floor, convulsing. In the distance she could hear someone screaming in unimaginable pain, and with a sort of strange detachment, she wished they would keep the noise down. Time seemed to have no meaning, the curse could have lasted ten seconds or an hour, and there was simply no way to tell.

Then it stopped, and Ginny, breathing heavily and sweating, found herself lying on her back, staring up at the chambers ceiling. It was covered and matted with strands of cobwebs.

"What's the matter Tom Riddle, did I touch a nerve!"

"Crucio!"

If anything the pain was worse the second time, any thought of self quickly disappeared under continuous, relentless waves of pain. When they finished, she was left panting and spent, curled into the foetal position on the floor.

"Never address me using that name ever again, or I may be tempted to use the other two unforgivable curses on you, I think some time in one of my superbly equipped dungeons will teach you proper respect!"

With a click of a taloned finger, three Death Eaters emerged from the shadows, and Ginny found herself hoisted unceremoniously to her feet, and held securely between two of them, the third grabbed Helen from the floor.

With the attention of everyone in the chamber fixed upon the two prisoners, no one paid Draco Malfoy any notice whatsoever as he slipped around the chambers edge hugging the shadows, and slowly bent to recover Ginny's wand from where it had fallen, and slipped it into his robes. With any luck no one would even know he had it until it was too late.

When the portkey ward had started screaming in the Dark Lord's chamber, one of the last people Draco had expected to appear was Ginny Weasley. With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach he realised that with her sudden appearance here, all his planning was for nothing, he couldn't leave now, not without her.

It was not that Draco felt any particular fondness for Ginny Weasley, for he did not, he still remembered with a shiver the Bat Bogey Hex she had let loose on him two years ago, in Umbridge's office, not that he hadn't deserved it.

He had watched with admiration as the pretty red headed witch had confronted Voldemort without a flicker of fear in her face, and had tried hopelessly to block out her screams, now he watched helplessly as she was dragged from the chamber, and knew what awaited her and the little girl at the hands of Goyle snr, Nott and Jugson. The three Death Eaters enjoyed rather deviant tastes, a fact his father had once found extremely amusing to relay to him in graphic detail.

But it seemed that his reawakened conscience was catching up for all the times it had been absent over the years, and was demanding he take action. And for some strange reason he didn't understand he felt compelled to listen, god he was going all soft, he was turning into Saint Bloody Potter, rushing off to save the girl, without any thought of the possible consequences, and with no possible reward. If only his father could see him now, he would die of a heart attack, it was most unslytherin like of him.

But maybe that was the point, maybe if the sorting hat was set upon his head now, maybe its decision would be different than it had been six years ago, or maybe it was the fact that a bad person did not necessarily have to become an evil one. You could always turn from the path laid out before you and chose a new route through life.

Draco knew this was it, the balancing point in his life, where he could slip either way. He could chose to do nothing, and while not embracing Voldemort's views he would be little better than him, or he could chose to do the right thing, even if that was not the easy thing.

The choice would change his life forever, Draco had always had a privileged upbringing, never wanting for anything, the Malfoy family name had always generated a certain respect and fear from the Wizarding community, but now his decision was going to change all that, it would set him against his own family, put his life in terrible danger, but it was the right thing to do.

Using all the stealth he could muster, Draco slipped from the chamber unseen by any, and set off in pursuit of the three Death Eaters and their cargo.

OoOoO

**Thr Burrow**

Healer Amanda Coombs stared intently at Harry for a moment, concern all over her face, she had seen the mess he had made of Pettigrew's face when she had been called to stabilise the Death Eater ready for transport back to the Ministry detention centre.

Up until that moment she would not have thought Harry capable of such violence, he had seemed such a nice, well-mannered young man.

Sighing she turned back to her work, she watched Harry curiously for any reaction, as, carefully as possible she manipulated the shattered bones in his hand back into place, it was a gruelling and painful, yet necessary task. She could not use magic or potions to re-knit the bones together until they were all back in the correct place, it would leave his hand crippled and unusable otherwise, a mangled claw that would remain forever as a reminder of this terrible night.

Despite what should have been blinding pain, Harry had refused all offers of a pain relief draught, and he just sat there, his expression blank, as Amanda, one at a time pushed the broken shards of bone back into place.

In fact, he had not said a word to anyone since the moment he had spoken with heartfelt anguish to Bill on the track, he had withdrawn into himself completely.

Remus was also watching Harry with concern, he had already seen Harry go through more traumas in his short life than a dozen adults normally had to face, but he had never seen him react this way before. He had never seen Harry withdraw into himself so completely that he no longer responded to his surroundings.

Remus found himself wishing Tonks was there, she always seemed to understand what was going on in Harry's head, but she had joined her Auror colleagues to transfer Pettigrew to the secure holding area at the Ministry, she had promised she would return as soon as she possibly could.

As much as Remus tried to be there to support his unofficial godson, sometimes he just didn't know how to get through to him, he'd already been through so much, suffered so much pain, and his life wasn't getting any easier. In times such as these he deeply wished he had Sirius beside him, he also had understood Harry far better than Remus did.

"He's in deep shock Remus, there is no other way someone could sit through what I've just done without pain relief, I've re-knitted the bones in his hand and face, and come tomorrow evening he'll have physically recovered, I have to get to the Ministry, I'll be back to check on Hermione in the morning"

Remus nodded and smiled in gratitude to the blond healer, Amanda stood and packed the tools of her trade back into her bag, and took a final look at Harry's expressionless face, before hurrying from the kitchen.

Remus sighed and rubbed a hand across his tired face, he could not blame Harry for his reaction in the face of Pettigrew's appearance, truth be told Remus wasn't sure what he himself would have done in the same situation. Wormtail had been responsible for some of the very worst things that had happened during his and Harry's lives, maybe it was just right that Harry be allowed to reach out and grab some measure of revenge.

Remus sighed again and glanced at the others in the kitchen, Molly was sobbing uncontrollably in Arthur's arms, Bill stood leaning up against the doorframe staring out at the night, his entire body radiating fury, of all the brothers, Bill was especially close to Ginny. Luna was sat with Katie Bell, who had gotten over the shock and just looked very angry.

Remus noticed that every so often Luna would glance across at Harry and study him with such intensity it was frightening, this was something that most would not associate with Luna Lovegood. Ron and Neville were sat at the table watching Harry, not sure what to do to help him snap out of the shock.

But as it turned out they were all wrong, Harry wasn't in shock, he hadn't withdrawn into some safer place, his mind was focused with unusual crystal clarity on only one thing, he had made Ginny, the young woman he loved more than life itself, a promise, to never let anyone hurt her again, and he had failed. He had failed to keep the most important promise he had ever made in his life, and it was tearing him up inside.

Hermione always claimed he had a saviour complex, always having to save everyone, and perhaps she was right, but this time he had no idea what to do. How could he possibly do anything to save her and Helen when he didn't even know where Ginny was?

He might not know where Ginny was, but Wormtail certainly did. Harry had a sneaking feeling that the man would not feel like being particularly cooperative, especially since he was now in Ministry custody, and had the prospect of a lifetime stay in Azkaban looming large in front of him. What could Harry possibly offer him that would encourage him to break his silence, except perhaps his freedom?

It was a strangest of feelings, like someone throwing a bucket of ice-cold water in his face, an inner calm descended upon him, it really was that simple wasn't it, he needed the information, and it was the only way to get it!

Harry had not known much love in his short life, and he had never dreamed he would feel this way about anyone, or that they could possibly feel the same way for him, and he suddenly realised he would do anything, absolutely anything, go to any lengths, legal or otherwise to save and protect this relationship with Ginny Weasley.

But to do what needed to be done he would need to keep his closest friends in the dark about his plans, to do the lion's share of the work alone, for even if this went completely to plan it would be him with the prison term in Azkaban looming over him.

In theory it was a simple plan, but to put the idea into practise, well that was where he would need specialised help, he would need a really, really big diversion and he knew just the two people to see, they lived to create mayhem, it would be right up their alley, literally.

Turning his head ever so slightly he regarded Molly and Arthur for a moment, they both considered their daughter lost already, he could read that in their body language, and their fear and grief must be overwhelming, and he so desperately wanted to offer them something, a slight hope of getting Ginny returned to them, but it would be a false hope, and then there was five year old Helen, Harry knew that he had his work cut out for him tonight.

His decision made, Harry exploded upwards from the table, the movement catching Remus so completely by surprise that he fell off his chair. Harry was moving across the kitchen before most of the people in the room had drawn their attention away from Remus, sitting bemused on the floor. Harry's wand seemed to move from the pocket in his robes to his hand, without passing through any of the intervening space in between.

"Accio invisibility cloak!"

Harry's invisibility cloak leapt into his outstretched hand. He paused before Molly and Arthur and gave them a grim smile.

"I'll bring her back to you. I promise you now, I'll get her back!"

Molly and Arthur looked stunned, and then Molly swept Harry into a tight embrace, tears falling down her cheeks as she whispering quietly into his ear.

"Please Harry, don't go. She's gone Harry dear, my sweet Ginny has gone, don't throw your own life away, she would not have wanted that!"

Pulling away from Molly, Harry felt the anger and fear rising in him.

"Don't say that, don't ever say that! She's not dead, I refuse to believe she's dead, she cannot be dead, she just can't…!"

Harry's voice trailed off, and he stepped back as Molly tried to grab him again, shaking his head in denial, Harry took a last quick look around at his family and friends, burning the image in his mind. Then with a small pop, Harry disappeared.

"Will someone please tell me what the hell that was all about?"

Bill was the first to speak in the long silence that followed Harry's departure. For a long time no one said a word. Then in an incredibly lucid tone of voice, Luna spoke.

"Harry is about to do something stupidly, and suicidally, heroic. Ron, Neville, Bill and Katie, will you come with me please."

Luna led them outside, and once clear of the kitchen she turned to face her little audience, they had all noticed the dramatic change that had come over her. Luna appeared to have grown in height, and her dreamy expression had vanished, to be replaced by a confidence and determination that was overpowering. Neville didn't know what was causing the change, but he liked what it did for her, without that dreamy, faraway look on her face, Luna was very attractive.

"Harry intends tonight, to blast his way into the most heavily magically guarded building in the country, sneak into the secure custody facility and break Peter Pettigrew out of his cell in exchange for information on where Pettigrew sent Ginny and Helen."

Katie gasped in shock, Bill slapped a palm into his fore head and looked to the heavens. Ron silently mouthed 'Bloody Hell', and Neville found Luna studying him, with a smile on her face, he had the strangest feeling that she knew exactly what he was thinking, but that wasn't possible.

"_Oh, but Neville, anything's possible if you put your mind to it_!" The voice was Luna's, only he had been watching her, and Neville was fairly certain her lips hadn't so much as twitched. Luna cocked her head and just smiled ever so slightly.

OoOoO

**Gringotts Wizarding Bank, Diagon Alley Branch**

Gringotts wizarding bank kept normal bankers hours, normal that is for a wizarding bank. In the muggle world an institution that kept bankers hours opened late and shut early. In the wizarding world the opposite was true, the doors of the bank were only closed for three hours each day, and that was only so the accountants and vault managers could process all the transactions.

Diagon alley and Gringotts especially, even in the hours of darkness maintained a certain level of trade, due in some instances because the customers were 'highly' allergic to sunlight, others just wanted the level of privacy the hours of darkness provided.

The Goblin night custodian, in charge of Gringotts security during the night opening hours, a youthful Goblin called Rotgut, looked up from his accounts ledger, slightly annoyed at the interruption.

"Yes, may I be of assistance to you?"

There was a moment of silence, before the empty air replied to him with a puzzled voice.

"You can actually see me?"

The goblin smiled slightly.

"Goblin eyes are less easily fooled than those of humans, especially inside our own extensively warded premises, your primitive enchantments always provide us with a certain amount of amusement."

Slipping the captured invisibility cloak from his shoulders, Thomas Bell grinned at the small creature, he wondered how many of those in his recently rediscovered world that regarded themselves as pure blood wizards realised Goblin magic was actually superior to their own.

"Sorry to bother you at this time of night, I know it's very late, but I wondered how I would go about accessing my family vault?"

The Goblin raised an eyebrow at the courtesy this human had shown him, and he quickly appraised this bizarrely dressed man stood before him, it was most strange for a wizard to show any consideration when dealing with Goblins, human magic users commonly had this inbred racial superiority and even when they didn't mean it, they still managed to talk down to the other races.

The man was tall, with dark hair, cut unusually short for a human of his age. He was dressed in a sand coloured shirt and trousers with darker and lighter blotches spread around, seemingly at random.

"What vault number would that be?"

The man gave him an embarrassed smile and shrugged his shoulders, a human gesture that didn't really translate into the Goblin world.

"That's the problem, I don't actually know the vault number, and I've never visited it. My name is Thomas Daniel Bell, my parents were killed recently and I need to draw some money to provide for what's left of my family."

The Goblin regarded the man silently for a moment, the Goblin family dynamic was very different from that of humans, for Goblin the idea of tribe came before that of family, but the idea of loss was something both cultures understood.

Reaching under his desk, the Goblin pulled a small dagger from its sheathe and raised it, he was incredibly surprised to find himself looking down the barrel of some form of small hand crossbow that the human had pulled from his clothing without him seeing. While he didn't know what the object did exactly, he knew from the suddenly hard look in the man's eyes that he probably didn't want to know.

"I have to have a sample of your blood to prove you are who you say you are sir, there was no intended insult, please place your weapon away."

With an astonishing speed the weapon disappeared in to a black pouch tucked under the man's shoulder, and with an embarrassed grin the man took the dagger and made a quick slit on his finger, allowing it to bleed onto the blade before passing it back.

The Goblin closed his eyes and mouthed an incantation. Blood magic, while used by humans, was ancient indeed and had been invented by the Goblin race, they relied on it as muggles used fingerprints and signatures, the difference being that blood cannot be falsified and therefore was an infallible method of proving identity. Satisfied the man was who he claimed to be, the rightful heir to the Bell family vault, he looked back up.

"My sympathies for your loss Lord Bell, your family has entrusted your fortunes with this bank for generations, and we have always valued your family's custom. Unfortunately we cannot physically access the vaults until the morning, it's the dragons you see, however I can with withdraw a small amount from your vault by magical means?"

"Yes, If you could do that please, I would greatly appreciate it" The Goblin was once more surprised at the courtesy this human was showing him, it made a nice change from the rudeness and insulting behaviour of most wizards.

"Certainly my lord, if you would just produce your wand and touch it to this parchment, then speak clearly the amount you wish to withdraw"

"Its not lord, that was my father, I work for a living, just call me Thomas, I don't believe on standing on formality"

"Very well Thomas, my name is Rotgut"

Rotgut was amazed, he'd never been told to call a wizard by his first name before, this would be something to tell the day staff about. The human fished around in a large pocket on the outside of his trouser leg and pulled out a wand, or rather half a wand. He touched it to the parchment and spoke.

"Five hundred Galleons" with a small pop a large moneybag appeared on the counter top.

"That amount will be removed from your account within one working day, Thomas."

Thomas smiled and reached up and took the bag, and slipped the invisibility cloak back on.

"Thank you for all your help Rotgut, goodnight"

Diagon alley was nearly deserted by the time he exited the bank, but Thomas had not set foot here in over a decade and was in no hurry to leave, he stopped at many windows, marvelling at the products on display. At one particularly colourful shop window he stopped as a magical poster with swirling colours caught his eye.

'Don't be scared of you-know-who, buy U-NO-POO, the constipation sensation gripping the nation'. Thomas grinned, he appreciated those that could laugh in the face of adversity, black humour was one of a soldiers greatest weapons.

Taking a step back Thomas glanced up at the sign up above the window and froze. Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. No way, he just could not possibly be that lucky, well it had to be easier than storming the Ministry of magic single-handed as he had been quite prepared to do, and Weasley could not be a particularly common name. Dropping the invisibility cloak into his bag, Thomas pushed open the door and entered the store.

OoOoO

**Somewhere Else**

Ginny tried to get her legs under control, after all it was much more dignified to actually leave Voldemort's sight under her own power, rather than be dragged, but after two bouts of the torture curse, she was just surprised she hadn't been forced to leave her lunch behind on the stone floor.

The two Death Eaters holding her, both of whom she had recognised from their participation in the battle at the department of mysteries, Goyle and Nott, were in no mood to consider her dignity, taking hold of her under the armpits, they dragged her from the chamber, her knees cracking painfully off each stone step in the process, and she had to bite her lip to stop herself crying out.

Lifting her head, she tried to take in every detail of her surroundings, hoping that it might come in useful in any potential escape attempt, but her vision, already suspect because of her swollen eye, was swimming and she had real difficulty focusing on anything.

She was being dragged down a long corridor, there were wooden doors on both sides, and portraits of a series of blond men and women on both walls, and some of them cried encouragement to the Death Eaters, most just sneered down at her predicament.

One of the Death Eaters waved his wand, and ahead of them a door creaked opened, and Ginny was surprised to find herself in an opulently decorated bedroom, complete with four-poster bed. Either someone had made a really big mistake, or this was the best-decorated dungeon she'd ever heard of.

Without ceremony, Ginny found herself dropped to the floor at the foot of the bed, it took nearly every last bit of strength to claw herself upright, using one of the beds corner posts for support. The Death Eater, Jugson entered the room carrying Helen and laid the still unconscious girl on the bed.

He paused, over Helen's still form for a moment, and gently brushed a lock of her hair with his fingers, the action might not have seemed so out of place coming from Ginny's parents, the Weasley's automatically adopted all children within their line of sight, but coming from a Death Eater?

It was at this point that Ginny saw the predatory expression on the man's face, and knew with a sick certainty what thoughts were running through the minds of these three men, and why they had both been brought here instead of some cold, dark unfurnished dungeon.

Ginny was under no illusions when it came to her own magical ability, of all those she knew, Hermione was the most intelligent and had the most magical knowledge, power wise Ginny knew she was the strongest female in her year with perhaps Luna running a close second, and among her immediate circle of friends only Harry and Neville were stronger.

However Ginny had never felt as powerless as she did now, while she had learnt to cast some basic charms such as Lumos and Scourify non-verbally, she could not perform any wandless magic at all, very few had that ability, Dumbledore could, and she had just witnessed first hand Voldemort's power.

Harry also had that power, but as yet he had no control over its use, it only ever revealed itself when he was in emotional turmoil, like the incident with his Aunt Marge. Without her wand she couldn't even begin to defend herself, besides at that moment she barely had the strength to stand up.

"Get away from her you sick bastard!"

Her outrage at their situation gave her voice a strength she did not particularly feel, and for a short moment she felt very proud of herself, for a very short moment. Then a strong hand grabbed the front of her robes, dragging her up onto her tiptoes, and Ginny found herself face to face with the father of Gregory Goyle.

"Shut your mouth bitch! Save your energy, it's your turn next!"

With his free hand, he backhanded her across the cheek, the blow spun her around like an unstable top, Ginny reached out in an attempt to grab the bed post, in order to try and stay vertical, she failed, and landed in an ungainly heap beside the bed.

Reaching up to her cheek, Ginny found herself wishing they'd just keep hitting the same cheek, the one that was already bruised, at least then one side of her face could be left unscathed.

Now she was really angry, her temper was one aspect of her personality she wished she could change, it was the fiery temperament of the red head, but right now she was going to use it to its greatest potential, Ginny could feel it boiling up inside her, she would not let anyone harm the child Helen while she still had any strength left in her.

Crawling down the side of the bed, she reached out for the bedside table and pulled the bottom draw out of the unit, then placing her back to the wall to steady herself, she stood. Jugson and Nott were busy undressing the five year old and Goyle was too busy watching them, none of them paid her the slightest attention.

Swinging around with the drawer held two handed in front of her, she lashed out with all her fury, the drawer caught Nott square on the side of the head and shattered into more than a dozen pieces, his eyes rolled up under his lids and he sank silently to the floor. Left with just the ragged drawer front in her hands, Ginny hurled it at Jugson, who ducked it easily.

Before she could even think of finding another weapon, Ginny found herself grabbed by her hair and dragged savagely onto the bed, there was a blow to her chest that felt like a blow from a hammer that left her gasping for breath.

"You want to go first so badly, well that's fine by us!"

A harsh voice whispered close to her ear, she tried to roll onto her side, to escape anyhow she could, but strong hands held her down on the bed, gripping her wrists painfully. Ginny kicked out, but gruff laughter greeted her efforts.

"This one has real spirit, I much prefer it when they struggle at the start, but by the end they all just lie there"

Another sharp blow to her chest, caused intense stabbing pains down her side, severe enough to bring tears to her eyes. A rough hand clamped down onto her knee hard enough to leave a bruise, and pushed upwards, over her thigh, riding her skirt up towards her waist.

There was nothing she could do, Ginny sobbed in desperation, as she struggled helplessly. A hand grabbed hold of a breast and squeezed it so hard it forced a scream past her lips, her abusers just laughed, they were enjoying the power they held over her.

Shifting positions, one of her wrists was momentarily left free, and taking perhaps her last opportunity she struck upwards, driving her nails deep into the skin of the face hovering over her, the Death Eater, which one she was unsure, cried out as she clawed the face as hard as she could, but retaliation was quick in coming.

A punch fell, then another, striking her face, stunning her and splitting her lip wide open, then with a ripping sound her blouse was torn open, and she felt a hand managing to slip its way inside her underwear.

A knee caught her another severe blow to her side, and from the sudden pain she experienced, Ginny knew that real damage had been caused, perhaps her ribs, but she was no healer, all she knew is that she was finding it harder and harder to draw breath, and her continued struggles were not getting her anywhere, just earning her more pain.

There was a saying, 'where there's life, there's hope', if she lived there was always a chance for escape later, she had to let go, just close her mind to what was happening to her body, she needed to go to a happier time and place.

Closing her good eye, Ginny lay back on the bed and let her body go slack and pictured Harry, he would be so angry when he got here, but he would come, he had promised to protect her, and Harry always kept his promises.

It was during one of his lowest periods of his life, between Dumbledore's death and his funeral, when Harry had explained to her why his word was so important to him, why it mattered so very much. It was the first time that Harry had exposed a chink in his armour to her, the first time he had let her in.

_Flashback_

He stood leaning with both hands clenched tightly on the towers parapet, staring out at…Merlin knows what. In the days following Dumbledore's death he had withdrawn from his friends and from her. He had taken to standing here for hours at a time, staring out at nothing, but after Luna had told her the first time, Ginny always knew where to find him, but even she couldn't lift him from his depression.

When she opened the door he didn't turn around completely, just looked back over his shoulder at her, his green eyes flashed angrily for a moment, before he faced his front once more. The set of his shoulders changed almost imperceptibly, Harry was raising his barriers against the world once again, and no one in the six years he had been at Hogwarts, not even Ron and Hermione, had gotten all the way inside.

Ginny moved up to stand beside him, close but not quite touching, clutching her jacket closed tight against the biting cold wind that screamed across the roofs of Hogwarts, not that Harry seemed to notice, he wore only a thin white cotton T-shirt. He didn't even so much as turn his head to look at her, the anger radiated off him in waves, but Ginny was unconcerned, his anger wasn't directed at her, it was directed at himself.

"He died right here Ginny, on this very spot, and he forced me to stand by helpless and watch!" Harry's voice was soft and filled with pain, hardly carrying over the sound of the wind. "He made me give him my word damn him, he of all people knew what that meant!"

"And what does Harry Potter's word mean exactly?" Ginny had asked, her voice as soft as his.

"You wouldn't understand, how could you?"

Ginny's temper suddenly flared as brightly as the sun, and she grabbed his arm and physically spun him around to face her, no easy task considering she was so much shorter than him.

"Well explain it to me then! I'm stood right here Harry! If you actually opened up to me occasionally, you might realise one of the perks of having a girlfriend is that there is someone who cares about you, who is willing to listen to your troubles, and help you deal with them!"

Harry looked down at his feet, he was such a private person, so unassuming, and he had so little experience at forming any relationships, that Ginny suddenly realised it wasn't that he was keeping her out on purpose, it was that it had probably never occurred to him to confide in her in the first place, he'd never had someone that cared as much as she did about his feelings before.

"Ginny, how could you understand, you grew up with so much…" Ginny snorted in disbelief, her family were so poor that nearly everything the children owned had belonged to at least one older sibling. Harry's eyes flashed angrily, and this time his anger was aimed directly at her, he jabbed her repeatedly in the chest with his finger punctuating each point he made.

"You grew up in a house filled with love! Your parents would throw themselves in front of a dragon to keep you from harm! You had six brothers that would kill to protect you! You might not have had much money, but at least you were surrounded by people that actually cared what happened to you!"

Harry turned away from her, his shoulders shaking slightly, with an effort he had regained control, continued more calmly.

"My childhood was very different from yours Ginny, some of it you know, some of it I hope you never do. Your family may not have had much money, but I bet you didn't lack for happy memories. The happiest day of my life was when Hagrid fetched me away from the Dursley's and told me about our world. Until I arrived here at school I had never had so much as a proper birthday or Christmas present, even my clothes were my cousin's cast offs."

Ginny moved around him, so she could face him again, in all the years she'd known him, she had never heard Harry open up and talk about his childhood like this. Reaching out she took hold of one of his hands, he gave her a small sad smile that threatened to break her heart.

"Until I came to Hogwarts, I had nothing in my life, I owned nothing. The only thing I had to give someone was my word, it became my most prized possession, and I never give it lightly. So when I give you my word, you have to understand, I'm not just going through the motions, my word is everything, because without it I stand for nothing!"

"I think I understand better, but you really need to let me in every once in a while, I'm not a mind reader, just talking about it will help" Harry nodded, reached out and pulled her to him, and for that moment nothing existed except the both of them.

"What would I do without you Ginny?"

_Flashback ends_

With a mighty crash the door flew open, almost coming off its hinges with the force, and a furious and decisive Draco stood silhouetted in the doorway, like some blond haired avenger from a muggle comic book.

Nott, Jugson and Goyle all seemed to be stood arguing at the foot of the bed, about who got to rape the now still red head first, as soon as the door blew inwards, they turned in surprise, drawing wands, but the blond haired youth was too quick. For despite all the petty, spiteful things he was capable of, he was also an outstanding duellist, in this one discipline he was also one of the few that could say that they had stood toe to toe with Harry Potter and forced a draw.

With a wand in each hand, Draco advanced into the room firing off spells both verbally and non-verbally from both his own and Ginny's rescued wand. The air was suddenly thick with criss-crossing spells, the doorframe behind him exploded as he ducked aside from Jugson's Reducto curse, the carpet at his feet burst into flames from Nott's wand, but he ignored this minor distraction. Goyle tried to stun him, but with a flick of his wand the spell was deflected off a shielding charm into the room's ceiling.

As far as Draco was concerned, it had been the most natural thing in the world to do, to go into combat with multiple opponents, with a wand in each hand. It had come as no small surprise to him that he was able to use Ginny's wand with almost the skill and precision as he used his own. In theory it should not have been possible, Draco possessed only a fraction of the power that should have been required to use another's wand efficiently. He vowed to test this phenomenon properly at some later date, when he wasn't involved in a three on one duel!

It should have all been over much quicker, with the element of surprise on his side, he could have finished it in seconds, but Draco was fairly limited to the spells types he could use, it had to be all pinpoint magic, nothing with any sort of area effect. After all he was trying to protect two people, not end up killing them with a wildly miscast spell.

Casting a shielding charm with Weasley's wand to block Goyle's slashing hex, Draco span to one side, away from a Killing curse fired at him by Jugson, Draco raised his own wand and fired a Reducto spell of his own in reply, Draco's aim was much better than the unfortunate Death Eater.

The spell struck the Death Eater solidly on the side of the neck, severing the major carotid artery, snapping the man's neck like a twig, killing him instantly and blowing him violently back onto the bed.

Blinded by the spray of blood from the already dead Jugson, Goyle stood, and panicking, tried to wipe the blood from his eyes, spotting the opportunity, Draco hit him with a stunner, dropping him out of sight behind the bed.

Nott, seeing he was now alone, made a grab for the young girl laid on the bed in an effort to use her as a physical shield, but Draco moved with the reactions of a seeker, the man was hit by both a body bind and a stunner at the same time and catapulted into the wall, before sliding down it out of sight.

Finally silence fell, and Draco let out a shaky breath, he had crossed a bridge now and well and truly burnt it behind him, there was no going back, he had made his decision, and while he was absolutely sure it was the right one, now he just had to find a way to survive it.

Talking about burning! Draco effortlessly extinguished the fire burning around his feet and quickly closed the door, placing a locking charm upon it, before turning and surveying the carnage in the room.

All three Death Eaters were down, Jugson however was down in a most permanent manner, Draco felt nothing for the man, he had been involved in carrying out a reprehensible act, and he needed to be stopped.

Nott and Goyle were both just stunned, without hesitation Draco stunned them both again multiple times, which while it had a small chance of causing some form of permanent damage, was a much better alternative than have them waking up anytime soon.

Moving to the top end of the bed, he checked the pulse of the little girl, she appeared fine, just heavily stunned, it seemed they had been interrupted before they had done more than undo a few buttons, they had not gotten to her before he had arrived.

Draco quickly redid the girls clothing, and almost as an after thought, gently reached down and brushed a lock of the girl's hair, he could not possibly have known, but it was an identical gesture to the one Jugson had carried out earlier, only the emotions and the intent were completely opposite.

The dead Death Eater, Jugson, had come to rest laying across the still form of Ginny Weasley, grabbing the back of the dead man's collar, Draco pulled the bloody and limp form of Jugson from the bed where he had fallen, dumping him unceremoniously to the floor at the foot of the bed.

Ginny lay there, her face a battered mess, unmoving on the bed, partially clothed and absolutely covered in blood, hers and Jugson's, her one good eye staring, unseeing up at the ceiling.

Draco felt his knees go suddenly weak, and he found himself sitting on the bed beside Ginny's body staring at her. She was dead, he hadn't acted quick enough to save her! Shouting in frustration, Draco put his head in his hands, and sat there for a moment in silence, despite all his good intentions it hadn't been enough.

It was no secret how close the Weasley clan were, apart from that bureaucratic idiot Percy, despite its size, Draco actually felt a little jealous at how much they all seemed to love each other, and wished his own family could be more like them sometimes, but without the red hair! Her parents needed to grieve, Draco had to find a way of getting her body back to them.

Well if he couldn't save her, the least he could do is give her back some dignity in death, reaching over, Draco carefully pulled her ruined blouse closed over her heavily bruised chest, then very gently he pulled her skirt back down to her knees and straightened her legs.

It was at this point that she groaned, Draco froze, his heart stopped mid beat, she wasn't dead! Jumping up on the bed he knelt along side her and gently shook her shoulders.

"Weasley! Weasley! Come on damn it! Ginny snap out of it!"

She moaned again, and damn if it wasn't the best sound Draco had ever heard. She blinked and her good eye slowly focused on his face, Draco saw the recognition dawn on her, then to his utter dismay he saw the horror and utter fear in her features. He was shaking his head in denial of the thoughts so plainly rushing across her face before she even had a chance to speak.

"Please don't, oh Merlin, please Draco, please don't!" Her voice was filled with torment and pain, and she started crying, deep raking sobs that tore at Draco's soul.

"No, Weasley, you don't understand, I'm not…I mean I haven't, I've come to get you out of here, not attack you!"

She did not appear to hear him, rolling onto her side, she drew her knees up to her chest and lay there sobbing uncontrollably. For a moment Draco was at a loss, this was completely out of his experience zone, he could never be accused of being Mr sensitive, and crying girls were an unknown phenomenon.

Moving carefully so as not to touch her, because he was fairly sure that after the ordeal she had just been through, the last thing she wanted was another man pawing at her, Draco covered the sobbing girl with a blanket from the bed, and cast a warming charm to try and make her comfortable. After about ten minutes the sobs faded and she lay there breathing steadily, Draco realised with relief she had fallen asleep.

As he sat on the bed watching her, Draco knew as escape attempts went this one was getting off to a terrible start.

His options were limited, the only place within the mansion where apparation was a possibility was Voldemort's own chamber, and he couldn't just wander down there with the two girls over his shoulders, it would involve a fight, one he couldn't possibly win.

He couldn't produce a portkey to the burrow, he'd never been there, and portkey use inside the mansion suffered from the same restrictions as apparation did anyway. The mansion had already been disconnected from the Floo network as a security precaution, so that option was out to, and despite his skill on a broom he'd never make it carrying both of them.

Eventually someone would come looking for the three missing Death Eaters, and it would be best if the three of them were somewhere else by then.

Whichever way Draco looked at it, he was pretty much screwed.

OoOoO

AN/ The duel between Draco and Harry in CoS is classed as a draw, as in a teacher stepped in to stop it before there was an outright winner. While Harry in this story will grow into his full power, he **IS NOT **godlike, and skill wise still has the same training as his peer group...but that could change.

AN/ Harry is still the hero of the piece, i have just always wanted Draco 'to turn out alright in the end', but i'm not going to make it easy on Ferret jnr, nah, lets have a little fun with him first.

AN/ Hope you have enjoyed the ride so far, stick around, its gonna get a lot wilder yet!

AN/ Good night, sleep tight, and don't let the Basilisk bite, although by that point you will have probably already have been petrified, so it's not likely to hurt all that much!


	6. 6 The Wizard and the Warrior

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

"The hero is no braver than an ordinary man, he is just brave for five minutes longer."

Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Chapter Six: The Wizard and the Warrior

**Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes 20:00 27 June**

George Weasley was sat upon the toilet with his trousers around his ankles, he had the latest edition of the Daily Prophet spread over his bare knees, and was reading with enjoyment, a particularly glowing review of their latest product line. You could not buy publicity as good as the article provided.

**POP!! Squeak!!**

Ignoring the sounds, George casually turned over the page, onto an article about Harry Potter and as he was the-boy-that-lived, why he had not yet stopped the rampaging Voldemort, well that was extraordinarily topical, George thought to himself.

"Harry?" George spoke without looking up from the Prophet.

"Er…Yes George" Harry, unlike most people, had never had any problem telling the twins apart.

"Why are you stood in my bath?"

There was an embarrassed cough, and another squeak, as the shower/bath screen was pulled back, revealing a bemused and slightly blushing Harry Potter, stood fully clothed in the bath.

"Well…I…I think I overshot my apparation coordinates, I meant to arrive in your lounge, and I…got a bit carried away, I needed to speak to you and Fred"

"Harry, you know I said you were always welcome here, right"

"Yes George"

"I didn't actually mean RIGHT here, ok"

"Er…right, well…I guess I'll wait outside then"

"If you wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate it"

Harry, rather sheepishly climbed out of the bath, stepping once more on the rubber duck that had been a flat warming present from Arthur Weasley, and avoiding eye contact with George he moved to the door and passed through it, closing it softly behind him. George, grinning shook his head, looked up and addressed the ceiling

"And they say I'm mad!"

Downstairs, Fred was cashing up the days takings, it had been another good day at the shop, at this rate his and George's much discussed expansion plans would soon come to fruition. He looked up when the shop door opened, causing a magical chime to sound, with a noise closely resembling a loud, gassy fart.

"I'm sorry, I've just cashed up, could you return tomorrow?"

The man who entered was wearing the strangest outfit Fred had ever seen, mainly a sandy yellow, with splotches everywhere. He carried a large black bag over his shoulder.

"I need to speak to Mr Weasley!" Fred eyed the black bag warily.

"If you're trying to sell us something you might as well save yourself some trouble, all our products are solely designed, created, tested and sold by us!"

"My name is Thomas Bell, I am looking for my sisters Katie and Helen, and I was told by a reliable source they are at your family home. And since I don't know where that is, I would like your help to go to them"

Fred stared at him, he had known Katie Bell for seven years, and not once in all that time had she ever mentioned to him about her having a brother, a sister yes, but not a brother, however the family resemblance was plain to see.

Thomas had Katie's strong cheekbones and intense brown eyes that seemed to bore right through you, and he had the same nose as Helen. And with the death of their parents, the two sisters would probably welcome seeing their brother.

"Well I guess you had best come upstairs to the flat then" After securing the shops front door, Fred led the way upstairs.

After a few moments George had finished his business on the toilet and left the bathroom to find his twin and a total stranger sat on the battered old couch watching an irate Harry pace back and forth in extreme agitation.

"Oh brother of mine, who is our guest?"

Speaking softly so as not to disturb the obviously already mentally disturbed Harry, George asked his brother, he thought the man looked familiar but couldn't place him.

"This is Thomas Bell, Katie and Helen's brother, he needs to see his sisters, after we finish here I will give him apparation coordinates so he can get to the burrow"

Thomas started to shake his head as they spoke.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot apparate, I have never learnt how, it's a long story which if you are very good I shall tell you later."

The twins shared a look, they had never heard of an adult that couldn't apparate before, gaining your apparation licence was almost like a rite of passage for wizards and witches comparable to gaining a muggle driving licence. Some like their mother preferred to use the Floo network instead, but she was still capable of apparition. There was something about this man that begged certain questions to be asked. Like where had he been all these years? And why had Katie never mentioned him?

"Right Harry, what is so important you had to come and interrupt my personal bathroom time?"

George turned his attention to Harry who was still pacing furiously up and down the lounge muttering to himself, and had not heard a word of the previous conversation.

"It's Ginny! It was Pettigrew! They have her, the Death Eaters! I need your help to get her back!"

The words came out so fast that they made no sense, the twins just looked at each other grinning, then as one they both stood up, each grabbed one of Harry's arms and forced him to sit down on the couch next to Thomas, who was regarding the black haired wizard with bemusement.

"Right Harry, calm down and…"

"…Just take it from the start!"

So he did, and, by the time he had reached the end of the tale the twins were looking very grim faced indeed, normally it was hard to get the born practical jokers to take anything seriously. Unless of course it involved their sister, Ginny was the first female born into the Weasley family in many generations, and they took looking out for her well being very seriously.

"And so I need to bust out Wormtail, because he's the only one who knows where Ginny and Helen Bell are!"

"Helen Bell? How…"

"…Does she fit into this?

"Because Wormtail somehow lured her outside the burrow, stunned her and turned her jacket into a one way portkey straight to Voldemort!"

"WHAT!"

Thomas exploded off the couch so fast, that both the twins were so shocked that they had drawn their wands as an instinctive reaction.

Harry's wand was already in his hand, which surprised him immensely because he didn't actually remember getting it out. For a moment he just looked at the slender wand in his hand, his brow furrowed, he simply must have pulled it out and just didn't remember doing it!

Looking back up, Harry regarded the tall man in front of him, as if seeing him for the first time. Harry had occasionally seen soldiers on television before, whenever the Dursleys weren't looking, in war movies and on the nightly news, after all if the Dursleys had been good for something, it was the fact they had a TV in every single room but his.

So he knew what the clothing signified, plus the man in front of him was already armed, because even if the twins had not recognised the muggle weapon, Harry had. The black pistol was tucked into a holster under the man's left armpit.

Thomas turned and found himself looking down the pointy ends of the three wands and slowly raised his hands up, palms facing outwards.

"Take it easy fellas, I'm one of the good guys, well actually that's a little bit misleading, lets just say I'm not one of the bad guys and leave it at that, you really don't need the wands!"

The three of them relaxed slightly and lowered their wands, although none of them were quite ready to put their wands away just yet, they had learnt the hard way not to be that trusting.

"So, let me get this straight, what you're telling me is that my youngest sister has been snatched, by the darkest wizard currently on the planet, and you three are the ones taking action to get her back, while the Ministry of Magic sits around on its collective arse and does nothing, as per usual! Well you can damn well count me in!"

Harry regarded the man for a moment, he seemed genuine enough, but it was surprisingly hard to get any sense of magic from him, although he was obviously born with the power, it was as if his power was hidden under a wet blanket, smothering it, and the vibration his wand caused was just as confusing. Unlike the twins' wands, which if he concentrated on them, he could sense their location with his eyes closed, with Thomas, he could detect the wand, but only in the most general of terms.

"What is it that you think you can do to help?" Fred asked, Thomas just smiled, and motioned with his hand to a large black bag sat unnoticed in the corner of the room.

"What can I do to help? When it comes to storming buildings, there is no one better trained to do it, I have five years experience doing it and I have a lot of tricks to help me do it. It's been my job for the Army, among other things"

Harry got the impression from Thomas's tone that he really didn't want to know too much about these 'other things'. Although Harry didn't know him, having someone along that actually knew what they were doing could only increase his chances of success.

"So what building do we have to bust this Wormtail fella out of?"

"The Ministry of magic building itself!" The very last thing Harry expected this man to do at that piece of news was to start laughing.

"Oh this is just too perfect! I've only been back a day, and I've already declared open war on the Ministry! I've already been attacked by three Aurors, and if that wasn't enough I'm about to storm the Ministry building!"

Harry didn't understand the joke, but knew there was more to this man than he had first thought if he could defeat three Ministry Aurors at the same time.

"So who's this Ginny bird the bad guys have got along with my sister?"

Harry felt himself tense up at the very mention of her name, he could not even contemplate what would happen if Ginny was hurt…or worse.

"My girlfriend, and their sister" Harry pointed at the twins.

"Excellent a four man strike team, just like old times!"

Harry shook his head, he had a plan in mind already, and he wanted to keep as many people outside the detention centre as possible. It was bad enough he'd end up either dead or in Azkaban, he didn't want to be sharing a cell with the Weasley twins, which he considered would be like spending an eternity in hell.

"No, just the two of us, these two will not be with us on the inside!"

"What! Now wait one damn minute…" The Twins Weasley temper flared.

"…Ginny is our sister, and we're going to…"

"…Do our bit to rescue her!"

"To pull this off I need the majority of the Ministry forces to be looking the wrong way while we are inside grabbing Wormtail, we need a really, really big diversion, can you honestly think of anyone better suited than you two for the job?"

The twins grinned evilly at each for a moment, it was true that when it came to causing mischief and chaos they were in a league of their own.

"I'm also going to need your fireworks"

"How many of them?" George looked suspiciously at Harry, who grinned viciously back at him.

"All of them!"

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

"He cannot possibly think he can snatch Wormtail and get out on his own!"

Bill's voice held a mixture of worry, incredulity, and a large dose of respect and awe, at the prospect of Harry taking on the entire Magical Law Enforcement department single-handed. There would be nearly fifty Aurors on duty, not to mention the staff manning the detention centre and any other Ministry night staff that felt brave enough to intervene, not even Voldemort himself would choose to take on those odds without considerable Death Eater back up.

"Harry knows he needs help, he went to see your brothers"

Luna voice was clear and business like, there was no sign of the dreaminess that they all normally associated with her.

"Bloody Hell! Why did he not just ask us for help! Does he think we're not up to it or something?"

Ron was angry, Harry was his best friend, and he should have known Ron so much better than this, Ginny was his little sister and he loved her dearly, so why did Harry think he had the monopoly on wanting to see her home, safe and sound?

"He wanted you and Bill here, to pick up the pieces, to care for Ginny and your family once the Ministry arrest him!" They all just looked at her blankly at this announcement. "Harry knows, even if he succeeds he will go to Azkaban, possibly for the rest of his life, he knows this and he gone anyway, that's how much he cares about your sister and Helen!"

Ron at least had the good grace to look a little embarrassed and ashamed at his outburst.

"The question we should be asking ourselves, how far are we willing to go to help and protect him? Harry is my friend, and I don't have enough friends to lose one without even putting up a fight, I know Harry would stand beside me if our positions were reversed without a second thought, as he would for any of you, so I will stand beside him regardless of where it leads, it really is the least we can do!"

Neville's quiet confident voice made everyone stop and think, Luna looked up at him and smiled, and for a reason as yet unknown to Neville he found himself blushing bright red.

"Look, don't get me wrong, it's my sister's life at stake here too! But Harry told no-one what he intended to do before he left, how do you know what he is going to do, Luna?" Katie asked quietly.

"Because she is the most powerful natural telepath and empath I have ever heard of!"

Everybody spun around to see Remus leaning nonchalantly up against the wall behind them, none of them had even heard his approach.

"You knew?" Luna sounded horrified that her secret was now public knowledge.

"Of course I knew, when I was your professor I had full access to all of your student files, plus I spoke to your father the summer before I started at Hogwarts. Luna, yours is a rare gift and can be both powerful and frightening, I wanted to see if I could make it any easier for you during your time at Hogwarts."

Remus came forward and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I needn't have worried, I quickly ascertained you had the strongest mental shields of anyone I have ever met, excluding perhaps Dumbledore. That and the fact you went to great lengths to screen what was happening around you!"

Luna looked extremely sad for a moment. Then she looked up at Remus with a little grin on her face.

"Living with just my father, I could never imagine what it would be like at Hogwarts. It was overwhelming at first, so many voices speaking in my head at once, so many different emotions it actually hurt, but I quickly learned to become detached, to not focus on the moment so much, it helped block the voices out. But people thought I was strange, I wasn't very popular, remember 'loony Luna'"

Ron looked extremely guilty at this comment, he had been one of those who had used this name for her.

"But Ginny allowed our friendship that had started in our childhood to gain strength, because… well actually I don't know why, we weren't even in the same house, but because of her friendship, I came into contact with Harry. He is now the only one I can always hear through the block, normally its just surface impressions, very strong emotions, like a few times when he was very depressed or really happy, but tonight I wanted to help, to know what he was thinking, so I allowed myself to open up, I heard every thought, every argument he was having with himself, and I heard his final decision."

For a long moment there was silence as this newly revealed information sank in.

"Right, so are we agreed, we help Harry, despite any potential consequences?" Bill looked around the group, and one by one they all nodded to him.

"I know exactly how we can help him"

Ron looked up, his eyes fierce.

"The way I see it Harry's plan has three parts, the first is getting into the Ministry and snatching Wormtail. The second is reaching _**HIS**_ location and rescuing Ginny and Helen, the third is whatever happens when he gets back here and the Ministry come after him, right?" Luna nodded at Ron's assessment of what faced Harry.

"So firstly we need to empty the Ministry of as many Aurors as possible, and secondly we need to tie up as many Death Eaters as we can at the same time, both of these help Harry get where he needs to go by hopefully cutting down the number he will face."

"Ok Ron, I'm listening, how do we do this?" Remus was listening intently, Ron always seemed more confident when he was discussing strategy; it was the wizards' chess player in him coming out.

"Well we're going to need some help, we will need the Order of the Phoenix, they will be our offence, and then we will need a little bit of a defence"

"Do you know anyone you can call, little brother?" Bill asked Ron, the younger Weasley smiled at his brother.

"Oh yeah, I know a few people we can speak to, but we shouldn't do any of this from our place, we don't want to implicate mum and dad in any of this"

"You can use my house, my father is staying at _the quibbler_ offices in London tonight, so we won't be interrupted" Luna's suggestion was a good one.

"I think that we are going to need more than just your house Luna, we are going to need you to contact your father, we are going to need his help as well, I think its time to exercise a little freedom of the press"

Ron and Bill grinned evilly at each other, someone was going to get an awfully big surprise tonight.

OoOoO

**Various Wizarding Residences Across Britain**

Seamus Finnegan was having the same argument with his best friend Dean Thomas that they had been having for the past six years, football or Quidditch. Dean, despite all the evidence Seamus could supply, was just unwilling to give up on West Ham. Neither was willing to back down in the slightest, and despite the passion involved, neither let the argument get heated.

Seamus had invited his friend over at the end of school because his mother was unlikely to let him return to Hogwarts at the start of the new school year, and he would miss his friend. Although he got on well with all the other boys in his Dorm room, he was as close to Dean as Ron was to Harry, and he didn't want to let that friendship go.

The boys were sat in the front room, in front of the roaring fire which in magical homes was nearly always lit and were just finishing the tea Seamus's mum had made them, when with a sputter and a cough, Ron Weasley's head appeared in the fireplace.

"Ron? What's up mate?" Seamus and Dean crowded closer.

"I have a huge favour to ask! We are activating the DA! Harry needs your help!"

**OoO**

Colin Creevey and his younger brother Dennis had just placed their brooms away after a bit of Quidditch practice, they both hoped to win a place on the Gryffindor house team as beaters in the coming year, when they heard their mother scream in terror.

Drawing wands, they moved with the coordination that only years of training, or a brotherly bond could create, they entered the lounge to find their mother sat on the sofa, both hands covering her face and shaking.

"Mum! What is it, what's wrong?"

Colin quickly scanned the room, nothing appeared to be wrong or out of place. With an unsteady hand, Mrs Creevey pointed to the fireplace. Both boys crowded forward for a better look. Sitting in the fireplace, was a perfect replica of a girl's head, Luna Lovegood in fact, neither boy had seen her since Dumbledore's funeral.

Dennis grinned widely and bounced over to the fire, followed by his brother, he imagined a girls head appearing in the fire was a bit much for his poor muggle mother to take.

"Mum, don't worry, mum I'd like you to meet Luna Lovegood, she is in my year at Hogwarts, Luna this is my mum" Luna's head smiled and nodded to the now slightly quieter adult, before turning her attention back to the boys.

"Colin, Dennis, we are re-assembling the DA, Harry needs you!" To these two it was like uttering the magic words, if there ever were an official Harry Potter fan club, they would have been right at the front of the subscriptions queue, having camped out there for a week to ensure they were the first.

**OoO**

'Mad-eye' Moody had just taken a swig from his hip flask, when Bill and Remus appeared amid a flash of green flame, standing in the fireplace in the front room of 12 Grimmauld place.

"Alastair, please stop pointing that wand at us, thank you!"

The old, retired Auror had lost none of his reaction speed, or paranoia, probably why the tough old boot was still alive.

"So what can I do for you gentlemen?"

"I don't know about you Mad-eye, but I think its time the order went on the offensive and stopped running scared, I need all available members, and I need you to generate a target list"

"All of them?" Bill could understand Moody's astonishment, no one, not even Dumbledore, had activated the entire order of the phoenix before for a single operation.

"Everyone apart from those currently employed by the Ministry, those people we need to keep in the dark, I don't want to have to make people like Tonks and my dad have to chose a side if I can help it"

"I think you'd better explain yourself, Mr Weasley!"

"Ok, I'll try, Harry's going to need all the help we can provide!"

"Continue"

**OoO**

Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet had just finished eating, the two women had only recently purchased a flat together, and were taking it in turns to do the chores, and tonight was Alicia's turn. While Alicia cleared the table Angelina was happily stroking her new tawny owl, Nemo.

She had never owned an owl before, when she was at Hogwarts she had used the family owl, Oscar, or one of the school owls, but her mother, worrying over the recent turn of events in the country had insisted on buying the handsome bird as a flat warming present.

The two women, former team mates on the Gryffindor house Quidditch team, had both tried out as chasers for the Holyhead Harpies, a professional league team based in Wales. To their utter delight, both had won spots on the reserve team and high hopes of soon making it into the starting seven.

There was the sound of someone clearing their throat, but there was no one else in the room. Angelina returned the owl to his perch and drew her wand.

"Hello?" She felt extremely silly talking to the empty air, but when a voice answered her it felt even stranger.

"Hello, Angelina, Alicia, anyone there?" Standing, Angelina moved to the fireplace and was astonished to see Katie Bell's head looking back at her. The three of them had been the incomparable chasers of Gryffindor house Quidditch and they had all become firm friends.

"Katie, I'm so sorry to hear about your parents, how are you doing?" Katie's head gave her a sad smile.

"I've been better, is Alicia here too? I have something important to ask of the both of you."

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic**

The dingy, badly lit side street was completely unremarkable to the muggle eye. On the corner was a pub, which looked as if its best days were seen during the blitz, and several dour office blocks looked down on the depressing scene, as if standing guard.

About halfway down the street was a battered old red phone box with several panes missing, standing in front of a heavily graffitied wall, obviously forgotten in the British Telecom replacement program, for all modern boxes were now grey plastic things with no character.

It was this phone box that Harry Potter now studied, from his vantage point behind a builders skip he could see the entire length of the street. There was no one and nothing of any importance in sight.

"Wait!" Thomas hissed and grabbed hold of Harry's arm as he was about to step from cover, he was looking through a device held to his face that made a strange humming sound. "Here, look for yourself!"

Harry took the offered device and held it up to his face, he was astonished to see his view of the world change from colour to whites, greens and blacks.

"What is it?" Thomas gave a low chuckle, at the amazement in the young wizard's voice, these wizards and their damn superiority complex.

"It's a thermal imager, Harry, its how muggles see things that our normal sight cannot pickup, anything hot will display as white, the brighter the image, the hotter the object. Look over at the phone box"

Harry looked, he could see three blobs of white/grey, and the shapes were indistinct and unrecognisable, which he told Thomas. Reaching forward, to the front of the device, Thomas told him to keep looking.

Suddenly the picture sharpened, and Harry gasped as the three blobs became perfectly recognisable as people, he could make out clothing and to some extent, facial features. Removing the imager from his face, Harry looked again with his naked eye at the scene, as before he could see nothing.

"What you're looking at there, is three Aurors under disillusionment charms, they have placed extra security out, and I think this is going to be a whole lot of fun!"

Harry was not sure he liked to be working so closely with someone whose idea of fun echoed so precisely that of the Weasley twins, it did not bode well for the evening's activities.

"Right, you two know what you have to do?"

Harry turned to ask the two Red heads crouched behind him, they had blacked their faces with something Thomas had given them, he called it 'cam cream', and they wore black hats over their shocking red hair. They also wore full-length black robes, not unlike those Death Eaters wore, and that Harry hoped, was the whole point.

"Yes Harry!"

The twins chorused rolling their eyes at him, they had gone over it so many times they had committed it to memory, from their grins they shared Thomas's opinion of Harry's plan, it was risky, it was daring, it was fun!

"Off you go then, good luck, and keep your heads down!"

The twins moved past him, George paused for a moment and grasped Harry's shoulder, they just looked at each other, no more words were needed. George had always been the more sensitive of the twins, and Harry's favourite. The twins knew that for Harry, attacking the Ministry might prove to be the easiest part of the plan.

Harry nodded in gratitude for the unspoken support and with a smile of understanding George slipped away into the growing darkness, Harry, still smiling. glanced around at his new friend.

"Ready?" Thomas grinned back, and nodded. "Here we go then"

Harry rose from his position, behind the skip and began to walk towards the phone box, he felt rather than saw Thomas fall in step behind him, and although neither of them wore an invisibility cloak, the only way to know Thomas was there behind him was to turn around and look, Harry felt clumsy and heavy footed beside the professional soldier, the man moved with a cat like grace, reminding him constantly of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

The phone box got ever closer, and Harry hoped he didn't look as nervous as he felt. It had been his idea not to even attempt a stealthy entrance, but to just walk in through the front door.

He wore a set of brightly coloured robes borrowed from Fred, he could not have been any more obvious to the invisible sentries, and that too was part of the plan. Behind him, playing the part of official Ministry assigned bodyguard, Thomas wore the set of captured Auror robes he had taken. If anyone was actually paying attention, both of them had the appearance of hunchbacks, both carried items under their robes.

They got to within ten feet of the phone box before being challenged.

"Identify yourselves and your business with the Ministry?" The speaker sounded very young and quite nervous. Harry playacted being surprised by the invisible speaker, looking around fearfully.

"My name is Harry Potter, I am here to see the Minister!"

There was a moment of silence, and then three figures appeared from thin air, all crowding forward excitedly, all wanting a chance to speak to the boy-who-lived.

This part had been George's idea, and he had known Harry had hated it, but to the twins that had been just part of the plans appeal. Harry had at first wanted no part of it, but could think of no other way of capturing and holding the Aurors interest. Harry had just gritted his teeth and agreed to it, he had spent his entire life trying to live down his fame.

"Harry Potter, bless my soul",

"It really is you!"

"My kid's will never believe me!"

Three stupefy's rang out in quick succession, and the Aurors dropped to the floor in silence, Harry tucked his wand away, and watched as the twins reappeared from under his and Thomas' invisibility cloaks, grinning broadly.

"More underage magic…!"

"You'll be expelled if you…"

"Keep this up Harry!"

Taking the cloaks back, and tucking them into a small pack, Harry grinned back at them.

"Bit late for that guys, I've been apparating without a licence since we left Hogwarts, besides after tonight, I think underage magic use will be the least of my crimes, we'll see you inside" The twins nodded and with that turned away to hide the three stunned Aurors in the skip.

Harry and Thomas entered the phone box, which somehow seemed to be an even tighter crush than he remembered it. Picking up the receiver, Harry carefully dialled the number from memory, he had not been here since the department of mysteries battle…not since Sirius…Harry clamped down on those thoughts, for he had far too much at stake to break down tonight.

62442, the number spelt out the word magic, Harry waited for a moment, then heard the welcome witches cool voice sounding as if she was stood in the phone box with them.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business" Harry spoke to the empty air.

"Harry Potter and Auror bodyguard, to see Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour!"

"Thank you, visitor please take the badge and attach it to the front of your robes."

There was a slight delay, followed by a click and a rattle, and then a silver badge popped out into the chute of the coin return slot. Picking it up, Harry didn't even glance at it, just fixed it to his borrowed robes.

"Visitor to the Ministry of Magic, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium"

Harry didn't need directions, he would never forget his terrifying experiences in the Atrium that night when Dumbledore had duelled with Voldemort, the night Sirius had died.

There was a slight rumble, and the telephone box started to slide below the street level. The pavement rose up past the glass windows until Darkness closed over their heads.

"Lumos!" Harry's wand tip flared brilliantly white.

Behind him there was the sound of teeth grinding together, turning Harry was surprised to see Thomas with a face like thunder.

"Scrimgeour is Minister for magic?" There was such open hostility in the tone of voice Harry actually took a step back.

"Yes, for over a year, since Fudge was replaced. Why, do you know him?" Thomas nodded once.

"Oh yes Rufus is an old friend, he and I go back a long way, fifteen years in fact, except he was a junior Auror back then, oh I would really like to stop by his office and spend a few minutes in his company tonight, oh don't worry Harry I know the girls are the priority, but one day soon he and I are going…to have words"

Harry felt a chill flow through him, it was like someone had flicked a switch, suddenly there was real menace in the man's tone, and Harry was forced to wonder what had occurred in Thomas's past to stir up such a powerful hatred of the man.

"How do you know he would want to see you?"

Thomas asked, trying, successfully to change the subject.

"Well he has wanted me as a propaganda mouth piece for the entire year, to tell the public I agree with the crackdowns and new laws he has brought in, to tell them the Ministry has everything under control, I was hoping he'd think that I had finally come around to his way of thinking"

"I take it that means you haven't" Thomas asked softly, he needed to know as much information as he could get his hands on, so he could properly identify both enemies and friends.

"No, I don't agree with him on any subject, that will never change!"

Below them, a golden light began to grow around their feet as the lift dropped into the Ministry of Magic Atrium, it was just as bright as Harry had remembered it.

"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant day," said the woman's voice, Harry just looked at Thomas and raised an eyebrow, and the soldier grinned and shook his head.

Stepping out of the phone box left them standing at one end of a long hall, the floor was highly polished dark wood, and many gilded fireplaces lined both walls, at the far end of the hall a set of golden gates were guarded by a manned desk.

Halfway down the hall was the fountain that had featured so prominently in the duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore, Harry felt strangely upset to see it had been repaired since that battle, almost as if every sign of Dumbledore was being slowly erased.

"Let's go" Harry led the way down the hall towards the fountain, pausing at a small smudged sign that read:

_**ALL PROCEEDS FROM THE FOUNTAIN OF MAGICAL BRETHREN WILL BE GIVEN TO ST MUNGO'S HOSPITAL FOR MAGICAL MALADIES AND INJURIES.**_

Harry dug into his pocket and pulled out a 10 Galleon coin, he looked at the coin a moment, before flicking it into the turbulent water, it had worked the last time, when he faced expulsion from Hogwarts for the use of underage magic, protecting Dudley from Dementors, and now he needed as much luck as he could gather.

There was the security desk, in exactly the position he remembered it, with the watch wizard in his peacock blue robes, he looked up as they approached, his gaze sliding off the tall man dressed as an Auror, and who certainly moved like an Auror, in favour of the brightly dressed youth.

"I'm escorting Mr Potter to see the Minister, he is expected" Thomas sounded gruff and businesslike, at the mention of the name Potter, the watch wizards gaze flicked up to Harry's forehead with its attendant scar.

"Step this way, Mr Potter" The watch wizard picked up a long golden rod, thin and flexible and passed it over Harry's body. Although they had taken precautions to avoid detection, Harry still held his breath, but no alarm sounded.

"May I see your wand please Mr Potter?" This watch wizard was much more polite than the one he had dealt with previously, it was a shame really considering what was probably going to happen in the next few minutes.

Harry placed his wand into the security guards outstretched hand, the guard turned back to the desk, and dropped the wand onto the strange brass instrument resembling scales. As before, it began to vibrate, and a narrow strip of parchment slid out from a slot in the instruments base.

"Eleven inches, phoenix tail feather core, been in use for six years, is all that information correct?" Harry just nodded and smiled, gratefully receiving his wand back. The guard smiled in return and waved them on their way.

Stepping past the security desk, and under the golden gates, they entered a smaller hall, containing the lifts. Moving out of sight of the desk, Harry quickly pulled the borrowed robes over his head, tossing them to the floor he watched Thomas do the same. Then grinning at each other they swapped loads.

Harry, as the most likely to be scanned, had carried all the muggle items Thomas had decided to bring, Thomas himself had carried as many of the twin's fireworks as he could carry, along with a few other 'special' items from the twins inventory.

Harry regarded the soldier for a moment, the man had swapped his desert coloured uniform for another, this time made of a thicker material, all in black, these came with a hood. Harry handed Thomas the special waistcoat, also in black, which clipped together down the centre of the chest, it had multiple pockets and pouches. Thomas had called it an 'assault vest'.

The man then collected two weapons, one, which appeared to have a torch attached under the barrel he slung across his back, the other he took a firm grip on and pulled a slide back under the barrel before pushing it forwards again

Harry wore a similar suit he had conjured to match what Thomas was wearing. On his back were two deep bags containing the fireworks, it was heavy load, but Harry knew before long it would get considerably lighter. Readying the invisibility cloaks, the two raiders turned to each other.

"Now we wait!"

"Now we wait!"

"And hope these twins of yours don't foul it up!"

"They won't, not when it involves Ginny!"

OoOoO

**Here, There, Everywhere**

The attacks began with a coordination that the Death Eaters could only dream of, up and down the country, far and wide, every business and property owned by a known or a suspected Death Eater was struck. Unoccupied buildings were razed to the ground, those occupied were cleared and any found bearing the Dark Mark were stunned and left bound for the capture squads of Aurors that soon began to arrive to investigate the attacks.

Death Eaters, alerted by the first few attacks, also began arriving in greater numbers in order to protect their property, sometimes they arrived just in time to engage the Aurors. Before long there were magical fire fights erupting in more than a dozen towns.

But neither side had guessed of the existence of a third group working in the shadows, a group that occasionally stepped in to aid the hard pressed Aurors, was manipulating both of them.

The night was not with out casualties, on both sides, and on one occasion deaths occurred when Aurors engaged a group thought to be Death Eaters, but were not.

For so long the Wizarding community had been living in fear of one man, even during the years of his absence, his name generated fear in the population. When morning came, the news was hard to keep under wraps, despite the news blackout imposed by a Ministry made to look inefficient and foolish, a group of concerned citizens had stood up for what was right, and had struck a blow for freedom.

The Order of the Phoenix had finally joined what had until that point been a very one-sided war.

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic**

**POP!**

With a completely over the top sound, the Weasley twins arrived by apparation in the middle of the Atrium, and immediately began hurling spells at the watch wizard behind his desk, or so it must have appeared to him, as he dived into the cover provided by his overturned desk. In fact none of the spells came close to hitting him, but they did make an awful mess of the Atrium.

The watch wizard, more of a pen pusher than a combat Auror, was terrified, he had seen just a glimpse of the black shapes appearing at the far end of the Atrium, and his fear fed on itself. Reaching out he quickly pressed a special button on the top of his desk.

"Death Eaters in the Atrium, I repeat Death Eaters in the Atrium! Help!"

Summoning what courage he had, the watch wizard pulled out his wand and prepared to return fire on the Death Eaters at the far end of the hall. He never heard the sound of a footstep behind him, never saw Harry level his wand at his back

"Stupefy!"

Waving merrily at the twins, Harry dropped the bags of fireworks either side of the golden gates out of sight of the lift foyer, and dashing back to the waiting Thomas, he hoped the twins would be able to hit such small targets.

Harry quickly deployed several of the Weasley 'specials' directly in front of the bank of lifts as extra little surprises.

Slipping under his invisibility cloak, Harry saw first one, then two, then at least ten lifts begin descending from levels one and two, the Magical Law Enforcement Department was on those levels, so each car would be jammed with Aurors. Harry grinned to himself this plan might actually work!

The Detention level alarms began to whoop in a rather persistent and annoying fashion, Tonks looked up in utter disgust at the interruption, from the desk where she had been attempting to fill out the required paperwork to transfer Peter Pettigrew to Azkaban prison. The alarm had completely ruined her concentration.

"Tonks! Come on girl, Death Eaters in the building, time to put your game face on!" Savage came tearing past her, his wand already out, rising, Tonks quickly drew her own and followed him out of the office.

In the corridor, the duty Auror shift commander Marcus Washburn was looking strained, he had already dispatched the majority of his available manpower to investigate a spate of magical attacks all over the country, and his resources were spread very thin.

All his remaining personnel were on their way to the Atrium to deal with the Death Eaters reported there, all he had left to deploy were the four Aurors that had brought in Pettigrew.  
"Right you four, I want you to get our guest out of here. His mates are coming to spring him, or kill him, and he's just too valuable to lose, the intelligence he holds could be extremely valuable, take two of the detention level guards and get out of here! GO!" Marcus then drew his wand and moved to an empty lift, to join the battle downstairs.

The four Aurors ran to the cells, bringing two of the guards with them, these wizards were not trained to the same standard as Aurors, their spells being less combat orientated, but anything would do at a pinch. Flinging the cell door open, Tonks stepped inside and met the sly smile and empty, evil eyes of the small man sat inside. His face was still puffy and miscoloured from the beating he had received from Harry.

"Well Wormtail it looks like we're going to be taking another little trip together, stand up, turn around and place your hands behind your back."

The lifts emptied quickly, Aurors, wands out and spells already on their lips burst into the Atrium. To their astonishment the first group of Aurors found themselves suddenly on the ceiling as the gravity in front of the lifts was reversed.

Before any of their comrades could think of aiding them the gravity reverted to normal dropping the unfortunate Aurors straight into one of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes new and improved portable swamps. It was at this moment, while the Aurors were distracted that the twins began throwing concussion jinxes into the mix, while loud and annoying, totally harmless.

But other than the still figure of the watch wizard there was no sign of life, no indication of where the incoming spell fire originated. The Atrium and taken significant damage, but the fountain for once had not been harmed.

With no threat in sight the Ministry Aurors Relaxed slightly, the spells could have been time delayed, or triggered by their arrival, the Aurors milled around the golden gates, until one of them noticed a bag leant against the wall, he just about to investigate the bag when the twins popped up from behind the fountain and began firing repeated vanishing spells non-verbally into the bags.

The vanishing spells when it contacted one of Weasley's Wizarding Whiz-bangs had a curious effect, the spell multiplied their number by ten for a short time, but the fireworks had not been ignited, so instead of flying through the air, they just sat there and rapidly grew in number.

When each pile had reached a substantial height, Fred and George looked at each other and smiled, then each aimed a stunning hex at a pile, which also had an unexpected effect on the fireworks, firing their hexes, they sprinted towards two of the fireplaces along the walls of the Atrium, hurling Floo powder already held in their hands into the fires they bellowed.

"The Burrow!"

The world behind them turned bright red, followed by orange, and the sound of an oncoming express train filled their ears.

Already in the lift heading upstairs, Harry had to steady himself against the side of the lift, as the explosion rocked the lift car, there was the sound of metal under immense pressure and a rushing sound.

"See, I told you, when it comes to creating mayhem and devastation, I know all the right people!"

Harry was finally starting to loosen up a little and enjoy himself. Watching all those Aurors run right past him and Thomas, sometimes passing within inches of them under their invisibility cloaks, had been a thrill, almost like chasing down a snitch in a hard fought game of Quidditch. Then to see the Aurors fly up to the ceiling and land in the swamp.

Thomas grinned at him.

"Yeah, but lets not get carried away Harry, now comes the hard part. There was a charm I was taught at Hogwarts, it was a long time ago, but I think it was called the bubblehead charm, are you familiar with it Harry?"

Harry nodded, he had ensured he had mastered that particular charm after Fleur and Cedric had used it so effectively during the second task of the Tri-wizard tournament.

"Good, when the lift doors open on level two, I want you to be already wearing that charm, and have your fingers in your ears and your eyes closed." Thomas was busy pulling dark cylinders from the pouches of his assault vest and laying them at his feet.

"These are called flash-bangs Harry, they are completely harmless in the long term, but they will blind and deafen anyone for a short period of time and are especially effective inside buildings and confined spaces, and I am adding some CS gas to the mix, it makes you cough, your nose run and really stings your eyes. After they go off, we go in, your job is to stun anyone who still appears a threat, and mine will be to drag Wormtail back to the lift, ok?"

Harry nodded, it made sense, and hopefully there would not be many Aurors left up here by now.

Thomas pulled on a pair of thin black gloves, interlocking his fingers together to ensure they were a tight fit, he then took out a black mask from a pouch on his hip and pulled it on over his head, then pulled his hood up over the mask, the end result being not one piece of skin was uncovered. Lastly, a jet black helmet was strapped on over the hood, giving the soldier a sinister silhouette.

Turning to face Harry, Thomas grinned, Harry knew he was smiling, because Thomas always smiled with his eyes as well as his mouth. The mask had two bulbous eyepieces, and below them a circular apparatus that hid nearly all of his face, it gave him a strange bug like appearance.

"So what do you think?" His voice came out slightly muffled and distorted from behind the mask. He did a little twirl, making his weapons spin out from his body slightly.

"Very pretty, the girls must be all over you in that get up!"

"Actually Harry to tell you the truth, most of the people who have ever seen me dressed like this died very shortly afterwards, but I thank you for the compliment, and don't worry, not planning on killing any more people today"

Harry was stunned into silence. Thomas had already killed today? He had known the man was a soldier, but there were many kinds of soldier, military police, engineers, radio operator and drivers, very few had the actual job of killing others. He knew eventually he would be forced to kill someone directly, after all he could not defeat Voldemort by tickling him to death! But so far he hadn't had to, he could not imagine what that was like.

"How many…have you killed?" Thomas looked thoughtful for a moment, as if privately counting to himself.

"Thirty seven at last count. Harry you have to understand that every single time I wished there was another way, but Harry as you already know, there are some very bad people in the world who want nothing more than to hurt others. Sometimes we all have to do bad things for the right reasons, it's a hard thing to do, to take a life, but sometimes there is no other way. Enough chat, we're nearly there, time to charm up mate!"

They moved fast, wands at the ready. The Four Aurors fanned out and moved as a team, for the three of them, Savage, Proudfoot and Dawlish, it had always been this way, and they had been together from the start. Tonks was a late edition to the Auror capture team, replacing an Auror who had retired, and despite her contagious youthful exuberance and occasional bouts of clumsiness, she proving to be a very effective member of the team.

Savage in the lead, Proudfoot to the left, Dawlish to the right, and Tonks bringing up the rear, the two guards dragging an uncooperative Wormtail were in the middle of the Auror's protection. They were just crossing the main Auror office area, which contained rows of empty cubicles, heading for the lift, when it began to rise from the atrium level.

Savage whistled to get everyone's attention, pointing to the rising lift, without a word the four Aurors went to ground, seeking any cover they could find, wands trained on the lift doors. For a moment the guards just stood there, holding onto Wormtail, looking around themselves blankly, until Dawlish moved over to one of them.

"Get down you bloody idiot!" Dawlish hissed into the man's ear before resuming his place covering the lift. The two guards dragged Wormtail into a cubicle and sat upon him in order to keep him still and protected.

The lift doors parted, but no one stepped out into the office.

Suddenly four metal cylinders came spinning into the room in quick succession, thrown by someone in the lift, the four Aurors fired stunning hexes but succeeded in only hitting the back wall of the lift. There was an almost musical tinkle as the projectiles impacted on various surfaces, and then silence.

**BADOOM! **

Tonks fell to the floor, hands clamped tightly over her ears, as the explosion tore at her eardrums, she was screaming, she was fairly sure of that, but she could not hear or see anything. Her eyes were useless, it was if she had looked too long at the sun, all she saw was the after image of the brightest light she had ever experienced. Trying to stand up, she found her balance was completely thrown off, almost as if she had consumed too much alcohol, all she could do was scramble about on her hands and knees.

Blinking rapidly, Tonks found her vision clearing slightly, ahead of her, through the now smoke filled room, she could see the two detention guards rolling about on the floor, hands pressed to their ears, wands completely forgotten about. In front of them she saw Savage bent over double, coughing and spluttering, trying to wipe something repeatedly from his eyes.

Then two figures dressed in black emerged from the smoke like dark avenging spectres, the first moved in a sort of crouch, a black muggle weapon of some kind held out in front of him, swinging backwards and forwards. Behind him came another, this one carrying a wand, there was something familiar about this second shape, although Tonks was so disorientated she was in no position to recognise this fact.

Harry pointed his wand at the helpless Ryan Savage, the Auror was coughing hard, trying desperately to clear his lungs of the gas, to little effect. But he could recover within a few moments and Harry wasn't willing to take that chance.

"Stupefy!"

Savage slipped to the floor unconscious, Harry stayed close to Thomas, but knowing enough about muggle firearms to never move into his direct line of sight. Harry quickly stunned Dawlish as he attempted to stand up and bring his wand to bear, and Proudfoot appeared to already be unconscious, a flashbang having gone off virtually at his feet.

Moving through the now smoke filled room, they came across the detention guards, both of who were rolling about on the floor holding their ears. Thomas stooped and dragged the bound and semi conscious Wormtail from the floor, while Harry dealt with the guards.

"Alright, we got him now lets get the hell out of here!"

Harry nodded, his bubblehead charm making Thomas's voice even more distorted. He had not seen Tonks, and that concerned him greatly, because he knew she and the three Aurors always worked together as a team, and she was a great Auror and could cause him problems, he hoped wherever she was she had not been injured. Thomas dragged Wormtail towards the lift and Harry turned to follow.

"Reducto!"

Harry found himself slammed hard from behind, propelling him forcefully into the side of a cubicle, he bounced off of someone's untidy desk, only making it more untidy, and landed on his knees. The back of his left shoulder felt like someone and just stabbed a burning poker into it, a wave of pain washed over him, and he blinked away sudden tears.

Looking up he found himself staring into the pale, heart shaped face of the prettiest Auror he'd ever met, that of Nymphadora Tonks. She looked a state, her nose was running uncontrollably and her eyes were red and puffy, she looked as if she had been crying, and blood was running freely from a small gash on her forehead. But despite her injuries, her wand was held on him unwaveringly.

Cancelling the bubblehead charm with a small wave of his hand, Harry tilted his head and smiled sadly up at her.

"Wotcha Tonks!"

Tonks stared at him in disbelief, and for a moment her wand tip lowered to the floor, then an expression of grim determination came across her features and the wand came back up to point at his heart.

"Oh Harry you stupid git, you bloody fool, how could you do this? You have gone too far this time, not even you can be above the law, you'll be sent to Azkaban! Why Harry Why?"

"Ginny, I can't let her go Tonks, I made her a promise!"

"She's already dead Harry! Molly and Arthur are grieving for their daughter tonight, they needed you there for them. Do you really think Ginny would want you throwing your future away like this?"

Anger flowed through him, washing the pain clean away.

"Don't say that, don't ever say that, Ginny is not dead!"

Harry found himself screaming at Tonks, he could not face that possibility, not now, not ever.

Tonks opened her mouth to say something else when a movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, snapping her head back up and around, what she saw sent fear coursing through her, she saw the second man dressed in black step out of the smoke, weapon aimed directly at her chest.

"Oh shit!"

She began to turn, tucking her shoulder in and starting a movement that would develop into a sideways roll, bringing her wand around as part of the movement, although she knew she would never change her aim in time. Time seemed to slow to a snails pace crawl and Tonks thought she actually saw the man's finger tighten on the trigger, and then everything went black.

BOOM!

Harry watched in horror as some invisible force snatched Tonks backwards from her feet, sending her crashing backwards back down the isle. She came to rest on her back, arms and legs spread-eagled, and she lay very still.

"No!"

He scrambled over to her, ignoring the pain that ripped through his shoulder, remembering from muggle television programmes the terrible wounds firearms could inflict, knowing the bloody red ruin her chest would look like. She couldn't be dead, she just couldn't be.

Tonks had befriended him from the moment they had met at Privet Drive, she'd fussed over him and become almost like the cool funky aunt every teenager wished for, and that had been before she and Remus had become romantically involved. She was family, he could not bear to lose any more family!

Remus, god how would he explain any of this to Remus, the man would never speak to him again after this.

"Harry we have to go, come on, leave her"

Harry felt Thomas place his hand on his shoulder, he felt an anger building inside her, Thomas had killed her, a member of his family. Slowly rising to his feet wand gripped so tightly in his hand that his knuckles turned white, he spun and was surprised to see Thomas, mask pushed up on his head, was in fact grinning at him.

"She's not dead Harry, what kind of psycho do you think I am? I don't just wander around killing everyone I meet! I fired a non-lethal round, it's basically a bean bag, about the size and shape of a teabag, it's designed to incapacitate, not kill, and in an hour she'll be bruised and aching but otherwise just fine!"

Harry just stood there looking at him, mouth hanging open, not dead!

He turned at looked down at Tonks on the floor at his feet, it was true there was no sign of the wound he had been expecting, his knees went weak with relief as he saw her chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm.

"Come on we have to go!"

Thomas dragged Harry to the lift where Wormtail looked at him with a bemused expression on his face, Harry, not wanting to face the man's mocking voice raised his wand.

"Silencio!"

With the lift moving downwards again, Harry found himself shaking uncontrollably, he could barely keep hold of his wand he was shaking so hard. Thomas, seeing the youth shaking, laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"It effects everyone that way the first time Harry, some just freeze up, don't worry, you did brilliantly"

The youth hissed sharply in pain and spun away from the hand.

"Harry are you ok?

"I'm fine," He said through gritted teeth. Harry's voice sounded strained even to him.

"You're not fine, you're hurt, let me see"

Turning, Harry showed Thomas his back, it felt like his left shoulder was on fire, and he found that he could not move the joint at all, although he still had movement at the elbow. He had hoped to get away from the Ministry unhurt, and it would have to have been Tonks that hit him!

"Its nasty Harry, although it's not bleeding too much, it's very deep, I can see bone in the wound, we need to get you treatment"

Shaking his head, Harry turned to face him.

"No, I still have a job to do, I need to keep going, is there anyway you can bandage it up for now?"

Thomas nodded, and pulled a first aid kit from another pouch, Harry just shook his head in wonder, how many more things were stuffed into those pouches?

The ride to the Atrium continued in silence, as Thomas worked on Harry's damaged shoulder. When the doors opened they both stepped out wand and weapon raised and ready, dragging Wormtail behind them. They needn't have worried, no one was in any fit state to resist.

The fireworks had done their job, all exploding at once, and creating a devastating shock wave that had blasted every single Auror into unconsciousness, and pretty much destroyed the Atrium in the process. Stepping over and around the bodies, Harry was amazed it had worked so well. They moved to the fireplaces and stopped, it was the parting of the ways.

"You know how to use the Floo network Tom?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I remember that much at least, are you sure there is no way I could come with you?"

"No, he won't take me where I need to go unless it's just me, and I'm unarmed. Right, remember to say 'the burrow' clearly, or something unpleasant could happen"

From the way he said it, Thomas knew the lad spoke from experience. Harry turned to address Wormtail.

"Wormtail, I'm giving you the chance to get back in Voldemort's good books, you can give him a gift, you can give him me!"

The evil man's eyes widened at this and a cruel smile crept across his features. Harry turned his wand onto Wormtail and cancelled the silencing curse, and released him from his bindings.

"Here, Tom give this to George Weasley for me will you?" Harry held out his wand, and Thomas took it and placed it into one of his many pockets. While Wormtail's sight was blocked by Harry's back, Thomas skilfully slipped three objects into Harry's pocket and winked at him.

"Roger that Harry, keep your head down OK!" Harry nodded and smiled in gratitude, and turned back to Wormtail.

"Alright I'm unarmed, and I'm coming alone, shall we?" Wormtail nodded and grinned.

"Oh Harry, My lord is so looking forward to the pleasure of your company" With that Wormtail grabbed a handful of Floo powder and threw it into the fire.

"Knockturn Alley!" Grabbing Harry's injured shoulder with his silver hand and squeezing hard, so that the youth screamed in pain, the dark wizard stepped into the fire, dragging Harry with him.

Thomas was left standing alone in the quiet Atrium, everything in his body cried out for him to follow Harry, but he knew they would have apparated away before he had arrived. Harry was very much on his own now, and there was nothing he could do, other than let those who cared about him know what was happening.

Not sure what he would find, and being of a cautious nature, Thomas slipped his respirator back into place and he unslung the MP5 from behind his back. Grabbing a handful of Floo powder, he flung it into the fire and watched it turn green.

"The Burrow" And in a flash he was gone.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

In the military, the term used to describe what so nearly happened at the Burrow is 'friendly fire' or 'blue on blue', when two elements of the same side open fire on each other. Throughout the history of warfare, both magical and muggle, such incidents during wartime were tragically common.

The twins had arrived by Floo in a most spectacular fashion, being literally thrown across the kitchen to land in a red headed, laughing heap on the floor. Their black robes were smouldering, and smelt of gunpowder, and their faces were hair were scorched and singed, but none of this seemed to have affected their sense of humour from the wide grins they both displayed on their faces.

They had told an incredulous Arthur and Dan of the nights activities, and Arthur, shocked beyond words had to sit down heavily. He was a Ministry employee, and a department head, it was a job he took very seriously. Now he had just been informed that three of his sons (that really was how he felt about Harry) had just staged a jailbreak that would land all of them in Azkaban.

Dan was just crossing the kitchen, bringing one of the twins a drink, when the fire flashed green again, and another figure dressed in black stepped out. It was an instinctive reaction, but the big black automatic cleared the waistband of his trousers so fast Wyatt Earp would have been proud.

He spun and the pistol came up, and he found himself face to face with something that took him right back to his days in the Army.

What was a soldier wearing an S10 respirator and carrying an MP5 doing coming through the Floo network? For a dangerous instant, Dan Grangers brain locked up, as he tried to process the information. For perhaps a second the two men faced each other down their weapon sights.

"Drop the weapon, do it, drop it now!"

The voice had a tone that was used to being obeyed, that demanded to be obeyed, Dan could see the man's finger tighten on the trigger of the MP5 as he fought to control the adrenaline rushing through his system.

"No, Dan, he's with us! Its Katie and Helen's brother!"

George, or was it Fred? Yelled from the table. Carefully, so his actions could not be misinterpreted, Dan Granger applied the safety catch, and allowed the weapon to dangle from his hand. The soldier also relaxed slightly, allowing his finger to come off the trigger, and the weapon lowered.

Suddenly the twins were surrounding the new arrival, slapping the stranger on the back, both speaking at once, reaching up, the man pulled off the respirator off of his head and casually hooked it on his belt, and then he grinned and let his weapon dangle on its sling.

"Whoa, slow down guys, one at a time alright, first things first, your parents?"

Fred pointed to a surprised Molly and Arthur, Thomas moved over to them and held out his hand.

"My name is Thomas Bell, I am Katie and Helen's older brother, I just wanted say thank you to both of you for taking them in, and giving them somewhere safe."

Arthur shook the outstretched hand, still in a daze, but Molly gasped, her eyes widening, as she understood the implications of his arrival.

"Harry?..."

"We parted company at the Ministry, and that Wormtail fella took him wherever it was he took Helen and your Ginny, which was Harry's plan all along, his entire reason for the raid. Except I'm not sure it was in Harry's plan to get injured!"

Quickly Thomas relayed to them the events since he and Harry had last seen the twins.

"So I guess now all we can do is wait…" muttered Fred

"And hope Harry can pull off a miracle." George intoned grimly.

OoOoO

**Somewhere Else**

Harry was barely conscious by the time they finally arrived at their destination, Wormtail had apparated, Floo'd and portkeyed them around for what seemed like hours, all the time keeping up a relentless pressure on Harry's already ruined shoulder. He had long since ceased to scream, all he had left inside of him now was the barest whimper.

When Wormtail finally released his grip on his shoulder, Harry dropped forward to all fours onto a cold stone floor, he was shivering violently from a combination of shock and blood loss. He tried desperately to fight the nausea rising inside him, but it was hopeless, he vomited until there could not possibly be anything left inside of him.

Panting with exertion, Harry tried to climb to his feet, but found he lacked the strength to do more than kneel.

"Master, look at the gift I have for you"

"Wormtail, you have excelled yourself, your reward shall be great indeed"

A pale, clawed hand reached down and grabbed hold of Harry's chin and pulled his head sharply upwards, forcing him to look up into that monstrous face that had haunted his dreams since the first moment he had seen it.

"Hello Harry, so good of you to stop by, I have so missed our little chats. Today seems to be the day for house guests, what with dear Ginny stopping by earlier and now you"

Harry found to his surprise that there was no longer any fear of this creature remaining inside of him, Voldemort was something to be hated, perhaps to some extent even pitied, not feared.

At the mention of Ginny, Harry's anger flared, and the pain of his shoulder was forgotten.

"Where is she you bastard?" Harry screamed

Voldemort laughed, an evil rasping sound.

"Oh Harry, in your present situation, I would suggest you should be more worried about yourself. Dear sweet Ginny is currently being 'entertained' by three of my more creative servants, and while she may still be alive, I guarantee that by the time they are finished with her, there will be nothing left that you would recognise."

Stepping back, Voldemort raised his wand and pointed it at Harry.

"And now, while my servant's pleasure themselves with the flesh of your girlfriend, I am going to get some pleasure from you, I have been looking forward to this for such a very long time."

Harry knew what was coming, and tried to prepare himself against the pain, but it was no use.

"Crucio!"

Harry's world exploded into a whirl of bright colours and infinite pain.

OoOoO


	7. 7 Harry and Draco

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

"The only thing that keeps a man going is energy. And what is energy but a love of life and all it holds"

Louis Auchincloss

Chapter Seven: Harry and Draco

**Ministry of Magic Atrium, 01:00 28 June**

Rufus Scrimgeour, Minister for Magic, was in a towering rage. He had been sat in his office reading through the newest law, he would be submitting to the Wizengamot, restricting werewolf travel, when he had been informed that Harry Potter was in the building to see him.

He had let himself believe that the youth had finally come around to his way of thinking. The publicity coup of having the boy-that-lived backing his plans would be immensely valuable to maintaining civil order in the increasingly chaotic Wizarding community. People were attacking his Aurors without warning, only that day three guarding the Bell residence had been hospitalised by a violent stranger, attacking without any provocation. The man had been skilled and savage, a dangerous individual, despite his lack of magic use.

Then the Death Eater alarm had been raised in the Atrium, the highly trained four-man Ministry protection detail that comprised his bodyguard had quickly taken steps to lockdown his office, allowing no one in or out until the all clear had sounded.

Now surrounded by his protection detail and several dozen recently returned Aurors and other Ministry personnel he was standing in the shattered remains of the Atrium, he had heard the report of the watch wizard, how Harry Potter and an as yet unidentified Auror had entered shortly before the attack.

The most worrying report was that Peter Pettigrew had been freed from within the Ministry itself, it wasn't the act itself that was worrying, it was the implied information that even the Ministry wasn't safe that would damage his standing should the information become public.

Now he was listening to the report of the only Auror, who had been able to actually identify one of the attackers, and he felt his rage bleed away to be replaced with a feeling of smug satisfaction, finally, finally he could take action!

"It was Harry, I mean Potter, sir. He snatched Wormtail with the help of one other unidentified man, dressed in muggle military clothing and armed with a muggle weapon. Minister, you have to understand, the boy is overwrought at the abduction earlier tonight of his girlfriend Miss Ginevra Weasley, and he isn't thinking straight, he cannot be held accountable for his actions!"

Scrimgeour casually waved aside the comment.

"That boy has been nothing but a thorn in my side from the moment I took over. His name is a rallying point for all of those that oppose me in the Wizengamot, Dumbledore's protégé, the supposed golden child, now I finally have what I need to do something about it. I'll have his wand snapped for this. For aiding and abetting in the escape of a convicted Death Eater, He'll go to Azkaban for life! Thank you Auror Tonks, go and get yourself checked out by a healer"

Scrimgeour was feeling so smug and self absorbed he missed the flash of anger that filled her face for a brief moment as Tonks walked away. The pain in her chest suddenly fading into insignificance, her eyes filling with tears, for the first time since she had embarked on her Auror career she felt torn between helping a friend and upholding the law, maybe this was why Aurors only mixed with other Aurors, to avoid this terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She had wounded Harry, quite badly. She had thought he was a Death Eater and had reacted instinctively. 'I must tell Remus' she thought, wherever he was now, Harry was going to need medical attention.

"Alright, listen up, I want all available Ministry personnel, not just Aurors, everybody, to be ready in an hour. Potter will have returned to the Weasley residence, and I want him and everyone found near him in custody by the end of the night. Should Potter or any of those found with him resist…then I hereby authorize the use of lethal force. I want this little upstart stopped by any means necessary"

Tonks knew her duty, however hard it would be to carry out, lay with the Ministry, and despite the pain she felt inside about turning her back on her friends, turning her back on Remus, she had taken an oath to uphold the law, even if that meant arresting Harry and sending him to Azkaban for the rest of his life.

OoOoO

**Somewhere Else**

Harry screamed, as pain beyond all imagining exploded inside him, it seemed as if his very bones were on fire. It felt as if his head would split in two down his lightning bolt scar. Harry longed for it to stop, he wanted to pass out, but the curse rolled on and on, he could hear Voldemort's evil laugh above the sound of his own screams. Pettigrew had taken turns with Voldemort, casting and re-casting the torture curse.

Then it suddenly stopped, and Harry found himself lying on his uninjured side, his head resting limply on the cold stone floor of the circular chamber, Voldemort stood over him cackling in enjoyment, Wormtail just behind him. Two Death Eaters wearing masks guarded the entrance to the chamber, both were watching him seemingly enjoying themselves hugely.

Harry found he was bathed in sweat and panting heavily. His entire body was one big horrendous ache, as if he had been pulled and stretched into shapes his body had never designed to be forced into. The entire chamber seemed to spin around him on multiple axis, and he felt sick to the pit of his belly.

Harry realised that if he was going to have any strength left in his body to act, then he had to do it soon, he had lost count of the number of times he had been subjected to the Cruciatus curse, and he didn't know how long he had been screaming for, time had lost all meaning for him.

His hand felt for his pocket, and he touched the three objects Thomas had slipped there earlier in the Ministry atrium, two of them were large and cylindrical in shape, and what had he called them? Flashbangs? The third was the soldiers flick knife. Thomas had wanted to give Harry his big black pistol, but Harry had shook his head. He had never touched a firearm in his life and was more likely to blow his own foot off than hit Voldemort. Harry wasn't really sure what he was going to do, but he knew the three muggle items were the only advantage he had.

"Well Harry, as much fun as that was I'm afraid the time has come for us to part company, I have so enjoyed your visit, please pass on my fondest regards to your parents and Dumbledore when you see them"

"I should think you will be seeing them before I do Tom!"

Harry purposefully tried to anger Voldemort by calling him by his real name, he hated it, because it reminded him of his muggle father and his less than pure bloodline.

Harry's plan succeeded only too well. Screaming in rage, Voldemort reached down and dragged him bodily from the floor by the front of his clothes, lifting him until not even the tips of Harry's toes were touching the floor. His magically constructed body gifted him with strength beyond that of a normal man and Voldemort dragged him so close their faces were almost touching.

"Still displaying the absurd bravery of a Gryffindor Potter, too bad there is no one here to see your last pitiful piece of defiance, once I am finished with you, I may go and entertain myself with miss Weasley, she was actually rather attractive, after het treatment at the hands of my followers, she might even appreciate my attention"

Harry closed his eyes against that image, Voldemort forcing himself upon Ginny, it was something he could not allow to get any deeper into his subconscious.

"Oh come now Tom, how are you going to do that? We both know that all your dangly bits fell off long ago!"

With a scream of rage, Voldemort threw the boy across the chamber away from him with savage force.

Harry struck the far wall hard, driving the breath from his body, and slid down it, landing on his injured shoulder. White hot pain lanced through his body and he struggled to stay conscious. He found himself focusing on Ginny's smiling face, he had to fight to stay awake, and after all, the only reason he was here was to rescue her and Helen Bell.

His vision wavered but he won the fight to stay conscious. Pushing himself upright with his back pressed against the wall and gathering his legs beneath him, Harry looked down at the two circular bits of metal in the palm of his hand, and smiled. Voldemort had been too busy being angry at him to notice Harry had slipped the muggle Flashbangs into his robes. Squeezing his eyes shut, Harry thrust his fingers into his ears, not a moment too soon.

**BOOM!!**

Voldemort was propelled backwards through the air like an out of control spinning top, landing atop Pettigrew and sending them both to floor in a tangle of dark wizard arms and legs, he might have screamed but Harry's hearing was temporarily destroyed by the detonation of the two devices. The echo of the detonation, amplified by the enclosed space seemed almost as if it was a physical barrier, and if Harry hadn't known what was coming and prepared for it, at that close a range he doubted he could have remained conscious.

Harry was up in an instant, recovering quicker than any of the others in the chamber and moving as fast as he could force his exhausted, pain wracked body to go, he stumbled for the exit to the smoke filled chamber, ignoring everything else except his overriding need to find Ginny and to escape.

He placed his foot upon something circular, one of the now useless flashbangs, and he teetered trying to keep his footing before crashing painfully back to the floor. A curse flashed over his head, bare inches away from him. Coughing at the smoke now filling the chamber, Harry scrambled on all fours still fighting towards the exit.

Feeling suddenly stronger than he had even a moment ago, Harry dragged himself to his feet and following the wall moved towards the exit. A figure holding a wand appeared out of the smoke in front of him, coughing and spluttering and holding his ears. Wormtail! The evil man smiled and cackled madly as he saw Harry and reached out to grab the youth's dark clothing. But Harry had been prepared for this and struck out with the flick knife Thomas had slipped him.

The blade pierced Wormtail through the palm of his normal hand and projected out the back, the blade slipped free and Harry lunged again striking the dark wizard in the arm. The man shrieked and held his injured limb to his chest. Harry pushed him savagely aside and ran on.

A powerful curse flashed through the air and struck the wall in front of him, exploding a storm of razor sharp stone fragments into his path, but despite the sudden pain, he didn't stop. Legs pumping hard, he stumbled up the stairs and into the corridor, bouncing off the walls like a drunken man, leaving bloody smears in his wake.

Just when safety loomed, something reached out and seized a hold of his leg and slammed him into the floor, and burning pain flared at the top of his thigh, using the wall for stability, Harry dragged himself back to his feet and stumbled on. Every step burned with an agony that made his eyes run, but he kept going.

The corridor had many portraits of blond wizards, many were yelling abuse at him. Some of the pictures seemed very familiar to him, a shared ancestry that he should have known if only his mind was working at top speed. The corridor took a left turn but there was a door in front of him, and he hit the door with his good shoulder while turning the handle. It was solidly locked against him, so he moved on.

At the end of the corridor was a grand and opulent double staircase that split at the landing, with some magnificent carvings, mostly of snakes, and large tapestries upon the walls. The staircase led both up and down. At the top was a magnificent domed skylight that appeared to be enchanted in a similar fashion to the roof of the main hall at Hogwarts.

From below, three Death Eaters were charging upwards, but without a wand, and only a small knife as a weapon there was nothing he could do, so he turned upwards and climbed the left hand set of stairs as fast as he could.

But it just wasn't fast enough, he couldn't make much speed, his thigh was burning so badly he was forced into a limp, and with every step he took, the Death Eaters closed the distance between them and him. He had no defence, if only he had his wand, but Harry knew his wand was safely at the burrow.

One of the Death Eaters threw a cutting hex at him, and Harry had to throw himself flat to avoid it, due to the curve of the staircase and the height of the solid banister rail, he was hidden from their view for a moment. He lay there on his side, panting at the exertion.

He felt so damn helpless, he felt almost naked without his wand in his hand, for a moment he remembered with fondness the feel of the wood in his hand, the weight, how it felt when the power flowed through him.

He heard the footsteps on the stairs coming ever closer, he really needed his wand, and without it he wouldn't be able to defend himself against the Death Eaters or to rescue Ginny, he'd never needed anything in his life more than he needed his wand right now.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Thomas was sat at the kitchen table, gratefully drinking the warm tea that Molly had provided, he was laughing at the twins description of how they had first met Harry on platform 9¾ , Thomas was really trying hard to put the stresses of the night behind him, anything to take his mind off his missing sister.

Thomas suddenly remembered what Harry had given him in the Atrium, reaching into his pocket Thomas touched the wand, and after a moments hesitation he pulled it out.

"Oi George, Harry asked if you'd look after this for him"

Thomas lobbed the wand in a gentle under hand throw, George held out his hand ready to snatch the wand out of the air with his Quidditch trained reflexes.

But the wand never arrived in George's hand, Thomas traced the arc of the wands flight with his eyes and watched it simply disappear as if it had never been there. Thomas looked at George in puzzlement, and George looked just as bewildered, no one else other than Fred had noticed the disappearance, and for the moment the three men decided to keep it that way.

OoOoO

**Somewhere Else**

Harry looked down in stunned amazement at the wand in his hand, it had just appeared without a sound. It took a long moment for his brain to accept it was real and not a figment of his tortured imagination. Harry clutched the precious piece of wood tightly in his fist and felt the familiar power flow through him, it was if a bright ray of sunlight had fallen upon him.

Standing, Harry found that he faced two of his opponents, with no sign of the third, he had a broad smile on his face. Seeing their unarmed victim suddenly appear above them holding a wand and smiling at them made the two Death Eaters pause for a moment, it was all the time Harry needed.

"Protego!" Casting the shield charm, Harry casually deflected both the Reducto and the cutting hex thrown at him. If there was one thing Harry was exceptionally talented at, it was the shield charm. Merlin knew he got enough practice.

"Reducto!" His carefully aimed return fire hit the staircase at the Death Eaters feet, blowing them both over, but despite their injuries they were both back on their feet in seconds. The time however allowed Harry to climb a dozen steps higher up the staircase.

The two Death Eaters split up, increasing the distance between them and making Harry split his own spell fire, while still shielding himself from theirs.

Harry found himself being driven back up the staircase, and with the injuries he had already suffered, he was tiring quickly, his breath coming now in pants. He had to finish this quickly, before his strength failed him completely.

'Use your environment to your advantage' he remembered something from one of lessons the false Alastair Moody had taught, a practical lesson about duelling. Duelling competitions were held in large open areas where there was nothing to interfere with the duel, but practical duels very rarely occurred in such wide-open spaces.

Harry looked up and grinned.

"Protego!" His shield charm blocked another round of incoming fire.

"Diffindo!"

The severing charm worked as advertised, and the tapestry hanging in the staircase began to slide down the wall.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

With a swish and a flick, Harry levitated the heavy tapestry into position, and then released it. Without warning it fell covering the entire width of the stairs, covering both Death Eaters in folds of heavy material.

"Incendio!"

With a last touch Harry set the tapestry on fire, with the Death Eaters still trapped underneath it. There were cries, and then screams from the two trapped men, but Harry had already turned to climb the stairs.

He came face to face with the third Death Eater, the man had rushed up the opposite staircase and crossed the landing to come down behind him and catch him unawares, and it had worked, the Death Eaters wand tip was levelled at his heart, while his was down by his side.

Harry recognised this man, Walden Macnair, one time executioner of magical beasts for the Ministry, he had also faced Harry in the Department of Mysteries. The last Harry heard the man was serving a long sentence in Azkaban.

"Stupefy!"

Macnair looked at Harry with utter disbelief, before sliding to the floor unconscious, Harry was just as confused as the Death Eater, his wand hadn't even twitched, and someone else must have stunned the man.

"Come on Potter, don't just stand there with your mouth hanging open, get up here!"

The voice was immediately recognisable, Harry had heard it so many times sneering at him over the past six years, and he had last heard it that fateful night on top of the astronomy tower. The night Dumbledore had died.

Draco Malfoy stood at the top of the stairs, Harry was shocked at the sight of him, the Slytherin appeared ill, he was gaunt with hollow cheeks, and he had big dark circles under his eyes. He appeared to have lost a lot of weight, his robes seemed to be almost hanging off of him.

"Come on Potter, Move it!"

Without waiting for a response, Draco turned and disappeared down the corridor. Harry found himself stumbling after, not entirely sure why. This was Draco Malfoy, a hated presence in his life for six years, the cause of most of his trouble at school, responsible for attacks on him and his friends, why in Merlin's name would Draco be helping him?

By the time Harry had ascended the stairs, Draco was waiting in an open doorway leading off the corridor.

"Today Potter! Bloody hell if you were this quick on a broom we'd have won a lot more Quidditch games!"

Holding the door open, Draco ushered Harry inside, and shut the door behind him.

Harry had his wand levelled at Draco before the door had even shut, for a long moment the two youths just stood there and looked at each other over Harry's levelled wand.

"Put the wand away Potter, if I had wanted you harmed I'd have let Macnair have you!"

"Why didn't you? Why did you of all people help me Malfoy? Gotten tired of being a Death Eater already?"

Harry spat the words out, and was surprised when Draco flinched away from him and dropped his eyes to the floor, this was far from the confident, arrogant jerk he remembered from school.

"I must be hard for you to understand, Saint perfect Potter, the golden child, but I made a mistake, a bloody huge mistake, one I'm trying to correct, and for your information, I'm not now, nor have I ever been a Death Eater!"

Draco rolled up both sleeves, revealing nothing but bare skin on both forearms. Then ignoring the wand Harry was holding in his face he crossed the room to a wardrobe and touched an intricate carving of a snake. There was a rumble and the wardrobe swung away from the wall, revealing a long dark passageway.

"I know why you're here Potter, and if you want to get out of here you had better follow me. Lumos!"

With that Draco stepped into the passageway, his brightly lit wand tip guiding the way, Harry looked once at the door to the room, then shrugged and limped into the passageway, it was not as if he had a choice, lighting his own wand he followed Draco into the darkness. The passageway led down in a tight spiral, and Harry guessed it would come out in a room somewhere on the first floor.

Draco paused in the passageway ahead, and turned to face him, he had a wary, almost frightned look on his face.

"Before we enter the next room, I want your word on something Potter, I know your word means something, which is why I'm asking for it. I want your word you will let me explain before you take any action, do you agree"

Harry regarded Draco for a moment, and then nodded. Draco pushed on a hidden button and there was another rumble and light spilled into the passageway. Draco entered first followed by Harry.

The room was large, and had a comfortable feel to it. The first thing Harry saw was the bed, a large extravagant four-poster, and the two figures that lay in it.

"Oh sweet Merlin, Ginny!"

Harry limped across the room as fast as his injuries would allow him and knelt down painfully beside the bed, Ginny's face was an awful mess, her beautiful features even more bruised and swollen than they had been that morning, her lips were split and her entire face was covered in dried blood. Even her arm, protruding from under the covers, was covered in black and purple bruises, taking a hold of the covers, Harry steeled himself for the worst, and lifted them aside.

Harry and Ginny's relationship had not progressed beyond the kissing stage, although the way he felt about her was deadly serious, he had been terribly afraid of moving too fast and pushing her away, he still didn't quite understand what she saw in him. So although he regularly saw her naked in his dreams, he had never seen her anywhere near naked in reality.

Nothing in his entire life had prepared Harry for the sight that greeted him under those covers.

Her legs, her arms, her neck, no part of her body had escaped the bruising, hideous purples and blacks marked her beautiful white alabaster skin. The bruising on her legs continued above the level of her skirt, and there were obvious livid red handprints on her thighs.

Ginny's blouse was ripped, torn and horribly blood soaked, although Harry really didn't want to look, he felt he had to, he needed to know how badly injured she was. He took a deep breath, and slowly reached down and gently lifted the two sides of the ruined blouse aside.

Harry felt the bile rise in his throat, and with a sense of panic he had to work hard at not being sick, Ginny's breasts were covered in red handprints and deep purple bruises, there were even red teeth marks. There was barely any unmarked skin on her breasts, ribcage or torso, and down one side was especially heavily bruised.

Gently placing the covers back over Ginny's body, Harry snuck a look at Helen, she thankfully appeared to be untouched.

Harry felt an anger starting to grow inside of him the likes of which he had never known, it made the hair on his head seem to prickle from a static charge. The room actually started to groan from the build up of magical energy, Draco took a step back as the rage seemed to physically radiate from Harry. The energy he had expelled in the incident with his aunt Marge paled beside this moment. That this had happened to Ginny, after he had promised her he would protect her, his insides grew cold and hard, he wanted to lash out at the only other person that seemed responsible.

Harry spun and held out his hand, he was so angry he never even noticed that he had placed his wand on the bed beside Ginny.

"Accio wand!"

Draco's wand flew to his outstretched hand and he tossed it aside.

"You are only still alive now because you made me give you my word, start talking Malfoy, and for your sake I hope it's good"

"Threatening me won't change what has happened! And in your condition you couldn't take me on anyway!"

Another wand appeared in Draco's hand from somewhere inside his robes, but to Harry's surprise rather than take the expected shot at him, Draco threw the wand onto the bed.

"Listen to me Potter, all you need to know right now is that neither of them was actually raped, I managed to prevent that at least, I wasn't in time to prevent the assault on Weasley, and for that I am truly sorry!"

Draco started pacing by the bed, in front of a large desk that sat in a corner of the room, running his fingers through his blond hair.

"You need to understand me clearly Potter, I'm not a good person, and I won't pretend to be something I'm not, I have done some truly terrible things, things I spend every waking minute of every day regretting. My choices up to this point have been extremely poor, but I am trying so very hard to put that right, to make some good choices for a change, a bad person does not have to be an evil one. Maybe there is a chance I haven't left it too late."

Harry felt the anger bleed away as he listened, Draco's voice was soft and full of anguish, Harry looked at him and wondered what had happened to the Draco he had known for six years at Hogwarts, Draco the bully, Draco the liar, Draco the cheat. Something quite fundamental had changed in the blond youth's personality.

"Dumbledore once told me something similar, he said that it was our choices that show us for what we really are, that define us. Did you know that in my first year the sorting hat very nearly placed me in Slytherin house?"

Draco turned to look at him, with an interested yet puzzled expression on his face.

"No, I didn't know, why didn't it?"

"Because I asked it not to. Its all about the choices we make Malfoy, I'm going to make a choice now, one I hope I won't regret, I am going to chose to trust you. Why don't you tell me what brought about your change of heart."

Draco regarded him for a moment, as if weighing every word he was about to utter.

"I was doing some research, you know we have always tried to prove the Malfoy's are direct descendents of Salazar Slytherin."

Harry nodded and waved for him to continue.

"Well I couldn't prove that, but I got sidetracked into bloodlines of other families, do you want to know what I found, do you know which pure blood family has the purest bloodline."

Harry wasn't sure he wanted to know, he had never cared how pure someone's bloodline was.

"It's the Weasley's! They have the purest blood of us all, can you imagine how that information rocked my world? Hell, even your bloodline Potter is purer that mine. Since that day my eyes have been truly opened to our world, I have come to realise that everything I was ever told has turned out to be a lie, all the pure blood superiority that I had stuffed down my throat from such an early age, it's a fantasy. I've found myself on the wrong side of a line, and I'm trying to hard to get back to the other side, to put right some very bad choices on my part. I was planning to escape anyway, but when Weasley and the child arrived…"

"Her name's Helen" Harry interrupted.

"Whatever…when they arrived, I knew I couldn't leave without them, apparently I'm becoming a better person against my own better judgement. Anyway the dark lord tortured Weasley for a while, seems he was expecting you, and he was a little disappointed at the new arrivals to say the least."

Harry scowled at such an offhand description of the pain inflicted on his girlfriend, his own bouts of the torture curse were still too fresh in his memory, and he shuddered.

Draco noticed the shudder and bent down, opening a draw in the desk and pulled out a chocolate frog, and after a moments hesitation chucked it to Harry and pulled out another for himself.

"Voldy then gave them both to three Death Eaters, who I happen to know like them…young shall we say, anyway, I recovered Weasley's wand from the floor and took after them as soon as I could. When I got there they were arguing over who got to go first, they weren't pleased to see me, and we had…a bit of a disagreement."

"What the hell does that mean Malfoy?" Harry snapped.

"It means I took on three Death Eaters to protect your girlfriend Potter, you could show a little gratitude! I had to kill one of them for Merlin's sake!"

Harry looked at Draco with new eyes, he had killed to keep Ginny safe? He looked into his enemies gray eyes and didn't need Legilimency to know he spoke the truth, the pain and raw emotion were displayed there for all to see, Draco had indeed been forced to kill on Ginny's behalf.

"Most of the blood isn't hers, its Jugson's, when I first reached her I thought she was dead, she just lay there so still. When she came round she thought I was one of them, that I had come to hurt her and she wouldn't let me touch her, but I really had to get them both out of that room before anyone came looking for the three Death Eaters. I had to stun her to get her here safely, and for that I am sorry, but I had no choice."

Harry accepted this fact at face value, he was having a hard enough time trusting Draco, for Ginny in the condition she must have been in, it would have been impossible.

"So what now?"

Draco moved to the wardrobe and pulled out a worn pack and a travelling cloak from inside, the pack appeared to be already full as Draco slung it over his shoulders, he had obviously been preparing for this moment for some time.

"Well, now Potter I think its time we made our escape don't you!"

"I'm open to suggestions Malfoy"

"Look behind you, see anything that takes your fancy?"

Harry turned, and looked at where Draco was pointing, hanging on the wall were two broomsticks, Harry smiled. The first was a Nimbus 2001, it looked a little worn, but well cared for. The second was a firebolt, the same as Harry's own broom. They were the two fastest, most expensive brooms on the market.

"Oh yeah, this has definite possibilities!"

"Thought you might say that, we need to get clear of the apparation wards around the mansion, this seems as good a way as any."

"The mansion?" Harry looked quizzically at Draco.

"Yes, I'd like to be the first to officially welcome you to Malfoy Manor, sorry for the impolite greeting on your arrival"

Draco was grinning at him, it was contagious, despite their years of rivalry, and Harry felt himself grinning back.

"When the dark lord arrives on your doorstep and tells you that he's taking over your home, its not like I had a choice, father was in Azkaban…"

"WAS!"

"Yeah was, all of the Death Eaters are out now, not sure how"

"That's just bloody marvellous!"

Suddenly there an explosion from somewhere below them, and the entire building shook. A voice seemed to reverberate off the walls themselves.

"Harry come out, come out wherever you are! It's not like a Potter to run Harry! Your father faced me like a man, why won't you!"

Harry scowled at the mention of his father he turned to face Draco.

"I think its time we were leaving, don't you?"

Draco smiled and recovered the two wands from the bed.

"Absolutely, I'll take the girl…Helen on the Nimbus, you know the firebolt better"

Harry nodded, and turned and took the nimbus from the wall, he slung it across the room and Draco deftly caught it, then Harry reached up and grabbed the firebolt. Despite it being the same identical model as his broom, it somehow felt different in his hands.

Moving to the bed, Harry carefully folded Ginny's arms across her chest, and then using one of the large double sheets he created a cocoon that held her tight and left only her head exposed. The sheet was large enough to form a body sling that would hopefully allow him to carry Ginny in front of him and ride the broomstick at the same time.

Tying the sling and fastening it with a sticking charm, Harry stood. And nearly passed out as a wave of pain shot through him, the knot of the sling was pressing against his injured shoulder, he could feel the wetness spreading down his back as the blood started to flow from the wound again.

Leaning against the bed, Harry closed his eyes and took several deep breaths trying to steady himself, he had come so far, and he couldn't fail Ginny now.

"Ready Potter? Are you ok?"

Draco had gathered Helen up in a similar fashion as he had with Ginny, and stood with the Nimbus in his hand, the small figure in the white sheet across his broad chest.

"Yeah, I'm fine, let's go, you lead Malfoy, it is your house after all"

Harry spoke through gritted teeth, his vision was swimming and for the first time in his life he actually had trouble mounting a broomstick. Once he was mounted securely the pain eased, the Firebolt supported some of Ginny's weight, easing the pressure on his shoulder.

Draco took a last long look around the room, there was uncertainty on his face as he turned his back on the comfortable life he had lived for over sixteen years. Then he turned away and he mounted the Nimbus and pointing his wand at the door, blew it right off its hinges.

Then without a word he sped out into the corridor, pulled a ninety degree turn using the corridors far wall and vanished from sight, Harry kicked off hard and followed.

It was incredibly hard to control the broom with one hand, his injured arm seemed to be just hanging limply by his side now, and he couldn't even feel where the sling was pressing on the wound. But Harry was an exceptional flyer, it was if he decided where he wanted to go, and it just happened at an instinctive level.

Making the turn in Draco's wake, Harry accelerated keeping tucked in tight behind the Nimbus, arriving at the staircase the two youths surprised a group of Death Eaters coming up the stairs, forcing them to scatter for cover as the two youths zoomed through the space the group had previously occupied.

Draco pointed his wand above his head and began firing Reducto curses at the domed skylight far above their heads, seeing what the blond haired youth intended, Harry added his own spell fire, guiding the broom with his knees.

Spiralling downwards inside the curve of the large staircase, Harry kept one eye on the Death Eaters and his other on the skylight, the dark wizards were picking themselves up and drawing wands. But the skylight was cracking and beginning to come apart under the magical assault.

A curse flashed downwards, narrowly missing Draco.

"Malfoy we have to go now!"

Draco nodded sharply once and kicked his broom into a vertical climb, he continued firing curses right up until the moment he crashed into, and through the skylight. Harry took a deep breath and followed.

The firebolt climbed, but not with usual speed he was accustomed to, it was substantially overloaded and struggled for altitude. Aiming for the hole Draco had already made, Harry ducked his head and then he was through into the night's sky.

Looking around him Harry saw Draco floating about thirty feet away, with his head bent over, sliding over towards him Harry reached out and touched his shoulder.

"Malfoy, are you ok?"

Draco looked up, he had a nasty looking cut in his forehead that was bleeding freely down his face, and he looked even paler than he usually did, shaking his head from side to side to clear it, he gave Harry a weak smile.

"I think I should have ducked lower, we had better get out of here"

Harry nodded and watched as Draco accelerated away, leaning down over his broom, Harry followed, tucking in to the right and slightly behind Draco's broom. He thought it was perhaps the first time he and Draco had ever flown in formation together.

Perhaps only a minute had passed as they zipped along at tree top height, but the hairs on the back of Harry's neck were standing up, and something made him glance back over his shoulder. The mansion was a fast receding blur of light in the night's sky, for a moment Harry couldn't see anything that could possibly be a threat.

Then he saw them, a tight arrowhead formation of broomsticks moving steadily up on them.

"Malfoy! We have company!"

Draco looked back over his shoulder, and nodded.

"I think Voldy's missing you already Potter, what do you say we try and pick up the pace a bit?"

Draco leant down further over the Nimbus, the pack he wore making him look like a hunchback, Harry leant forward too, urging every last iota of speed from the already overloaded firebolt. It did not take long to figure out it wasn't working.

"They're still gaining Malfoy!"

"I know. We can't outrun them Potter! Not while carrying passengers!"

"Well leaving the girls behind isn't an option either, as I see it that only leaves one solution!"

Draco grinned at him, having reached the same conclusion.

"That clearing, down there looks suitable, what do you think my dear Gryffindor?"

"Splendid choice my dear Slytherin!"

The two youths dived down into the large clearing, coming to a halt at the edge of the trees, both dismounted and carefully laid their precious bundles down behind a large tree. Leaving their broomsticks hidden along with Draco's pack, the two youths stepped out into the centre of the clearing.

Harry drew his wand and flexed his healthy shoulder, his thigh would barely support his weight now, and he felt decidedly ill. Draco had drawn his own wand, and pulled out another wand that felt very familiar, Harry knew it should have registered back in the room, but he had been concentrating on other things.

"That's Ginny's wand!"

"And when she's awake she can have it back, I think my need is a little greater than hers right now"

"Yeah, I suppose you have a point there"

The two youths grinned at each other for a second, before turning to watch the skies, they waited in silence for a moment, before the first of the pursuing broomsticks appeared over the treetops, quickly followed by five more. The six Death Eaters landed at the far edge of the clearing and dismounted, they conferred briefly, before stepping forward, spreading out around the clearing edge.

None of them wore their customary masks, but Harry only recognised two of them, Nott and Goyle, all six had determined expressions on their faces.

"Potter, not that it makes any difference, but it was Nott and Goyle, along with Jugson that assaulted Weasley"

Draco hissed the message to him before moving slightly to his left, creating some distance between the two youths. Harry narrowed his eyes at the two Death Eaters, and the anger he felt at seeing Ginny's body flared hot inside him, he was so angry he felt his shoulders shaking with rage. He tried to control his anger, he needed to use his head to duel, not listen to his raging heart.

The image of Ginny's abused body lying there on the bed tore at him, he had failed her, he had promised to not let anyone hurt her, yet these animals still had. They had laid their filthy hands on the beautiful body of his girlfriend, and Harry wanted nothing more than to kill them.

"If you leave now, you can live, if you stay none of you will!"

The Death Eaters laughed at what sounded to their ears an idle threat, six to two odds, and one of those was swaying so much that he could barely stand, this would be over quickly.

"Malfoy what are you doing with him? I would suspect maybe an Imperius curse, but i know saint Potter would never cast such a thing. Your father will pay for your betrayal, it will ensure that he loses his place at the dark lord's right hand."

Nott grinned at Draco as if expecting the blond youth to run over and stand beside him. When Draco didn't move Nott frowned and turned to Harry.

"Where's that cute little red head of yours Potter, we never got to finish what we started, she was oh so sweet, when we eventually find her, we are going to take our time and really enjoy ourselves"

Nott was baiting him, trying to make him angry enough to make a stupid mistake, what they couldn't know was that Harry had past beyond the point of simple anger, he was completely focused now on the task ahead of him.

"Malfoy?"

Harry spoke through gritted teeth.

"Yes Potter?"

"I'm going to kill them all!"

Draco grinned.

"I know, lead off whenever you're ready, I'll be right behind you."

Harry nodded and continued to study the slowly advancing Death Eaters, they obviously didn't consider the two teens a threat, they really should of, and here's why.

"Reducto!"

Harry, with a slash of his wand, threw the first curse at the nearest Death Eater, the man tried to cast a shielding charm, but was nowhere near quick enough, the curse caught him on his shoulder, and in a spray of blood the man went down screaming in pain.

Draco threw a bone removing curse, striking a Death Eater drawing an aim on Harry, the man's wand arm fell limply down by his side.

Suddenly the entire clearing lit up from spell fire as eight men all dressed in black tried their very hardest to kill each other, curse and counter-curse flew back and forth. Draco was a blond haired blur, constantly moving, rolling, dodging, firing offensive spells from both wands, his only defence resting in his speed and agility.

Harry knew that with his thigh as injured as it was that if he moved it was a distinct possibility he would fall flat on his face, so he didn't move at all, he just stood there casting shielding charms and curses as fast as he could in the hope that none of the Death Eaters could keep up.

A Death Eater drew a bead on Draco's unprotected back, Harry levelled his wand and several possible spells flashed into his mind, he could disarm, stun or body bind the man. But Harry wasn't in that frame of mind. He pictured Ginny's bruised body, her face. That was all the encouragement he needed.

"Sectumsempra!"

A line of red fire traced across the Death Eaters back, opening his flesh down to his spine, the man fell to the floor screaming in pain, Harry shut his ears to the cries and chose another target.

The ground exploded at his feet from a poorly cast blasting curse, Harry sank to one knee to steady himself for a moment before rising back to his feet, the first Death Eater had also regained his feet, blood pouring from his shoulder.

Harry levitated a tree trunk from the edge of the clearing and with a groan of effort, magically tossed it at the man. It struck him firmly between the shoulder blades ending his life most assuredly.

The Death Eater with the back injury was also lying face down and still in a rapidly expanding pool of blood. But if anything this made the four survivors fight all the harder, knowing now that they faced two opponents of some considerable skill.

Draco rolled under a killing curse and blasted the man from his feet with a well-aimed Reducto in reply, the last unknown Death Eater, the man with a boneless arm, fired another killing curse at him, which narrowly missed. Draco returned fire and saw his curse hit the Death Eater in the face, killing him instantly.

The odds suddenly evened, the two remaining Death Eaters seemed to Harry less sure of themselves, casting furtive glances at the sky for reinforcements.

"You can still leave here with your lives."

Harry spoke, but knew his words fell on deaf ears.

"So, two on two, who do you want, Nott or Goyle?"

Draco could have been discussing the weather, he sounded so calm and together.

"I want Nott."

"Right you are."

Draco moved across behind Harry so that Harry faced Nott and he faced Goyle.

"When I have finished with you Potter, I am going to find your little red head, she cannot be far away, and I'm going to rape her again and again until she pleads for death, and then I'm going to put her under the Imperius curse and keep her, like a sort of pet, to be passed around at parties! I can see that she will be very popular!"

Harry faced Nott with less than ten feet separating them, both men had thier wands at thier sides, each waiting for the other to move, a standoff that reminded Harry of several western movies he had seen.

"You Death Eaters always talk too much!"

"Sectumsempra!"

"Reducto!"

The two curses were screamed loudly, neither man made any attempt to defend themselves, the two curses crossed at the midpoint. Harry's aim was perfect and his Reducto curse hit Nott level with his heart, the blunt force trauma was enough to liquefy the heart muscle completely, killing the Death Eater before he hit the floor.

Harry, using the last of his strength, in combination with his seeker reflexes had already started to throw himself backwards as he fired, Nott's curse struck him a blow in the side, gouging a bloody trench across his torso, before exploding harmlessly against a tree. Harry felt a moment of blinding pain, then a sort of wet sucking numbness. He staggered back a pace struggling to stay upright, but his body seemed to have given up the fight.

Harry fell to the ground heavily and screamed in pain as the fall jarred his earlier injury. He tried to draw a breath and found he couldn't, it was like having someone sitting on his chest, and there was an enormous pressure preventing air from getting in to his lungs.

He suddenly felt unbelievably tired and cold, all he wanted to do was lay there until sleep claimed him. He stared up at the stars in the night sky, it really did look quite beautiful tonight, he would have enjoyed the chance to share such a fantastic view with Ginny, but that wasn't going to happen now.

What a damn shame, to have it all end like this, alone in the dark in some wood, he had done his best. At least Draco would be able to get Ginny and Helen safely home, and Draco would be able to tell her that Harry hadn't given up on her, he would never have given up on her.

Closing his eyes and welcoming the pain free blackness, the last thing that went through Harry's mind was how much he would miss not having a future with Ginny Weasley.

OoOoO

**Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry**

Professor Minerva McGonagall, she still couldn't bring herself to use the title headmistress, sat in Albus Dumbledore's office and cried. She was not known for her outbursts of emotion and would never dream of such a display in front of a pupil. But in the privacy of her office in front of two of her dearest friends, she felt she could let her barriers down a little.

Professor Filius Flitwick and Madam Poppy Pomfrey cried too, they were all grieving for the loss of their friend Dumbledore. It had come as a shattering blow to them all, the man had seemed somehow almost immortal.

Sniffing loudly, and blowing her nose into her lace handkerchief, McGonagall smiled her thanks for the support of her friends just for being there for her.

Suddenly one of the devices on the shelf near the empty perch where a phoenix had once sat, began to trill loudly. Rising from her seat, McGonagall crossed to the device, her heart hammering in her chest, she hoped she had got it wrong, that it wasn't the device she thought it was. But her worst fears were realised.

Flitwick watched concerned, as his friend clutched at the shelf for support, and when she turned to face them she had gone as white as a sheet.

"Minerva, whatever is wrong?"

"Its Harry Potter, Filius, he's very near death, I need to Floo Molly and Arthur Weasley straight away, he was supposed to have been going there, Poppy can you gather some supplies, your services are going to be needed"

OoOoO

**The woods near Malfoy Manor**

_Get up Harry you need to get up!_

_But Hermione, I just want to sleep, will you just let me sleep._

_Harry Potter! Get up! Ginny needs you to take her home, you promised her!_

Harry sat bolt upright screaming Ginny's name, and found himself being supported in the arms of Draco Malfoy.

"Oh thank Merlin, I thought you'd gone and died on me Potter"

There was no faking the relief in Draco's tone of voice.

"You should be so lucky Malfoy, help me up"

Draco pulled Harry to his feet.

"Goyle?"

"After you took down Nott he apparated away, no doubt telling Voldy about how he faced down the entire Order of the Phoenix before escaping."

Harry laughed out loud, and immediately wished he hadn't, his chest was on fire with pain and he could no longer place any weight on his injured leg without the whole world spinning alarmingly.

Leaning on Draco heavily as support, Harry managed to get back to where they had left the two girls; they were both still unconscious, wrapped securely in their bundles. And the two brooms were still lent up the tree where they had been left.

"Are you strong enough to produce a portkey Potter?"

"Do I have a choice?"

Even to his own ears, his voice sounded weak and strained, he could never in his entire life remember feeling so exhausted.

Taking up the firebolt, Harry pointed his wand at Draco's bag and concentrated as hard as he could on the yard outside the Burrow, of the comfort and warmth it offered him, of the friends and family awaiting him there, at least for a short while.

"Portus!"

"Lets get the hell out of here!"

Lifting Ginny into his arms, Harry ignored the agony of his protesting body, if he could just get Ginny home to her parents, then he could rest, he had promised, and he always kept his promises.

Harry waited until Draco had gotten hold of Helen, and tucked the Nimbus under his arm, they both put a hand on the bag, and Harry willed them home.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Harry stumbled and fell to his knees when he was released by the effects of the portkey, but managed to keep hold of his precious bundle. Staggering back to his feet, Harry focused on the kitchen door, which seemed to sway and spin in his blurry and disorientating vision, forcing himself to place one foot in front of the other, Harry concentrated on moving forward.

He was having great difficulty remaining upright, his head was spinning, and he felt so cold, almost as if a Dementor was approaching. None of his wounds were hurting anymore, Harry wasn't sure but he didn't think that could be a good thing.

The Kitchen door opened, casting a halo of light out into the yard, Arthur appeared in the doorway, wand raised.

"Who is out there?"

Harry tried to speak, tried to reply to Arthur's question, to tell him how much he needed help, but only one word made it past his lips.

"Dad?"

"Harry, is that you?"

Arthur stepped out into the yard, squinting into the darkness, his eyes were not as young as they once were, and it took him a while to get his night vision.

Harry moved forward into the light, it was the only thing running through his mind, he must take Ginny home, he had promised, step, he must take Ginny home, he had promised, step.

He felt Arthur's arms around him, and he felt the warmth of family for so long denied to him, and he smiled, he done it, he had gotten Ginny home, he had fulfilled his promise.

"I told you I would bring her home, I always keep my promises"

Thrusting Ginny into her fathers' arms, Harry's thigh finally gave out and collapsed under his weight, Harry felt himself begin to fall, he wasn't looking forward to reaching the ground very much, which in his experience tended to hurt a lot.

He however never reached the ground, another pair of arms caught him and held him in a tight embrace, he looked up into the face of Molly Weasley, she was crying, her tears falling down her cheeks and onto him. Harry wanted to reach out to her, tell her everything would be all right, but his body wasn't doing what it was supposed to.

"Mum!"

Then the blackness claimed him for a second time.

OoOoO

**Lovegood Residence**

Ron looked about him, the kitchen was getting so over crowded, that the overflow was being forced into the lounge whether they wanted to go or not, it was an impressive turn out, and Ron felt an immense glow of pride within him for all these people, they had all turned up to help his friend.

Over in one corner he could see Katie and Luna deep in conversation, from the tears still running down Katie's cheeks Ron guessed it had something to do with tall dark haired man that had arrived with the twins.

The two had greeted each other rather stiffly to start with considering they were brother and sister, Ron suspected too many years had passed for them to be suddenly intimate. But after a few minutes the two had hugged each other as if desperate for the support the other could provide.

The twins had taken great pleasure in recounting their part in the raid on the Ministry, it sounded as if they had enjoyed themselves entirely too much. Then Thomas had told those assembled of his and Harry's success in carrying out the first part of the plan. Everyone had cheered and clapped, except Ron, he knew that for his friend the hard part had just started.

Jonas Lovegood acting as host and official record keeper of the nights activities had busied himself serving drinks and jotting down everyone's names in a large notebook, while Colin Creevey was using his camera to good effect, taking individual and group pictures on request.

Then Bill had dispatched the twins and Thomas to watch the Burrow, for a returning Harry, and the Ministry response they were all expecting, it had to come at some point, after all it was no secret where Harry would go.

Ron had a strange feeling that things were going to take a turn for the worst, and his suspicions were confirmed when he spied two masses of flaming red hair deep in conversation, across the kitchen by the open door.

Bill was talking intently to George in the open doorway, both had serious expressions on their faces. George was still clutching his broom and a 'borrowed' invisibility cloak.

Pushing his way through the crowded throng, Ron approached his two brothers with the sound of his heart pounding loudly in his ears, George would only have returned if he had news, and from the look on his face it wasn't good news.

"Listen up everybody"

Bill had turned and addressed the room, the noise level quickly tapered off.

"He did it, Harry has just returned to the burrow with both Ginny and Helen, he pulled it off!"

After a second's hesitation for this information to sink in, the room went wild with yells and clapping. Katie laughed and hugged an astonished Luna, swinging her around.

Reaching his brothers sides, Ron indicated they should go outside, once the door was shut Ron regarded his rather subdued siblings.

"There's more to it, I can see it in your faces"

"Ron, its Harry…its…he's a mess, I've never seen anyone torn up that badly and still walking, both Ginny and Helen were alive, but other than that I just don't know!"

Bill placed his hand on George's shoulder, he knew how hard it must have been to sit on his broom, invisible, and watch, when all he wanted to do was go down and be with his family, help his baby sister. As the eldest brother, Bill felt that urge especially deeply.

"What about the Ministry?"

George looked at Ron and nodded.

"Thomas says they are there, I couldn't see them, but he has this muggle thingy he uses that picks up body heat, there are six of them that he can see, it won't be long now I shouldn't think."

Ron turned away and made to go back inside when George reached out to him and grabbed his shoulder.

"There was something else, Harry didn't arrive alone. Draco Malfoy arrived with him, carrying Helen."

Ron just stared at his brother as if he had just suggested that Quidditch was a boring game and he'd rather read a book. Harry and Malfoy, he could not possibly imagine a situation where those two would work together for any reason.

"Right, let's muster the troops, its time!"

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Someone was mopping his face with a damp cloth and it felt surprisingly good. Harry, with a great deal of effort, forced his eyes open and looked up into the blurry, yet somehow comfortingly stern face of Madam Pomfrey.

"I didn't know you made house calls"

His voice sounded very weak, Madam Pomfrey didn't quite smile, but her mouth twitched slightly and there was an amused twinkle in her eyes, as she continued to wipe his face with a damp cloth, which was helping his pounding head no end.

"Normally I wouldn't, but for you Mr Potter, my favourite patient, I make an exception, how do you feel?"

Harry took a moment to run one of his internal assessments, all the limbs seemed to be attached, but that was about as good as it got, beyond that, his entire body was one big mass of pain, and he felt very tired.

"I hurt."

"I need you to be a little more precise than that Potter, where does it hurt?"

"How long have you got?"

There was a chuckle from somewhere outside his range of vision, turning his head very slowly to try and avoid some of the thumping pain in his head, Harry saw a red headed blur sitting next to him, he was laid on a couch in the kitchen of the Burrow.

"Well it seems you're feeling better, here I've got your glasses" Harry let Arthur put them carefully on his face, and he smiled his thanks. The man had puffy eyes, he had been crying and looked as if he had aged twenty years since the last time he had seen him. The expected loss of his only daughter had greatly affected the family man.

"How's Ginny?"

"Sleeping, Molly's sat upstairs with her, she's got about a flagon of dreamless sleep potion inside her, she wouldn't stop crying, and she hasn't spoken a word to anyone"

Harry closed his eyes against the pain and the fear in Arthur's voice, it was a worse kind of pain in many ways than that he felt in his body. He felt Arthur place a hand on his shoulder, and opened his eyes again.

"Injuries heal over time Harry, without you…I…I would have lost my only daughter tonight, I owe you a debt that I can never repay, i owe you twice over now for the life of my daughter. I love my sons dearly, but Ginny is my flower, the best piece of all of us, and on behalf of my wife and i, i thank you Harry."

Harry wasn't sure why, but looking into Arthur's smiling face all Harry could see was a clearing filled with bodies, and he was responsible for half of them. It suddenly dawned on him that he was now a killer, his hands were covered in blood, and he was no better than the Death Eaters.

"I killed them!"

Harry was not sure where that outburst had sprung from, but it was like unplugging a dam, once it had started there was nothing he could do to hold the emotions back, he found himself crying.

"Killed who Harry?"

"The ones that…hurt Ginny, I could have disarmed them, I could have stunned them, or but a body bind on them, but I was so angry I just wanted them dead"

Arthur smiled sadly, lent over him and gently messed his hair.

"Harry, you care more for the people around you than anyone I have ever met, and you are so pure of heart. These men were not helpless, they would no doubt have not hesitated to kill you! You however acted in defence of Ginny's life and your own, you have nothing to be ashamed of! I am so proud of the man you are becoming, rest now, we have plenty of time to talk about this later"

Arthur smiled again, and exchanged a meaningful glance with Madam Pomfrey before turning to leave.

"You should know, I never would have made it out of there without Malfoy, he saved both Ginny's life and mine too, go easy with him"

Harry called out, Arthur stopped for a moment and his shoulders tightened, then he just nodded and kept walking.

"And now Mr Potter, I think its time you had a little pain relief of your very own, what do you think?"

"Healer knows best"

"Yes, in this case I rather think I do, drink up"

Harry smiled, and drank the offered potion, gagging slightly at the bitter taste, almost immediately the pain in his body began to lessen, and he found himself drifting off into a restless sleep.

Harry was woken by the sound of angry raised voices, still groggy from the pain relief potion, he was struggling to make sense of what was happening around him.

"I won't let you take him, his injuries are so severe that if you move him without supervision you may kill him!"

"Healer Pomfrey if you do not move aside, I will be forced to place you in custody as well as the Weasley's, now step aside, do it now!"

"I shall not step aside! The welfare of one of my patients is at stake, you'll kill him, and I won't…"

"Stupefy!"

There was a gasp, and the sound of a body hitting the floor. Harry tried to get to his feet, as the urgency of the situation penetrated his drug-addled mind, but he somehow got tangled up in the blanket placed over him.

Harry felt his arms seized in a strong grip, and he was rolled over onto his chest. With savage force his hands were pulled together and his wrists bound behind him with anti-apparation manacles.

Because of his injuries, Harry had expected to have been screaming in pain after such rough treatment, but he was surprised to hear that someone else was doing the screaming for him, and doing a really great job of it. What a great set of lungs! After a moment, slow realisation dawned that it was actually him that was doing all the screaming all along.

Harry was lifted by the arms and dragged outside into the yard, and dumped facedown on the floor, something inside his chest made an audible cracking sound. His chest was in agony, and he found himself struggling against a great pressure to draw breath again, his breath was coming in long drawn out gasps, each breath harder to take than the last.

"Harry dear, talk to me, can you hear me"

With great difficulty Harry slowly turned his head in the direction of the voice, Molly was sat a short distance away, her back pressed against the recently repaired kitchen wall, hands also bound, but in front of her, she was trying to inch her way over to him, concern for him all over her face.

Although in terrible pain, he found himself strangely detached from his own body. Harry was amazed, Molly Weasley's daughter was lying upstairs, Merlin knows how badly injured, she herself had been placed in Ministry custody for Harry's actions that night and she was still worrying about him, he really didn't know what he'd done to deserve to have these people caring about him.

There was an approaching blackness, a blackness that promised a quick and easy freedom from the pain and Harry found that a most appealing notion as he was slowly drawn downwards towards it.

"Hear you"

"Harry talk to me, it's important you keep talking to me"

"Hurts"

"I know it hurts dear, please keep talking"

"Can't breath"

"Keep talking Harry, I'm coming"

"Love you, mum!"

"Oh Harry, I love you too, keep talking!"

There was an edge of fear in Molly's tone now, as if she could sense somehow what was going through Harry's mind.

"Tell Ginny…"

"You are going to tell her, Harry, you are"

Harry could feel the blackness swirling around him again, he almost welcomed it now, and he was so tired of fighting it, he just wanted to go to sleep.

"Tell her I said sorry"

"You have nothing to say sorry for Harry!"

"…Sorry, and that I love her"

"She knows Harry, she's always known"

"Need to sleep now"

"Stay with me Harry, don't leave me"

The entrance to the long dark tunnel loomed wide in front of him, and Harry found he no longer had any fight left in him, it was so easy, he closed his eyes and he just relaxed into it, all the pain faded, it was so peaceful.

"Harry! Harry!"

Molly was screaming his name now, she had managed to reach him and was shaking him, trying to get some reaction from him.

"Tonks, Tonks! Over here, help me for Merlin's sake, he can't breath!"

That was good, if Tonks was here she must have been feeling better, Harry had been really worried about her being hurt, he felt guilty, he hadn't wanted that.

"Molly move aside, let me in there, Harry, can you hear me? Whose bright idea was it to manacle him! It's not like he was going very far with injuries like these!"

His manacles were released, and his arms fell limply to his sides, some of the pain eased, but he still couldn't breath. He was gently rolled over, propped up against something soft, and as soon as he was sat up the pressure in his chest vanished. But he was still slipping into the tunnel, and he just wanted to go to sleep, he was so tired, why couldn't they just let him rest in peace?

Then someone grabbed hold of his injured shoulder and squeezed hard, digging their fingers into the wound, he screamed in agony and his eyes flew open in shock, the grip on his shoulder stopped immediately. Tonks was kneeling in front of him, her hand bloody where she had squeezed his shoulder. Some part of his mind was still capable of recognising the irony, Tonks had just saved his life by squeezing the very wound she had give him to start with.

"Wotcha Harry, welcome back to the land of the living, you gave us a bit of a fright there"

"Tonks…shot…sorry"

"Don't worry about that now. Molly, have you got him?"

Harry realised the something soft he was leaning against was Molly, she was holding him in a loose embrace, and his head was resting on her shoulder. It was a feeling of belonging that he had been waiting his whole life for.

He felt so cold suddenly he shivered violently. His teeth were chattering so hard he was afraid he would damage them.

"Tonks, he's going into shock, can we not get him back inside?"

"No Mrs Weasley we most certainly cannot, the only inside Potter will be seeing from now on is the inside of Azkaban prison. Auror Tonks, you and I will speak later at length about fraternisation with suspects in custody"

A new voice, yet familiar, Harry turned his head slightly, Rufus Scrimgeour was stood over him with a very smug expression on his face.

"Now Mrs Weasley, where are your sons? We need to speak to all of them regarding an attack on the Ministry building this evening. Potter has already been identified as a participant, and where he is involved we can normally find a Weasley or two as well"

Harry was gradually becoming more aware of his surroundings, the yard was full of Ministry personnel, not only Aurors, although most of them were, there must have been nearly forty Aurors alone, and among their number were some familiar faces.

Kingsley Shacklebolt and Hestia Jones appeared to be questioning a bound Arthur Weasley, Harry could also see Tonks' three partners, he wondered what they thought of all this, earlier that afternoon they had all been here enjoying lunch.

Percy was standing there staring in horror at what was going on around him, looking from his father to his mother with a sort of stunned disbelief.

"I don't know where they are, they were all here earlier"

"This would go a lot easier for your family if you cooperated you know, it might even keep the rest of you out of Azkaban"

Molly shot the Minister such a look of complete and utter hatred, that even Scrimgeour took a step backwards.

"No matter, I really only wanted Potter, and he will soon be going to Azkaban for the rest of his life"

"Oh I really don't think so!"

The voice was soft, yet the words carried across the whole yard, all the Aurors spun, searching for the source.

A shape dressed all in black muggle military clothing detached itself from the shadows of the broom shed where he had stood unseen and walked slowly forward, both hands were held open down at his sides, gloved palms forward. Because there was no threat in sight the Aurors lowered their wands slightly.

Thomas Bell gave Harry a wry smile, before returning his attention to the Aurors and the Minister for magic stood front of him.

"Who the hell are you?"

"You don't remember do you Rufus? Never mind, no real reason you should, to you I was a step on your career ladder, but my dear Rufus, I remember you very well!"

Thomas stepped slowly forward until he stood only a dozen feet from the Minister, his hands were still empty and held palms outward. His expression remained blank and his tone neutral.

"For fifteen years I have waited for this moment, ever since you took the wand of a scared fourteen year old boy and snapped it in front of him. Your allegations of dark wizardry made your career, and destroyed my mother's!"

"Bell…But that's not possible, I thought you were dead!"

Scrimgeour stared at the man in front of him in astonishment, a shadow from his past rising to challenge his future, it couldn't be allowed, why this man could threaten everything he was trying to build, a more stable Wizarding society, a fair government for all.

"Rufus, you do remember! Do you also remember I was banned from magic for life, I took myself into exile, cut off from everything and everyone I loved. My mother made me take a Wizarding oath on her life, to not seek vengeance against those who destroyed my life, my future, and for fifteen years I have lived by it, but guess what, Rufus, she's dead! And here I am to collect!"

"Take another step and my men will stop you permanently!"

Scrimgeour's terrified voice caused many of the Ministry personnel to look around questioningly, he was only one man, an unarmed man at that, why did the Minister seem to fear this one individual so much?

"I'm not the one that's important right at this very moment, although you and I do have unfinished business which will need to be resolved, what is important is that I think you are going to leave here, and you are going to leave empty handed"

Scrimgeour laughed, it was a cruel vicious sound.

"Why should we do what you say, there's only one of you"

"Because I stand with Harry Potter! And who said I stand alone!"

In a series of loud pops over twenty cloaked figures appeared surrounding the Aurors, wands drawn. One of them stumped forward, and although he didn't lower the hood of his cloak to reveal his features, Harry and many of the others present recognised the voice of retired Auror Alastair Moody.

"The Order of the Phoenix stands with Harry Potter!"

Shacklebolt and Tonks looked about them with shock, they had known nothing about this, and they were Aurors and members of the Order, now each had to question where their loyalties lay.

From out of the darkness came the sound of an oncoming express train, and at head height came a tight formation of thirty five fast moving broomsticks, they circled down to land, the riders dismounted and drew wands, they were all Hogwarts students or former students, wearing their house robes, other than Slytherin, all the houses were represented.

Ron Weasley stepped forward, Neville Longbottom to his right and Luna Lovegood to his left.

"Dumbledore's Army stands with Harry Potter!"

The Minister for Magic narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, however he didn't tower imposingly over Ron like he once had, and Ron stared right back at him.

"Very creditable, Mr Weasley, standing by your best friend, but you are doing yourself no favours!"

Scrimgeour's voice was harsh and cold, as he tried to salvage something from this intolerable situation.

"Harry Potter isn't my friend!" Ron snarled back "He's my brother!"

Before Scrimgeour could say a word another voice spoke.

"Although it's still a mystery to me why on Merlin's green earth I'm doing this, I too find myself standing with Harry Potter!"

Draco Malfoy stepped out from the doorway of the Burrow, limping slightly from injuries sustained during the escape, two wands drawn and both his arms fully extended outwards, from the expression on his face, he was just waiting for an Auror to twitch the wrong way.

"The faculty of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry stands with Harry Potter"

From the darkness a dozen figures moved into the light, even with a cloak there was no mistaking the massive form of Rubeus Hagrid, or the small stature of Filius Flitwick. At the front of the group, professor Minerva McGonagall spared a glance at Harry, she gifted him with a rare smile, before turning her attention back to the scene in front of her.

"Minister, I think you need to reassess your priorities, Voldemort and his followers are rampaging seemingly unchecked across our land, and instead of working to bring him down, you pitch the weight of the entire Ministry against a minor! In his short life, this minor has faced Voldemort six times on his own, and rather than help him, you would see him locked away!"

Rufus Scrimgeour had never been angrier in his entire life, he was being defied by a bunch of school kids, an exile, a collection of thieves and mudbloods, and a group of renegade teachers. Drawing his wand, he was about to order his Aurors to attack when a flash bulb went off in his face.

A boy wearing Gryffindor house robes with mousy brown hair was waving a camera about, photographing everyone and everything. And a man looking suspiciously like that idiot Lovegood, who ran _**the Quibbler **_was scribbling notes onto a parchment, he kept asking Aurors how to spell their names correctly, so he could accurately report and record the events of the night.

"All right Harry?"

Harry, a bit overwhelmed by a combination of events and medication, smiled weakly up at a grinning Colin Creevey.

"Colin"

"Yes Harry"

"Anytime you want an autograph, just ask"

"Cor thanks Harry"

Harry shivered violently again, and his body went into spasms. Molly held him tight, trying to pass along some of her strength by physical contact. She was making reassuring sounds and gently rocking back and forth. Harry just relaxed into her grip, the only mother he had ever known.

Rufus stormed up to Arthur and jabbed him in the chest.

"Weasley get a grip of your family, I want Potter handed over to me now, and that's a direct order."

Arthur Weasley looked the Minister for Magic directly in the eye, and somehow the mild mannered, often overlooked and occasionally ridiculed man seemed to grow taller, and then he did the most unexpected thing, he laughed. In the circumstances it was an unusual and out of place sound. He moved to stand alongside his kneeling wife, who was cradling his gravely injured son.

He looked down into the youth's bright green eyes and saw the fear, insecurity and pain, he also saw the bravery of the youth that had walked willingly into the mouth of hell in order to rescue his only daughter.

Family, Arthur knew that's all that really mattered in the long run, family, it's what the Weasley's did best of all, sometimes they all needed a reminder of that. Coming to a difficult decision, Arthur addressed Scrimgeour.

"Minister, I hereby tender my resignation from the Ministry of magic, effective immediately. You are trespassing on my land and I would like you to leave!"

Percy, having come to some inner decision of his own, strode, with his head held high, to stand beside his father, he studied the determination burning in his parents eyes for a moment, then grinned, shrugged, and then he turned back to Scrimgeour.

"I also hereby tender my resignation from the Ministry of Magic, the Weasley family, ALL the Weasley family stand with Harry Potter!"

There was a rustle of robes and Ron, Bill and the Twins joined their family, stood in a protective circle around Harry.

Scrimgeour took a look around, he wasn't an idiot, his forces were too evenly matched, any fight would be inconclusive at best, and sometimes it was better to cut your losses. But he would remember those that had stood against him this night, and his memory was long.

"So be it, but this doesn't end here, you can count on that, from now on the Ministry withdraws all support from Harry Potter and the Weasley's, no more Auror protection, no more Ministry healers. And if the boy wonder steps out of line just once more, I swear to Merlin I will bring the entire Ministry here to arrest him, resistance or not, he will be sent to Azkaban, as will anyone that gives him aid."

With a nod to his fellow Aurors, Rufus Scrimgeour disappeared with a loud pop, quickly followed by the others, even Tonks left with them, she had an extremely sad expression on her face.

Molly looked down into Harry's face, but he had already slipped into unconsciousness, she ran her fingers through his hair and gently stroked his face, he sighed and a little smile appeared on his face.

Molly Weasley owed this young man everything, he had gone alone into danger twice to save her daughter, because of him Arthur was alive after getting bitten by a snake, and who knows how many times he had dragged Ron into and then out of trouble. And yet he had never asked for anything in return, all he had wanted was a family and the love and security that family provided.

She made a vow, to see that Harry got everything it was in her power to give, if she had anything to say about it Harry would be a part of her family on paper as well as in their hearts as soon as she could make it happen.

OoOoO


	8. 8 A Period of Reflection

**AN/ **There was no way i was going to post this so soon, only 24hrs since the last chapter, but i am guessing that my portrayal of Tonks at the end of the last chapter wasn't popular. Several readers seemed to think she was turning her back on Harry and the Order. Bear in mind she has just found her work and a 'secret' organisation in a massive conflict of interest, in shock from being flash-banged, shot with a non-lethal shotgun round, she really wasn't having the best of days.

**AN/ **Hope this chapter will restore your faith in Tonks, she was just a little confused is all.

**AN/** Still having dramas writing Ginny, hope i'm getting it right.

* * *

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

"We do not remember days, we remember moments...but oh what moments they were!"

Cesare Pavese

Chapter Eight: A Period of Reflection

**The North Sea, 08:00 30 June**

_**HMS Iron Duke **_slammed at high speed into the rough storm tossed seas, her sleek grey bow cutting through the monstrous waves like a razor sharp Dagger through cloth. Despite the size of the waves crashing all around her, the Royal Navy warship seemed to be making easy progress.

It didn't feel that way at all to the crew. Military vessels were not built to give their crews the easy passage that the crews of commercial vessels enjoyed. The feeling of being aboard a warship in such seas was akin to riding a giant rollercoaster, repeatedly, without ever having a chance to get off.

"Alright what have we got?"

Commander Owen Jackson, the Captain of the British Navy type 23 Frigate, moved onto the bridge with the wide, almost drunken gait of someone who had spent an entire lifetime at sea, and wanted it no other way. He made his way to the chart table displaying the chart of the current area and glanced at the ships most recently marked position before turning to the Officer of the watch.

Officer of the watch Lieutenant Andrea Charles held out the powerful binoculars to her commanding officer and nodded out the bridge windows. Jackson took them and raised them to his eyes. The binoculars entire field of view was filled with a massive red hulled container carrying vessel that grew steadily larger as they approached it from astern, it seemed almost close enough to reach out and touch despite the two ships still having a mile separation between them.

The cargo ship was moving faster than the experienced naval officer had ever seen a commercial ship of her size move. He reckoned that at that speed she must have been tearing up her engines, literally shredding the bearings of her propellor shafts. He looked over at the digital readouts above the helmsman's position that gave the bridge crew all the important information such as speed, GPS position and heading.

_**HMS Iron Duke**_ was making 28 knots, racing at the warship's top speed to overtake the large cargo vessel. In calm seas it would have been no contest, the warships top speed would have quickly overhauled the cargo ship, but in seas this wild while it was better to take things a little slower, it was simply reckless in such seas for a commercial vessel to do such speeds in a major shipping lane.

"She's the _**Sovereing Maersk, **_out of Denmark. According to her logged course plan she is bound for Teeside port."

Jackson lowered the binoculars and glanced at the digital compass then looked back at his officer and raised an eyebrow. Charles grinned at her Captains unspoken question.

"Yes sir, I realise that she is heading in utterly the wrong direction, the coast guard picked up a collision alert from the ship and then no further word, we have been hailing her ever since we had her on radar and have heard nothing in reply."

The Captain nodded and once again raised the binoculars to his eyes, he kept watching as the sleek dull grey warship swung out and overtook the vessel, pulling alongside. He studied the length of the vessel, paying particular attention to the bridge, but could see no sign of any damage, foul play or for that matter, life.

Something was wrong, terribly wrong. He didn't know the reason for the ships change in course, or why she was running at flank speed, but he knew he probably wasn't going to like the answer. At the back of his mind was the possibility of pirates, that ancient marauder of the seas had been making a come back of late, and unlike their swashbuckling predecessors the latest to fly the jolly roger were known to pack automatic weapons

"I have a really, really bad feeling about this. Andrea sound general quarters please, and ask Cmdr Healey and Colour Wills to come to the bridge."

Andrea Charles nodded, managing to hide her puzzlement. She crossed to the Captain's station and reached up for the CB style handset that was part of the ship's intercom. Before she keyed it she pressed a large red button on the console before her.

A loud, persistent alarm began to ring throughout the bowels of the ship, the ship's company of 185 sailors reacted like the trained professionals they were and immediately stopped whatever mundane task they had been carrying out and manned their battle stations, knowing that the Captain would inform them of whatever was occurring at his earliest convenience.

"Beat to Quarters, beat to quarters, this is not a drill, man your battle stations."

Andrea Charles added over the ship's intercom for any who had failed to identify the strident tone of the alarm.

"Cmdr Healey, Colour Wills report to the bridge."

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic**

"Auror Tonks, come with me."

Tonks looked up from the parchment she had been diligently pretending to read, anything to try and keep her mind occupied from the thoughts threatening to her tear her composure apart. Kingsley Shacklebolt was stood in front of her desk in the Auror office, he looked unusually stern.

Nodding, she rose to her feet and followed him down the corridor and into his office. As head of the muggle Prime Minister's magical protection detail he rated his own office. Shacklebolt slumped into the chair and pointed at the door.

"Close the door."

He waited until Tonks had done so.

"So, the way i see it we have some decisions to make now, don't we Tonks."

Tonks nodded, but said nothing, letting her superior spell out what they would do.

"One, we could just follow the rest of the Order and throw in with Harry."

From the look on his face Tonks knew this appealed as little to him as to her.

"Two, we totally throw our loyalty behind the Minister, and become good little drones."

This option was even more unpleasent, but the way things seemed to be going Tonks could not see any other option.

"Or thirdly, we continue to do our jobs, keep our noses clean and our ears open, and should we hear anything that would aid our winged friends then we pass it on...very quietly of course. We would have to be very careful, because we are already suspects due to our past associations."

"I don't care! I took an oath to uphold the law, not to turn my back on those the law is supposed to aid and protect. Harry was nearly killed doing our job for us tonight, and what did we do, tried to punish him for it. I don't understand what is happening to the Ministry?"

Shacklebolt regarded her with a warm smile, the fact that he regarded her fondly was not a very well kept secret, just as 'Mad-eye'Moody had chosen Shacklebolt as his protege, so Shacklebolt had chosen Tonks. He saw something in her that many others didn't, a passion for justice that went beyond blindly following the law.

"So we are agreed, we need to keep ourselves blameless, and keep our ears open, be careful Tonks, the Minister knows only too well that we were part of Dumbledore's little 'group' of conspirators, lets not give him any more reason to distrust us."

Tonks nodded and for the first time since she had seen Harry snatch Wormtail she felt a little ray of hope enter her mind.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Harry felt the warmth of the sun on his face and his eyelids fluttered restlessly, he knew in the back of his mind he should be doing something important, but he could not remember what no matter how hard he tried. What he really wanted to do was remain just where he was, enjoying every moment of the sunlight, but the nagging voice from the back of his mind was becoming ever more demanding.

'_Really Harry, you can't just lie about like this, there is a war on!'_

It was the voice of Hermione Granger, the voice of his conscience, a voice of good sense and wisdom, and more importantly, a voice he trusted implicitly.

Harry found his eyelids did not want to open, it was if someone had stuck them down. Concentrating hard, Harry managed to force them open, at the expense of a pounding headache.

It was when he tried to glance around his surroundings that he found he couldn't move his head, or anything else for that matter, no matter how hard he tried, nothing worked! His whole body was numb, there was no feeling below his neck!

Could he have been paralysed by an injury? Suppose he was stuck like this forever! Casting his blurred vision around at his surroundings, he thought he was tucked up in bed, in what looked like the twins room, his normal bedroom that he shared with Ron was on the top floor, while the twin's room was on the second. The curtains had been pulled, and only the smallest sliver of light entered the room, and it fell directly onto his face.

There was someone sat to one side of him, he could see a blurred shape topped with flaming red hair, but could not make out who it was.

"Hello"

Well that was what he meant to say, but what actually came out sounded more like. 'Eugh' his mouth was so dry his tongue kept sticking to the roof of his mouth

"Harry? Here, I'll put your glasses on you."

Although the figure was too blurry to recognise by sight, Harry recognised Ron's voice, the blurry shape stood and crossed to the bed, Ron leaned over and carefully placed Harry's glasses upon his face.

"Hold on mate, I'll bring you some water, your mouth must be dry."

Ron disappeared from view for a moment, then returned with a glass of water, he held it to Harry's lips so he could take gentle sips, unpeeling his tongue from the roof of his mouth, Harry was finally able to talk.

"Ron, I can't move!"

"Its ok, don't panic, nothings wrong mate, Madam Pomfrey has placed you under a partial body bind so you wouldn't injure yourself further while you slept."

"How long have I been out?"

"Two days, you were in a right state, Madam Pomfrey thought you might…well you know…die."

Ron's voice cracked slightly as he said those words and Harry realised his friend was struggling to keep his emotions in check, Harry gave his friend a small reassuring smile. Ron took a long breathe to steady himself and the continued.

"But I always knew you'd pull through, you're virtually indestructible, tough as old boots, sod the boy-who-lived, you should be known as the-boy-who-wouldn't-die. I should really go and tell someone you're awake, I won't be long"

Ron disappeared quickly from sight, and Harry heard the bedroom door open and then close, and he could hear the footsteps pounding savagely on the stairs as Ron raced downstairs. Harry smile softly at Ron's enthuisasm.

He must have dozed off again because suddenly Remus was stood over him. Harry was shocked by his appearance, he seemed to have a lot more creases in his face than when Harry had seen him last, he looked older somehow and more careworn.

He didn't say anything, just reached down and brushed a lock of Harry's out of control hair off his forehead, Harry was surprised to see Remus had tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Its ok Remus, I'm not going anywhere"

Remus just shook his head and wiped at his eyes.

"But you so nearly did Harry"

Harry grinned at the rumpled old werewolf.

"How's Tonks? I need to make amends for my actions, she was hurt!"

"Plenty of time for that later, Harry"

"Ah Potter, back with us again I see"

Madam Pomfrey had arrived in the room and was stood opposite Remus, she looked down at him with something akin to affection.

"Right then, I'm going to remove the body bind, I won't lie to you Potter, this is going to hurt, a lot! But I cannot give you any pain relief draught until afterwards, because it may hide an injury we may have missed, Merlin knows you had enough of them!"

Harry nodded in understanding, and took a deep breath.

"Ok, I'm ready"

He wasn't, not in the slightest. Clamping his jaw tight shut against the scream building inside him, Harry clenched his fists so hard his nails bit into his palms. It was as if every nerve in his body suddenly became active at once and started burning, it was like the worst case of pins and needles imaginable.

After a few moments the pain eased to what for him amounted to nothing but background noise, Harry let out a moan and relaxed, taking a deep breath. He quickly did a review of what hurt and what didn't. His Shoulder, chest and thigh all burned, and he didn't really feel like trying to move anything just yet.

"So Mr Potter, how do you feel?"

"Very sore, so how bad is it, be honest I can take it!"

"I have no doubt of that Mr Potter, Well if I was asked my professional opinion about the chances of survival of someone injured as severely as you, I would have said virtually zero, but as normal Mr Potter you are a constant source of amazement."

As she talked Madam Pomfrey busied herself around the bed, straightening the bedclothes, fluffing the pillows and other things that let Harry know just how concerned she had been about the severity of his condition.

"Your body is still suffering the effects of multiple castings of the torture curse, so for a few days you can expect to experience random moments of dizziness, intolerance to bright light and headaches, and yes I am quite aware you know all about headaches Potter"

Madam Pomfrey had responded to Harry's chuckle and rolled eyes.

"Your shoulder wound was deep and bled considerably, your arm will be very sore for several days while the bones and tissues knit back together however most of the healing was accomplished while you slept, you're lucky Potter, it won't scar. You received several curses to the chest and torso area, which caused severe internal injuries, including fractured ribs, a punctured lung, a ruptured spleen and a bruised heart. Your thigh will bother you the longest, perhaps for weeks, the damage was I'm afraid, extensive, you must be careful not to overdo it for a while until the muscle and tendon damage has repaired itself. I'm afraid to say that your thigh will carry a significant scar."

Harry just winced at this, but he reflected what would have happened had he not acted, a scar was one thing, Ginny and Helen's blood on his hands was something else entirely, what was one more scar.

Turning back towards him, Madam Pomfrey's expression softened.

"You have the luck of the Irish Mr Potter, I want you to stay in bed for a further day, after that a small amount of exercise would be of benefit, however you must stop when your thigh tells you to! Your speedy recovery depends on listening to what your body tells you. I will be back in a few days to check on you, take care Mr Potter"

As she turned to leave, Harry reached up and caught hold of her hand, she turned back towards him in surprise.

"I want you to know how grateful I am, my memory of that night is a bit hazy, but I do remember my healer standing up to the ministry, and the fact she got cursed on my behalf."

Pomfrey smiled down at him and was about to turn away again when something else flashed into Harry's head, and he felt guilty that it had taken so long to make itself known.

"One more thing, Madam Pomfrey how's Ginny?"

Poppy Pomfrey's expression went hard for a second as she thought about what the poor girl had gone through at the hands of those Death Eaters.

"Physically she is healing quickly, but the trauma has affected her greatly, she won't eat or talk to anyone, and when she is awake she spends most of the time crying. She will heal, but i'm afraid it will take time."

Harry nodded his thanks, and Madam Pomfrey slipped from the room, followed reluctantly by Remus. Only Ron, stood in the doorway, remained, he was watching Harry with a strange expression on his face, he seemed to know what Harry was about to do.

"So, I suppose you'll want me to go get you some clothes and possibly a cane then? I assume you're going to be heading up a floor?"

Harry grinned at his best friend, Ron knew Harry couldn't rest until he had least seen Ginny with his own eyes, maybe he could help, because no one else had been able to get a response out of her.

OoOoO

**_HMS Iron Duke, _The North Sea**

"So, can you do it?"

Owen Jackson asked one of the two men stood beside him, they stood to one side of the bridge, the side that gave the view broadside on of the massive cargo ship, half a mile away. _**Iron Duke**_ had easily caught the ship and had dropped her speed to maintain her position alongside. The man in question was not wearing a standard naval uniform, he was wearing a dark green flight suit with Lt. Cmdr's bars on his shoulders.

John Healey, a short and balding officer, commanded the flight element of the Naval Fleet Air Arm aboard the ship, housed in a hangar at the stern of the ship was a carefully maintained mk8 naval Lynx helicopter, part of the ship's deadly anti-submarine weapons package.

Healy studied the large ship being tossed around in the weather, his face held a frown as he tried to take into account all the varied factors that would affect flying his helicopter from the deck in such conditions. Jackson gave him the time he needed to make his decision knowing if Healey couldn't do it no-one could, he was one of the best helicopter pilots in any of the armed forces.

So good in fact that he was due to take up a post as a test pilot slot when the ship finished her current tour of operations, Jackson was sure of one thing, the man would be hard to replace.

"Just flying in this weather is dicey enough sir, with these seas I doubt I could physically land on that ship, or return to this one for that matter, it's simply getting tossed around too much."

"That's ok we don't need you to land on that tub. Just getting into a hover overhead would be hoofing, we can fast rope down onto the bridge or the top of the containers, all we have to do is get to the bridge and slow that big sucker down enough to allow the crew here to get a boat alongside."

Colour Sergeant Paul Wills was the highest ranking of the twenty Royal Marine Commandos berthed aboard the frigate, he was a big, broad shouldered man who like many marines wore a large, bushy moustache with some considerable pride. He had served as a young marine during the Falklands conflict and in many countries around the world since.

The marine effortlessly exuded a confident assured air that instantly made the Captain feel at ease about the endeavour they were about to embark upon. In sea conditions such as these, any such movements were difficult in the extreme, and he didn't want to take any unnecessary risks.

"John, have you got enough fuel to drop off Colour Wills and his boarding party and then divert to the nearest shore base?"

John Healey pulled out a notebook from his flight suit and began to jot down a quick series of numbers which he fed into an equation, aircraft weight, fuel usage, time in the air. It only took him a minute before he looked up at the Captain and nodded.

"Alright then gentlemen, please carry out the plan, and be careful, I've grown too used to the pair of you reprobates now to have to go to all the trouble of trying to replace you any sooner than i have to!"

The two men grinned at him and nodded, the marine saluted. And then the two men left the bridge talking quietly together as they planned what exactly was required to carry out this hazardous helicopter flight.

OoOoO

**4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging**

Petunia Dursley was hanging out the washing on the line when she heard the doorbell. She frowned, wondering whom it could be at the door, Vernon was at work, and would not be back for several hours yet, and Dudley had gone into town with two of his friends and heaven knows what time he would return.

Moving through to the hall, Petunia could see two people waiting through the glass of the front door, two people with flaming red hair. For some reason Petunia had a growing sense of unease and dread, and the steps from the kitchen to the front door seemed harder to take than usual.

Opening the door, Petunia's worse fears were realised, when she found two of 'those people' standing on the doorstep, they were the parents of Harry's friend Donald.

The man had arrived in her blocked up fireplace, with several of his red headed menaces, two years ago, blowing the fireplace apart in the process.

"Yes, what do you want?"

"We have come to speak to you about Harry."

It was the woman that spoke, she had a determined, almost frantic look on her face.

"The Potter brat isn't here, he left five nights ago, and made so much noise he woke the whole neighbourhood."

The red headed woman's eyes narrowed slightly and her lips pressed together, at what Petunia had called Harry, but she held her tongue for now.

"We know, as we understand it you and your husband are Harry's legal guardians"

Petunia gave the man a single sharp nod, wondering what these people wanted such information for.

"Harry is a very special boy, who we, as a family have come to care for greatly, we already think of him as one of our own, but we want to make it official, we want to adopt him. But for us to do that we require you to give up all rights of guardianship"

Petunia gave a little shiver, and regarded the Weasley's carefully, despite what she thought of wizards in general, and these two in particular, they had a large and obviously loving family, and had to be at least capable parents.

She had never wanted Harry living with them in the first place, he was a constant reminder to a past that had been a painful experience for Petunia, of her parents preference for the talented, pretty Lily, and her freak of a boyfriend and then husband.

"What's in it for us?"

"We have a sum of muggle money, to recompense you for the cost of caring for Harry all these years, it should prove adequate"

Arthur lifted the lid of the briefcase he carried and showed Petunia the contents, she gulped and looked back up at them in shock.

"So does this mean he won't ever be coming back here?"

With the money as well as the fact Harry would never be coming back, Petunia knew Vernon would be over the moon at her signing away any rights of guardianship for the boy. And if anyone asked they could always say the boy had been detained indefinitely at her Majesty's pleasure.

"Do you really think after the way he was treated while he was here, he will ever want to return?"

Arthur was angry, Harry was one of the kindest, most generous children he'd ever met, and the fact he had spent his childhood with these people, beaten, starved and abused defied all logic. In theory, given his upbringing, Harry by all rights could have risen to change Voldemort for the mantle of Dark lord. Arthur loved muggles, they fascinated him, but he had never in his life come so close to using his magic to harm one.

"I'll sign, give me the papers, quickly before I change my mind"

OoOoO

**The North Sea**

With a roar from the rapidly spinning rotor blades less than three feet overhead and a blast of freezing cold air, the door of the Lynx was pulled sharply open. The crew chief stuck his head out and looked down, he spoke words into his helmet mounted microphone, expertly guiding the pilot to a hover directly over the cargo ship, words that were immediately lost to the four lightly equipped marines sat jammed into the cargo space of the helicopter.

The naval Lynx was first and fore most a submarine hunter, although it had a limited anti-ship capability as well, and had an extremely advanced electronics fit to carry out those roles, it was an uncomfortable crush to fit four lightly equipped marines into the fuselage, the Army operated version of the Lynx was nothing more than a battlefield taxi and could accommodate ten fully equipped soldiers in what was by comparison, luxury.

The crew chief reached down and picked up the metal hook fitted at one end of a thick black nylon rope from the floor and clicked it to an outrigger mounted high on the outside of the fuselage above the door, allowing the other forty feet of rope to fall free of the helicopter, helped by gravity.

With a thumbs up to the four marines, the crew chief stepped clear of the door. The first marine was Colour Sergeant Wills, and he was out the door in less than five seconds. The only parts of his body touching the rope, were his gloved hands and his booted feet, the technique wasn't called fast roping for nothing.

He hit the top of the bridge tower with his knees bent and immediately moved clear of the end of the rope, aware that in all likehood all four marines would be on the rope at the same time, if he didn't move he was sure he would get a set of size ten combat boots landing on his head in about three seconds.

The SA80 assault rifle slung across his back was in his hands the instant his hands had left the rope and he dropped to one knee, weapon in his shoulder. They didn't know what situation they going to find and it was better to not take chances.

He received a tap on the shoulder, as the last man indicated he was down safely. Looking up at the hovering helicopter, he showed a thumbs up to the crew chief, who was leaning dangerously far out of the doorway and got the same gesture in return.

The helicopter expertly side slipped a few feet, allowing the crew chief to release the rope without hitting any of the waiting marines. The hook end of the rope hit the roof near them and one of his men immediately gathered it up, they would need it to gain entry to the bridge.

The Lynx, its task now complete, dipped its nose and accelerated away, now on the second part its mission. the journey away from the cargo ship and the sleek grey warship that seemed dwarfed by the monster they were now on, and the long hazardous journey back to dry land.

"Alright let's go, Danny you have point, let's keep it tight, move out."

The four marines moved, nimble footed across the roof of the bridge tower, the first part of the plan successfully completed.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW**

Harry had seldom in his life felt so helpless, with his injured shoulder and thigh he could not even manage to dress himself. He swore he would never take Ron's friendship for granted ever again, as his best friend went above and beyond the call of duty to dress him. But finally he was dressed, his arm in a sling and a cane in his hand, ready to support his dodgy leg.

"Right, here goes nothing"

Harry pushed himself upright, and immediately his leg folded under his weight sending him crashing to the floor screaming in agony. He lay there a moment, panting, waiting for the pain to fade. Then with Ron's help he regained his feet, this time he ready for the pain, although his balance was completely messed up.

"Right, as I said, here goes nothing, again"

The wound in his thigh had started throbbing almost immediately, and Harry found he could barely but any weight on the leg without stabbing pain, using the cane helped to some extent, but he certainly would not be running any marathons for a while, not that he ever had run a marathon.

"I'll make sure the coast is clear, I don't think mum or dad are home, but let's not take any chances"

Ron slipped out of the room, as Harry made his way slowly to the door, by the time he got there his friend had reappeared, grinning at Harry Ron held the door open and indicated he should leave the room.

Using the wall and Ron for support, Harry moved out onto the landing, he was already shaking from the effort of walking, such a simple thing, yet it was taking every bit of concentration he had not to fall on his ass.

Then came the tricky bit, the stairs. Harry found he could not bend his injured leg without excruciating pain, so by using his good leg to climb the steps, he was able to swing his injured leg in an arc to get it on the same step, and then he repeated the process.

As he was climbing the stairs he was aware that Ron was following just behind him, with his hand just hovering an inch from the small of Harry's back, ready to help out should it be required. The very fact that Ron knew enough to know that Harry had to do certain things himself, but remained close enough to save the day made an impression on Harry.

Finally, after what seemed a pain filled eternity, Harry paused outside Ginny's door, he was bathed in sweat, and breathing so hard it was if he had played a hard game of Quidditch.

"Thanks mate, I've got it from here"

"Sure thing mate, if you or Ginny need anything just holler ok"

Ron watched his best friend slowly enter his baby sister's room, he stayed there for a moment after the door closed lost in his own thoughts, before turning and going back downstairs, and to sit with the still unconscious Hermione.

Harry eased himself slowly down into the chair beside Ginny's bed and sighed in simple pleasure as he took the pressure off of his leg and stretched it out in front of him. It didn't seem that long since he'd been sat here the last time she had been injured.

Well he would be damned if this would ever happen again, he would never see her hurt like this again, not while there was a single breath in his body, he would become her personal shadow, if that was what was required.

Leaning forward and resting his chin on his hands, Harry studied the sleeping girl intently. Her face had nearly healed completely, there was no swelling and only a slight discolouration. There was still bruising around her throat and on the arm he could see. Despite the injuries, she had never looked so beautiful, or so peaceful while she slept, a red headed angel.

A small moan escaped from Ginny's lips, and she shook her head back and forth in her sleep, Harry reached over and took her hand in his, and as he gently stoked the back of her hand with his thumb she quieted down once more. Keeping as quiet as possible, Harry moved the chair so that he could place his head on the bed close to Ginny's, then he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

OoOoO

**The Burrow, Outside**

Draco sat enjoying the sunshine, with his eyes closed, his back resting against the Weasley's broom shed, at his side was his Nimbus 2001. Despite the Firebolt's reputation as the fastest broom on the market, Draco still preferred his Nimbus, plus the firebolt had been his father's reward for getting Death Eaters inside Hogwarts, so it didn't really hold happy memories for him.

It had been a strange couple of days, since his arrival the adult Weasley's had been polite yet distant, the others had pretty much ignored him completely, even Ron, surprisingly enough, although Draco knew from the look on his face that Ron had wanted to take a swing at him. Draco had not expected much more, thanks to his past actions and the stigma attached to the Malfoy name, he was not trusted, and probably universally hated.

The biggest shock for him had come when he had seen Dobby in the kitchen, Draco had known Harry had tricked his father into presenting Dobby with clothes, but he had not known what had happened to the house elf after that. When Dobby had first seen him, the elf had shrieked in terror and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Dobby had recovered slightly since then, and Draco had apologised to him for the way the Malfoy family, himself included had treated him over the years, earning him a look of approval from Molly Weasley, however Dobby still shook violently when he was around Draco.

Draco didn't like to admit it, not even to himself, but he missed talking to Harry, despite their history Harry had found it in his heart to trust him, and had treated him as an equal, and that had not happened very much in his life.

He had not realised how badly hurt Harry was, he had never guessed that Harry had been dying right in front of him, and only will power had kept him going until he got to the burrow. The dark haired youth had reserves of strength that few Death Eaters suspected.

Draco was thrown into sudden shade, which was strange considering there wasn't a cloud in the sky, cracking one eye open slightly Draco investigated the sudden lack of sunlight.

Helen Bell was stood over him, from the redness of her eyes and the puffiness of her cheeks it was clear she had been crying, since her rescue she had been crying a lot. She missed her parents terribly and was not dealing with the loss very well. However she had been the only person at the Burrow that had struck up a conversation with him.

"Can I see your Broom please Draco? I've never seen a real Nimbus before, only pictures."

Draco reached over and lifted the Nimbus up to the girl, he supported the weight with one hand as she lifted it. In its dormant state it was just a piece of wood with some pedals and twigs attached. The girl was obviously interested in brooms and Quidditch, Draco had seen her hanging around whenever either was mentioned. He suddenly was struck by inspiration, he had an idea, something to make her smile, cheer her up and maybe do something to cheer himself up at the same time.

"Have you ever been taught how to ride a broom Helen?"

The girl shook her head.

"Would you like your first lesson?"

Her eyes widened, and a small smile appeared on her face. Climbing stiffly to his feet Draco pulled open the broom shed and pulled out the oldest, slowest looking broom he could lay his hands on, an ancient cleansweep 2.

At the sight of this old broom, Helen's face dropped, she thought she would be riding the Nimbus. Sensing her disappointment Draco knelt before her and looked her in the eye.

"Helen, to learn to ride a broom you need patience, and you need a slow, uncomplicated broomstick, ask Neville Longbottom sometime to tell you about his first broom ride at school. If you do well, and listen to what I say, then you might get to ride the Nimbus, ok"

Helen nodded, Draco set off for the open meadow, with a broom in each hand, and a little girl skipping happily along behind, upon reaching the large open space, Draco placed both brooms down on the ground so that the necks of the brooms were facing each other.

"Right, first lesson, most brooms are kept dormant most of the time…"

Seeing the look of confusion on the young girls face, Draco realised he would have to dumb down his explanation a little, he was not used to dealing with children of such a young age, being an only child.

"The broom is asleep, and you, the rider have to wake it up ok"

This explanation met with a wide smile.

"Ok, stand on the left hand side of the broom, no Helen, your other left, that's it. Now hold out your right hand over the broom, copy what I'm doing"

Draco stood alongside the Nimbus, although new international standard racing brooms like a Nimbus or a Firebolt were never truly dormant like the older generation of brooms, it served as a good example. He held out his right hand.

"Now, all you have to do is hold your hand there and say 'up', watch me first before you try ok?"

Helen nodded, suddenly incredibly nervous now, she had looked forward to this moment for so long, since she had known what a broomstick was, and now she had managed to work herself into a bit of a state.

"UP!"

The Nimbus leapt straight into Draco's out stretched hand, he could feel the power barely kept in check, it vibrated slightly in his hand, he smiled, because he loved that feeling of suppressed power.

"Ok now you try, remember say it with confidence, say it like you mean it"

"UP!"

The cleansweep shot upwards into Helen's hand, Draco wasn't sure who was more surprised, Helen or him, he had not expected it to work first time, it rarely did. Covering his surprise, Draco continued.

"Ok brilliant, can you feel the broom vibrating slightly? Feels good doesn't it? Right now your broom is active, you can just let go and it will hover in place, like so"

Draco released his hold on the Nimbus, it actually climbed slightly before hovering. Helen released her grip on the clean sweep and it remained in place, shaking a little.

"That's great, now, this is where you mount the broom, hold the neck tightly with both hands and pull it up, so the back end drops, now swing your leg over the broom, now let the broom handle lower on its own, watch me"

Draco expertly mounted his broom and when the broom was level again his feet touched the floor. He watched carefully as Helen repeated his actions, if she pushed off too soon or got the angle wrong as Neville had all those years ago, he was ready to intercept her. But again, to his surprise, the little five year old settled easily onto the broom as if she had been born to it.

"Now you are on your broom, and even with your feet on the floor, you are still riding, watch this."

Draco tucked his feet up off the floor into the stirrups of the Nimbus and the broom still hovered at the same height, Helen did the same on her cleansweep, all the time grinning at him, for the first time she was actually riding a broom on her own.

"Now let's get to the fun stuff, controlling the broom in flight. The broom does not have a mind of its own, it only does what you tell it, you want to climb you have to pull on the neck, to dive, push forward on the neck, left and right, lean your weight the way you want to go. So what I want you to do is sit up straight, and push off gently, like this."

Draco pushed off and rose slowly into the air.

"Your turn."

Helen pushed off and a little shakily rose upwards.

"Brilliant, now to return to earth, push forward on the neck, but stay sitting upright."

Helen sank back to the ground.

"Well done, right I think that's enough for a first lesson, don't you"

Draco laughed at the obvious disappointment on the girls face.

"Only kidding, now let's add a touch speed to liven things up slightly shall we."

OoOoO

**The Burrow, Inside**

Harry woke to the sound of excited giggles seeming to come from just outside the window, which was a bit strange as they were on the third floor. Ginny was still sleeping peacefully, so Harry rose to see what the excitement was outside, it took him a few moments to regain his balance, before he limped over to the window.

Pulling the curtains back, Harry was taken by surprise by the bright sunlight that came streaming in, covering his eyes Harry gritted his teeth against the sudden onslaught of a powerful headache. After a moment the pounding faded, and he opened his eyes again.

Hovering, just outside the window, on an ancient broomstick, Helen Bell was giggling at the antics of Draco Malfoy, he had just flown up to her and inverted, so that he was hanging upside down, hovering facing her. He seemed to explaining some of the more difficult aspects of broom control, he was using his hands, performing some intricate manoeuvre.

Which meant he was hanging upside down by his knees from the Nimbus. He casually reached down and messed up Helen's hair, which set the child off into another round of uncontrollable giggles.

Draco happened to look up and caught sight of Harry watching from the window, with a cheeky grin Draco reached up and took control of his broom.

Pulling the neck of the broom down, Draco effortlessly pitched the Nimbus down into a dive, skimming the outside of the house, accelerating out of sight. Harry had to admit, Draco knew his way around a broom, and they had so often been rivals, he had never given him the credit in the past that he had perhaps deserved.

Turning around on her broom, Helen waved at Harry, and Harry couldn't help but wave back. She grinned at him, and then to his astonishment, she lent sideways and tipped her broom over into a steep dive, following Draco. Whooping with the sheer joy of flight, she disappeared from sight.

Pulling the curtains back into place, Harry shook his head, Draco a patient instructor of children, who'd have thought. The man had hidden depths, or maybe he was judging the youth too harshly, if he had misjudged Malfoy, who else might he have done an injustice to?

There was the sound of movement from the bed, smiling Harry turned back into the room, but his smile quickly died. Ginny was watching him at the window, her eyes full of emotion, she had the bedcovers pulled up to her chin, and tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"Ginny, its ok. Everything will be ok"

Limping across the room as fast as his thigh would let him, Harry sat on the side of the bed. To his dismay, she flinched away from him as he reached out to touch her, turning her back on him.

Harry bowed his head and felt hot tears falling down his cheeks, she hated him for letting her be taken prisoner and attacked, and she hated him because he had failed to keep his word. She couldn't even bear to look at him, let alone talk to him.

Harry felt like his world was cracking apart and all the pain and heartache he had suffered and pent up inside him for so long burst forth.

"Oh Ginny I'm so sorry, I wasn't there when you needed me, I promised to protect you and I failed. I gave you my word to keep you safe, and it's tearing me up inside that you were hurt, I would have done anything to avoid that!"

Harry paused, there was no response from Ginny, and she still had her back to him. Harry sighed heavily, not sure how to continue, how to go about putting this situation right. Maybe she needed some space, some time alone without him nearny, he could always move out of the Burrow and move to Grimmauld place, maybe it wouldn't be forever.

"I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me one day, until then I want you to know that I love you Ginny Weasley, and I always will!"

Harry gathered his cane and launched himself to his feet, he had only limped a few steps when a small voice stopped him in his tracks.

"You still love me?"

Harry turned around, and stood there looking into Ginny's wide tear filled brown eyes. There was a note of disbelief in her voice and an uncertainty that Harry didn't really understand.

"Yes, I really do"

"Even after everything that has happened?"

Harry limped back to the seat, grateful to be sat down again. He was puzzled by her comment, he reached out and took her hand, but she pulled her hand sharply away from him.

"I don't understand Ginny, what has happened that could possibly change the way I feel about you?"

"Those…men, what they did to me. They touched me…they hurt me, I feel like I will never be clean again!"

She was racked by sobs now, pulling her knees up to her chest protectively, lowering her head until it was resting on her knees. Harry was completely out of his depth, all he could do was keep telling her and showing her that he still loved her.

With a gentle touch, he reached out and brushed a lock of her long red hair back behind her ear.

"Do you want me to leave? I can get Emma or fetch Luna to come and sit with you if you prefer, I don't want to cause you any more pain"

"NO! Please don't go, I want you to stay, please say you will stay"

Ginny sounded almost frantic.

"Ok, this is me not going anywhere. Ginny, why are you flinching when I touch you, are you in pain?"

She shook her head, still sobbing.

"No, I'm just so scared…and ashamed!"

Harry couldn't believe his ears, he looked at Ginny in astonishment.

"Ginny, what have you got to be ashamed of?"

"They hurt me, and…they abused me, I was so scared, I thought I was going to die! I'm ashamed because I let them do this to me! I should have been able to stop them! I'm weak!"

She was shouting at him now, almost as if it was his fault.

"Ginny, I'm small for my age, although I do appear to be having a growth spurt, and you only come up to my chin. There were three fully-grown wizards armed with wands, without your wand there was no way you could have stopped them. You fought hard Ginny, I know you well enough to know that, but this wasn't your fault, you have nothing to feel ashamed about!"

"The things they said…that I was damaged now…ugly…that you wouldn't…"

"I wouldn't what Gin?"

"You wouldn't want me anymore"

Harry was stunned into silence by Ginny's admission. How could she possibly think that anything those dead bastards had done would change how he felt towards her. Moving from the seat, he sat on the bed, stretching his legs out, reaching out he enveloped her into an embrace ignoring the twinge of pain from his shoulder, she tried to pull away, but this time he wouldn't let her, holding her tight against her struggles.

"Ginevra Molly Weasley you need to stop thinking like that right now. Nothing those monsters have done has changed how I feel about you, did you really think any of this would make me love you any less?"

As he words penetrated her mind, she finally stopped struggling, and slowly relaxed into his arms. She laid her head onto his shoulder and sobbed quietly.

"I was so afraid you wouldn't want to be near me, it hurt more than my injuries"

"I love who you are Ginny, not what you look like. I love everything about you, the way you can cheer me up by just being with me, the way you scrunch your nose up when you are concentrating on something. I love your sense of humour, and your sense of fun, but most of all, I love the way you love me!"

She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back, using his thumb and forefinger he raised her chin and gently kissed her lips, he hadn't realised how much he had missed the flowery scent of her hair that he always associated with Ginny.

Leaving her lips alone for the moment, his mouth travelled to the side of her head, he kissed her ear, and gently blew into it, Ginny giggled softly. It was a sound that reassured Harry that no matter how long it took, things would be all right in the end.

Moving down, he kissed her neck, and she moved her head to allow him better access, she moaned softly with pleasure. Knowing he was doing a good job, Harry continued along her bare shoulder and down her arm. By the time he had reached her hand, Ginny had flushed bright red and was beaming at him.

"Oh boyfriend of mine, I do love thee!"

"Well that's good to know, I thought for a moment you were just using me for my fame and my kissing skills!"

For a moment Ginny stared wide-eyed at him, before bursting out in another fit of giggles.

"Now I don't know about you, but I could really do with some food, how about some soup?"

Ginny nodded, her eyes still dancing with humour.

"Dobby!"

The house elf was there with his usual sharp response time, appearing out of thin air standing on the end of the bed. As soon as he saw Harry he threw himself at the young wizard, engulfing him in a hug.

"Oh Dobby is so pleased to see Harry Potter awake! Dobby was so worried about Harry Potter! What can Dobby do for Harry Potter, anything sir anything!"

Harry, laughing so hard he nearly fell off the bed, pulled the over emotional house elf off him, then to his amazement, Dobby turned and hugged Ginny just as hard, she just looked at Harry with wide astonished eyes.

"Dobby is also pleased that mistress Wheezy is feeling better, can Dobby get mistress Wheezy anything?"

"Dobby, please just call me Ginny ok, I'm not your mistress, well…not yet anyway"

Harry grinned at her and rolled his eyes.

"Dobby will try to remember what mist…Ginny Wheezy says"

"Thank you Dobby, could I have some soup please?"

"Yeah, that sounds great, make that two lots of soup please Dobby"

The house elf beaming from ear to ear made an extravagant bow and silently disappeared.

"You know, one of these days I am going to have to sit down with Dobby and work through this whole master/servant thing he has going on…umphhh!"

The pillow that hit him in the face buried anything else Harry might have said. Turning to his giggling girlfriend, Harry raised his eyebrows in an 'oh really' fashion, before diving atop of her and trying to blow a raspberry in her ear.

Dan was just coming down from the room he and Emma were using during their stay at the burrow. He paused outside of Ginny's bedroom for a moment when he heard a shout, thinking perhaps something was wrong he put his hand on the door handle ready to investigate.

He relaxed when he heard Harry's laughter and Ginny's playful scream, he smiled to himself, pleased someone else in the house was on the way to being healed. Now if only Hermione would wake up, everything would be right with the world.

OoOoO

**The Burrow, Outside**

Draco watched as Helen brought her broom in for an inch perfect landing, he clapped in real appreciation, bringing his own broom in with just his knees. Landing beside her, he helped her dismount, she still had trouble with landings because her legs were just not long enough.

Taking hold of both brooms, Draco placed them over his shoulders and led the way back towards the broom shed. Draco had been surprised how much he had enjoyed himself, he always enjoyed himself whenever he was on a broom, but this was more than that, he had actually enjoyed the five year olds company.

Her enthusiasm and energy were boundless, and she listened so intently to everything he said. As an only child, Draco had never been exposed to younger children, other than at school. At Hogwarts he had always been trying to impress or intimidate those younger than himself, this was a different matter altogether.

Draco rounded the corner and pulled up suddenly, there stood by the front of the broom shed, with her arms crossed tightly in front of her, looking decidedly unhappy was Katie Bell. Draco's inner alarm bells began ringing, and for the first time he wondered if the whole broom thing had been such a good idea.

Bending down so he could whisper in Helen's ear, Draco kept his eyes fixed on the obviously irate Katie.

"I think you had better run along now Helen, I think I'm about to be shouted at by your sister"

Helen grinned knowing just what that was like and glad it wasn't aimed at her, and to Draco's surprise threw her arms around his shoulders and gave him a hug.

"Thank you Draco, I really enjoyed it"

Leaving a blushing and opened mouthed Draco in her wake, Helen ran off giggling. Before Draco could compose himself and turn to face the new threat, Katie was upon him, as fierce as the beast that had been her house mascot.

"What in Merlin's name did you think you were doing, she's five years old? What if she had fallen off, or lost control. How dare you do this without asking me first!"

_Merlin but she's pretty when she's angry_.

Draco blinked in astonishment at this thought that had so randomly popped into his head. He had never really paid much attention to Katie Bell while she was at Hogwarts, she had always been a Gryffindor and therefore until recently, the enemy, in fact the previous year he had nearly killed her unintentionally with a cursed necklace aimed at Dumbledore, Draco hadn't really liked himself very much back then and certainly didn't think like that anymore.

Taking a good long look, Draco had to admit she was a stunner. She was a year older than him and Katie was nearly as tall as him, her long raven hair falling down her back in glossy waves. Her face had that golden brown colour to it that showed she enjoyed the outdoors and she had freckles, just like her sister, although they were not anywhere near as prominent as on Ginny Weasley.

"Are you going to answer me Malfoy, or just stare at me all day like some kind of idiot?"

Draco shook himself back to reality, her eyes flashed with anger and from the set of her shoulders she was close to punching him.

"Katie, look I'm sorry. In hindsight I should have asked you before taking her up, I know that. But she just looked so miserable, I was just trying to cheer her up, and I know how interested she is in riding a broom, I just didn't see any harm in it, besides did you see the smile on her face."

"Yes…I did, I haven't seen her smile like that since…well for a long time now"

Katie's tone had softened dramatically, and she had cocked her head to one side and was regarding him with a penetrating expression. Draco found the sensation of being studied so hard to be a little uncomfortable, despite the fact he had been doing this very thing to Katie only moments ago.

"I suppose I should thank you, it was good to see her happy again after so long, I know I worry too much, but she is my responsibility now, all I have left in the world, maybe I'm being a little bit overprotective"

"There is nothing wrong with worrying about those close to you Katie. But you have nothing to worry about with your sister, she's a complete natural, I had more chance of falling off my broom than she had of falling off of hers. In fact I have only ever seen one person more natural on a broom during their first lesson, and that's his holiness Potter himself."

There was a trace of pride in Katie's face.

"Next time, why don't you come up with us Katie? An extra pair of eyes couldn't hurt, besides you might even have a little bit of a good time too."

'_And I will get to spend time with you'_

Where in Merlin's name were these thoughts coming from, what the hell was going on in his head, Draco asked himself with bemusement.

"We'll see, perhaps tomorrow"

OoOoO

**Nearby**

Luna found Neville sat on the bank of the stream that bordered the Weasley property, he sat hunched up, his knees drawn right up to his chest, alone in a world of his own misery.

Although she wasn't sneaking, she managed to get very close to him without him hearing, when the twig snapped beneath her feet, it sounded like a the crack of an apparation in the silent confines of the wood. Neville span, his wand pointing at her heart, for a long moment he stared at her with pain filled eyes, before he turned back away.

"Go away Luna, I really want to be alone right now!"

Luna ignored him and came and sat beside him, she tucked her wand behind her ear in an absent-minded manner. Neville glowered at her, but she seemed not to notice.

"I said I wanted to be alone!"

"Yes, I know what you said Neville. I also know that you didn't really mean it, not deep down"

They sat there in silence for a long time, Neville angrily ignoring Luna hoping she would take the hint and leave, Luna quietly humming to herself, absently playing with her long blond hair, while keeping a careful eye out for any crumple-horned snorkacks.

Eventually Neville sighed and turned and faced Luna.

"I miss her, Luna, I miss her so much"

Neville's voice was soft and full of pain. Luna's face lost its dreamy expression and she turned to face him.

"I know you do Neville, that is only natural, you loved you grandmother, but you're not alone, you have friends to help you, if you will only trust us"

Luna carefully put an arm around his shoulders and pulled an unresisting Neville so that his head rested on her shoulder. Neville began sobbing quietly, his tears falling onto her shoulder, with her free hand Luna gently stroked his cheek, making reassuring sounds and rocking gently back and forth.

She had reached forth and found the pain inside him, and without pushing too hard, she was trying to lead him back onto to the path of healing, it was an empath's greatest skill, to sense the distress in others and understand how to deal with it.

"I'm all alone now, what am I going to do?"

"You are stronger than you realise Neville, and you will never ever be truly alone."

After several minutes, Neville straightened and wiped his eyes dry, he smiled at Luna, and leaned in and gently kissed her cheek.

"Thank you Luna, I know where the saying 'a shoulder to cry on' comes from now"

Luna grinned and ruffled his hair, and then she stopped, her hands on both his cheeks and with a serious look in her eyes, regarded him carefully for a moment.

"Neville I meant what I said, you will never be alone, you have friends who care a great deal about you…I…care a great deal about you"

Leaning in she kissed him gently on the lips, for a moment Neville caught completely by surprise, just sat there like an idiot. But once he had got over the initial shock, he leaned into her and kissed back.

They both lowered themselves to the ground, and wrapped themselves in each other's arms, and for that particular moment at least, all was right with the world.

OoOoO

**The Burrow, Inside**

It was Dobby and Winky's arrival bearing trays of food that brought the short, yet passionately fought conflict to an end. Both Harry and Ginny were flushed and grinning madly at each other, and the bedclothes and pillowcases were spread all about the room, the discarded debris of a hard fought yet ultimately indecisive war of attrition.

Harry looked up at the trays with a slight frown on his face, there were eight bowls of steaming soup, were they about to have visitors?

"Er…Dobby, what's with all the soup?"

"Dobby didn't know what favour Harry Potter or Mistr…Ginny Wheezy would prefer, so Dobby brought a selection, Dobby has Pumpkin, chicken, vegetable and tomato"

Trust the house elf to think of every eventuality.

"Thank you Dobby, and thank you Winky"

The house elves set the trays on the side and both bowed low before disappearing.

"Spoilt for choice, which would you prefer?"

Harry asked with a grin.

"I think I'll try chicken"

"Chicken it is"

Harry reached out and passed her a bowl of chicken soup, selecting tomato for himself. Passing her a spoon, he sat and watched her as she eat. She was wearing a sleeveless pyjama top with little broomsticks on it with matching bottoms, with her red hair tied back in a ponytail, it made her look younger than her fifteen years. Nearly sixteen, Harry reminded himself, just as he was nearly seventeen, nearly an adult according to the Wizarding world.

There were times in his life that he had thought he would never live to see his seventeenth birthday, and he still had so much to do, but none of that mattered now, all that mattered for that moment was the pretty red head sat on the bed beside him.

"Are you going to eat something or just let your food get cold watching me?"

Harry smiled in reply and reached for his spoon.

OoOoO

**The North Sea**

"And they were all like this?"

Owen Jackson stood leaning against the bulkhead, just inside the doorway of the infirmary onboard _**HMS Iron Duke**_. The small room was so crowded that he couldn't have gotten any further inside even if he had wanted to.

The ship's doctor and his orderly busied themselves around the two men strapped to the beds, who in turn were being watched over by three armed Royal Marines, members of the initial boarding party. The fourth member of the marine boarding party was who the Captain addressed his question to.

"Yes sir, all fifteen of them exactly the same, it's like the lights are on, but there's no one home."

Colour Sergeant Wills stood at parade rest in front of his Captain, trying to not let the horror he felt at what his team had discovered on the cargo ship corrupt his businesslike tone of voice. He succeeded, barely.

"Sir, over the years I've seen nearly every sort of injury imaginable, gunshot wounds, shrapnel injuries, explosive trauma, knife wounds, poisoning and nerve gas victims. I have never seen anything that will do that to a man!"

Wills pointed to one of the men on the beds, from his uniform he was the vessels Captain. He was laid upon the bed, his mouth hanging slackly open, drool running down his cheek, he seemed to not notice, or not care. In fact nothing happening in the infirmary seemed to register with the man at all.

Jackson watched as the medical orderly shined a pen torch into the man's eyes, the eyes dilated but refused to follow the movement of the torch as the orderly moved it from side to side. The man had a vacant, thousand yard stare that seemed to bore through everyone in the room without seeing them, or without recognising them.

"Well doc?"

Jackson asked the ship's medical officer, Joe Foley, as he approached. The middle aged man had once been a successful private practise Doctor, then had heard the call of the sea and joined up, he had been with the _**Iron Duke**_ for years, and many of Jackson's young crew regarded the man as almost a father figure.

"Apart from dehydration and malnutrition they are both perfectly healthy."

A moment's stunned silence followed the comment.

"What!"

Both the Marine non-com and the Captain exclaimed at the same time.

"Physically there is nothing wrong with either of them, no wounds or injuries, nothing to explain the catatonic state they are in, I've taken blood work to test for drugs and other foreign agents, but the infirmary isn't equipped to carry out that sort of forensic tests. We need a fully equipped lab for that."

The Captain nodded his understanding and regarded the two patients for a moment before regarding the doctor again.

"Ok Joe, give me your best guess, what did this?"

The older man shrugged.

"I've seen this reaction before in individuals suffering from physical and mental trauma, but fifteen members of the same crew, all at once, out in the middle of nowhere? I just don't know. It would have to be a gas of some form, a toxin or nerve agent. I've seen gas kill and burn, even cause hallucinations, but this? Sorry Cap. without a fully equipped lab i've gone as far as i can."

"Never mind, just do what you can, I have to report this in."

Turning, Jackson ducked out of the infirmary, his mind already on the message he would send to the admiralty in London, he could only report the facts, because any speculation on his part would only cloud the issue.

OoOoO

**Knockturn Alley**

The two figures moved cautiously into the shadows of the small alleyway, one had a wand in his hand ready for trouble, the other had both hands empty, but they never strayed far from his robes. The apparently unarmed one nodded to his companion and remained at the mouth of the alley looking outwards, he seemed somehow to just effortlessly merge with the shadows and disappear from view, while the other moved deeper into the alley.

"That's far enough!"

A woman in her mid twenties stepped out of the shadows wand raised, she wore a dusty travelling cloak that had seen better days, and tattered old Hogwarts School robes of Gryffindor house, she had long red hair, freckles, and a cute button nose.

Remus Lupin slowly reached up and lowered the hood of his cloak, his eyes never leaving the bright brown eyes of the woman before him. It was one of the strangest feelings he had ever known, looking at a fully grown up, adult vision of Ginny Weasley, no wonder Harry had fallen so hard, if this was the stunner of a woman she would in a few years become.

"Tonks?"

"Give me the password, Remus"

The wand had not moved an inch from his heart.

"Moonlight marauder"

"Advance guard, were you followed?"

Tonks' voice was soft.

"Yes of course I was, the Minister's private goons are everywhere, as soon as we reached the Leaky Cauldron we picked up a tail, but we lost him by ducking inside Gringotts, I have an…arrangement with the staff"

The wand lowered and for a moment the woman's features seemed to flicker and flow, before the pale heart shaped face and bubblegum pink hair of Tonks appeared. She looked back up the alley over Remus's shoulder, and indicated with her wand.

"Who did you bring with you, someone trustworthy I hope?"

Remus nodded, not quite willing to give away Thomas' identity yet after the pair's previous encounter. He kept his eyes on the young Auror, there was something different about her, a sadness in her face that hadn't been there before, as well as a determination, a fire that burned in her eyes.

"I was so happy when I got your message, I thought you had walked away from the Order, away from me"

A smile lit up her face like someone turning on a muggle lamp. It was the smile that Remus lived for.

"You stupid wolf, do you really think i would let the small matter of insurrection against the Ministry come between us?"

Before Remus could say another word Tonks was in his arms, her lips pressed against his. He pushed her into the alley wall and pressed his body against hers, arms and legs entwined. His hands were in her hair, running down her back, touching her cheek.

When finally they separated, they both were breathing heavily and flushed, grinning like fools.

"So are you coming back with us?"

Tonks shook her head sowly, the sad look crossing her face again.

"No, i can do more good where i am, Kingsley and i will be more useful to you if we remain in place, as good little foot soldiers."

A little bitterness had crept into her voice as she spoke, causing Remus to understand that she wished it wasn't so.

"You need to understand me Remus, Kingsley and I are in a very dangerous position, we need to tread very carefully to avoid being noticed. The less people that know about us the better, which is why you must not tell anyone at the Burrow, not yet at any rate."

She turned away from him, her head bowed.

"I have to get back before i am missed, if i have any information i will send word to you. How is he?"

Tonks asked softly.

"Who, Harry?"

Tonks nodded.

"He's awake, and his sense of humour has returned. He asked about you straight away, he feels very guilty about you getting injured."

"And Ginny?"

"I imagine now Harry's awake she will recover quickly enough, they seem made for one another, as I have been led to suspect we are. Please Tonks, be careful, I have only just found you, i don't know what i would do if i lost you so soon."

Tonks reached up and gently touched his cheek.

"Warn Harry, the Minister has let it be known that he wants Harry nailed for something, anything, any underage magic, any illegal apparation, unauthorised portkey use, anything, and they will be coming for him, and he is no longer to be considered above the law. see you soon Remus"

Tonks turned to leave, but Remus moved to block her path, he bent down and gently kissed her lips.

"Stay safe, Merlin be with you"

Tonks nodded, and turned, she moved into the deep shadows from where she had entered and vanished from sight.

Remus stood there a long time watching the space where she had been, until a worried Thomas came to investigate, Remus forced a smile and turned to leave.

"Remus are you ok?"

"Not really, my girlfriend has spent too much of her time around Harry, let's get back to the burrow, you need to spend more time with your sisters, you have a lot of missed years to catch up on."

The two men turned back towards the mouth of the alley way, only to find their way blocked by four very large, brutal looking men, for an instant Remus feared that Tonks had betrayed them, had sold them out, but that was a simply ridiculous thought, she would have tried to arrest them herself if that had been her intention.

"In the name of the Department of Security and Justice you are hereby placed under arrest, you will surrender your wands and come with us!"

Department of Security and Justice? Remus had never heard of such a department, and these men did not have the look of Aurors about them, more like hired street thugs.

"Under what charge have we been arrested?"

"Conspiracy to overthrow the Ministry of Magic! Now I won't ask again!"

Thomas had placed himself in front of Remus, part of the reason was purely instinct, to place himself between a threat and a civilian, which was why he had come on the little jaunt in the first place, just because in another life he had once been a grunt infantryman didn't mean he was stupid. With the events of that night, he had known things were changing, and that this mild mannered former professor would end up playing a bigger role than perhaps he imagined.

"My wand, yes of course officer, here you go"

As Thomas reached into his robes, he turned his head and hissed a pre-arranged code phrase over his shoulder to Lupin.

"Full moon!"

In a blur of rapid motion the black MP5 appeared from under Thomas' robes, where it had been hanging hidden from sight on its nylon sling, clicking off the safety, he ensured it was set to three round burst, not the single shot he preferred, and pointed it at the first wizard. It was clear from their puzzled expressions they had no idea what he was holding, and certainly didn't consider the submachine gun a threat, which was about to change.

"Gentlemen, let me introduce you to a great personal friend of mine, this is the Heckler and Koch MP5A4, it fires a 9mm full metal jacket round capable of blowing a hole the size of a sickle in you, it has a magazine capacity of 30 rounds and has a cyclic rate of 600 rounds a minute. So in practical terms I could kill all of you before any you could even utter an incantation for a spell, here, let me give you a quick demonstration."

**BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. **A large portion of brickwork directly to one side of the four men was instantly reduced to dust, at the sound all four men had dropped to the floor and covered their ears, the echoes reverberated up and down the alley for a few seconds.

Walking forward, Thomas paused above the still prone men.

"Now, gentlemen if I see even one of you appear out of this alley in the next ten minutes, I shall do to you what I just did to that wall, are we understanding each other?"

Four rapid nods followed his words.

"Good, then our business here is concluded"

Thomas turned and grinned at Remus, who had taken cover at the code phrase. The man was staring at him, and then looking at the wall in amazement. Unlike most in the Wizarding world, Remus kept more or less up to date with the muggle world as much as he could, he was aware of the conflicts they fought, but this was the first time he had been directly exposed to the effects of their weapons.

"Let's go"

Remus nodded, and the two men left the alley quickly, Thomas slipped the black weapon back under his robes so as not to arouse any official attention. Behind them in the alley four men lay on the floor for far longer than the required ten minutes.

OoOoO

**Various British Military Facilities**

The message sent from _**HMS Iron Duke **_had a much more dramatic effect than any of her crew, including her Captain could possibly have foreseen. The message flashed upwards to an orbiting military satellite and after being bounced from several of its companions was eventually beamed to the large receiver dish mounted on top of the Naval Operations Centre at Northwood some miles north of London.

Although the head offices of the Navy were still located in the Admiralty building in central London where they had been located for hundreds of years, the actually day to day operational running of the Navy, as in what ship or submarine went where in the world, was conducted from the state of the art facility at Northwood.

Unbeknownst to any on the _**Iron Duke**_ this was not the first such attack that had occurred in the area of the North Sea, over the space of several days the number of attacks had steadily grown, until it hovered at the dozen mark.

A deep sea fishing trawler, an oil rig and its support tender, a private roll-on roll-off ferry, even a small naval patrol boat, all had been attacked by the same mystery assailant, with exactly the same result. All crew members were found to be in a deep catatonic state, and none of those affected had as yet shown any signs of improvement.

So far the government, with Royal Navy's assistance had managed to keep the attacks out of the press and out of the public domain, but that could not last for much longer, too many ships, too many people were affected for it to remain under wraps forever.

Something had to be done, but what? No one knew what form the attacks were taking, no one could find any trace of chemicals in the victims blood, no way to counteract whatever had been done to them in a medical sense.

So in the time honoured military tradition of where doing _**something**_ was better than doing nothing at all, several decisions were made.

First, in case the attack was indeed biological or chemical, it was decided to establish a quarantine area into which could be placed all the affected shipping, including those that had instigated rescue efforts, until such a time that a solution could be found.

Secondly the American Center for Disease Control in Atlanta was informed of a possible epidemic of an unknown viral agent, and the effects, so others could be on the look out for any similar cases world wide.

Thirdly it was decided to place the British military as a whole at a much higher alert state than they currently sat at, to take effect immediately.

When the new orders were broadcast, the raise in the alert state hardly affected the Army at all, they had always taken great pride in the fact that they lived their lives permanently ready to deploy into the field. Most soldiers in fact always kept a Bergen packed ready for any eventuality, ready to move at a moments notice. All leave was cancelled, all unnecessary travel suspended, personnel on duty guarding Army camps quietly doubled and live ammunition issued to all those guarding military bases.

For the Royal Air Force, the change in the alert state meant fighter interceptors on around the clock standby, ready to intercept and identify any suspect aircraft in or entering British airspace. Maritime patrol aircraft began to prowl the coastal skies, electronically interrogating any unknown shipping in British national waters.

But it was the Navy that was the worst affected of the three services by the orders. Within twelve hours of the order being given, every vessel in the surface fleet that was able to sail left their home ports, and began to take up positions adjacent to the major shipping routes into and out of Britain, awaiting orders to either assist any vessel in distress, or interdict and board any vessel that was deemed suspicious.

It didn't end there...

In the very early hours of the morning, seven black, indistinct shapes slipped quietly and stealthily, unnoticed out of the sea gate entrance to the Royal naval base at Faslane in Northern Scotland. Four of the shapes were sleek and thin, while the three remaining were fatter and broader.

Once deep water had been reached, before the light of the dawn could touch them, one by one the seven shapes slipped silently beneath the still Scottish waters and they were lost from sight with barely a ripple to mark where they had been.

Britain's nuclear submarine fleet was for the first time ever recorded all going to be to sea at once. Normally the submarines would spend three to six months on patrol and the next rotation in port undergoing refits. But now all of the submarines able to put to sea were away from vulnerable home ports, the hunter-killer attack submarines, and the larger, ballistic missile boats with their nuclear tipped arsenal. They were too tempting a target for any potential terrorist and it was felt safer to hide them out of reach until the alert level dropped.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Harry lent back against the headboard of Ginny's bed and closed his eyes with a satisfied sigh, after having finished his third bowl of soup. It shouldn't have come as a surprise how hungry he was, after three days of unconsciousness his body had been crying out for sustenance.

"As much as I'd like to stay here forever, I owe some people my thanks for what they did the other night, including every single one of your brothers, are you ok with going downstairs?"

Ginny's carefree look was suddenly replaced by a look of anxiety, she was still troubled by what had happened, and her confidence had taken a huge knock. Harry wrapped his good arm around her, pulling her closer, and then he kissed her forehead.

"Everyone here loves you, Ginny. Nobody cares about your bruises, you're still the same person you were before, the same silly little girl I love"

"Silly little girl! Why you…!"

Ginny grabbed the first available weapon, a soup spoon and hit him on the end of the nose with it, Harry, now laughing so hard he was crying, tried to defend himself from the wild and frenzied attack, to no avail. In the end he used the only option available to him, he just grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto his lap and kissed her soundly and passionately on the lips. Managing to disarm her while she was distracted.

"Hey, that's not on, using your lips as a weapon gives you an unfair advantage!"

Ginny complained when they separated some time later.

"All's fair in love and war, besides you didn't seem to mind that much, oh girlfriend of mine!"

"Well there are worse things in life than being snogged to death by Harry Potter I suppose"

Ginny stood and walked to her wardrobe, she was selecting clothes to change into, and to Harry's amusement, her nose scrunched up as she concentrated. She selected a pair of trousers and her favourite pink blouse, and the jumper with all the tassels that her mother had made her for Christmas.

Harry suddenly felt the flush of embarrassment, when he realised that Ginny planned to change in front of him, he was not sure he was ready for that, well in fact he knew he was, but he was unsure how to broach the subject with Ginny.

"Do you er…want me to er…leave?"

Ginny looked over at him, frowning, almost as if she had forgotten he was there.

"Only if you feel like you want to, I feel better with you here, I know you will keep me safe"

Harry smiled at her, and he would, whatever it took. He hadn't told her yet that he and Draco had killed two of those responsible for her attack, unsure if that would help her come to terms with it, or just make her think he was a murderer. He'd keep that information to himself for now.

Harry watched her as she unbuttoned her top, she was stood with her back to him, but even from the bed he could she her hands were shaking. Her hands dropped limply to her sides and she bowed her head. Harry was moving as soon as he heard the first sob, he levered himself off the bed, and with the aid of the cane limped over to her.

Carefully, ignoring the pain, he worked his arm out of the sling, he was going to need both arms for this particular little piece of TLC. He came up behind her and enveloped her in a hug, resting his chin lightly on top of her head.

"Hey, its ok Ginny, this is just going to take a little bit of time to get through that's all, but I'm here for as long as you need me to be."

Ginny nodded, reached up and gripped both his arms in gratitude, and then she pulled them gently away, and taking a deep breath, slowly pulled her top open. She gasped in shock, looking for the first time at the bruised state of her torso, more tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Look…look what they've…done to me, I'm so ugly!"

Ginny was wailing now, her shoulder shuddering from huge sobs. Harry gritted his teeth, if the monsters that had done this weren't already dead, he would have gone out and killed them. Not this time for the injuries themselves, but for the way they had made Ginny doubt herself, she was usually so confident and brash, but because of this she had withdrawn in on herself.

Being careful not to hurt her, he spun her around and slipped his arms inside the loose flaps of her top, pulling her to his chest and held her there until he felt the shudders and sobs stop, it took nearly five minutes. Pulling back slightly he looked down at her.

"Ginny, you are not now and nor have you ever been ugly, you are beautiful in body and spirit, I love thee so oh girlfriend of mine, and no matter what happens, that will never change."

Taking a deep breath, Ginny nodded and gave him a small smile, and then she turned back to the mirror. She carefully let the pyjama top slide off her shoulders and onto the floor. Harry gently placed his hands on either side of her slender waist, enjoying the warmth of her bare skin and kissed the back of her neck, she gave a small moan of pleasure.

"At this rate Harry we'll never get downstairs"

"I can stop"

"I didn't say that"

"Just say the word and I'll stop right this second"

"Shut up fool and kiss me"

"Whatever you say, oh girlfriend of mine"

Harry worked his lips across her shoulder blades and back up to her neck, she shivered slightly and pressed back against him. He felt her take hold of one of his hands and had to take a sudden deep breath when she guided the hand to one of her small but perfectly formed breasts.

"Ginny, maybe it's too soon for this, I don't want you to do something you're not ready for"

"The kissing seems to have stopped, why? Harry its ok, really, just be gentle please, I'm still a little bit sore"

Just using the tips of his fingers, he gently traced the curve of her breast, ignoring the bruises, he gently cupped the breast in the palm of his hand, she moaned softly and pressed back hard against him, which normally would have been fine, but since he was only stood on one leg to keep the strain off his injured thigh, he over balanced.

"Uh-oh!"

Instinctively, as he went over backwards, Harry grabbed hold of the only thing within reach, which happened to be Ginny's breasts, taking her with him. At some point in the journey to the floor Harry realised what was happening and he wrapped both arms protectively around her and turned slightly to take the impact on his good shoulder.

What he really needed was the soft cover off her bed to cushion his fall, hitting the floor with his injured shoulder and chest was really going to hurt, and he'd had enough pain lately to last a lifetime. Harry closed his eyes, preparing for the inevitable pain.

He hit the floor, or rather he landed on something soft. Opening his eyes Harry saw he was lying on the covers from Ginny's bed, they were several feet from where he had last seen them, and they were neatly folded double.

How on Merlin's green earth had that happened, the covers had been on the bed, of that he was sure, and neither he or Ginny had moved them since finishing their soup. And yet here they were, at the precise moment that he had needed them they were there.

Harry suddenly remembered his wand appearing out of thin air in his hand in the middle of a spell fight with three Death Eaters, it seemed he had discovered a new talent, it was something he knew that he had to look into. Anything that gave him an advantage over Voldemort, anything that could keep him alive was going to be welcome, all he had to do now was learn how to control this gift and what limitations it had.

"Are you ok Gin?"

Ginny giggled.

"I'll take that as a yes then shall I?"

"That was fun, let's do it again?"

Releasing Ginny, he allowed her to slip off his chest onto the covers, she rolled over onto her front, and raising herself up onto her elbows, she turned her head and grinned at him.

"You know, if you wanted me on the floor this badly you only had to ask"

"Excuse me, but I happened to notice you're the one that pushed me over, I think it's you that wants **me** on the floor, oh girlfriend of mine"

Ginny seemed to consider this fact for a moment, and to Harry's delight she scrunched her nose up in concentration, and then she shrugged.

"I guess since you put it that way…"

She leaned over and kissed him on the lips, her hands in his hair and gently running across his chest, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in tight, then he rolled, taking her with him, their legs and arms intertwined. He held her so close he could feel her heart beating excitedly, he could feel the warmth of her breasts pressing against his chest, her sweet breath on his neck.

Running one hand from her neck, down the small of her back, Harry felt Ginny shiver with pleasure, and without conscious thought his hand continued the downward motion beyond the waistband of her Pyjama bottoms. The palm of his hand gently caressed the naked flesh of her rump, and he felt a stirring in his trousers as he realised Ginny wasn't wearing any underwear.

Harry realised his heart was beating just as fast as hers, and as much as he wanted to just let himself get carried away in the passion of the moment, he knew he had to stop this before it went too far. Not because he didn't want this, he did, of course he did, in his position who would not. But this wasn't how he wanted the first time to be, he wanted it to be special.

"Ginny…stop, I think you should put some clothes on before your mother comes in and catches us like this, she'll set your brothers on me, and there's too damn many of them for that to be a small threat"

Ginny laughed aloud at the thought of Harry running for his life from all six of her brothers, she wasn't sure which of them would do him the most harm.

Climbing to her feet, Ginny bent down facing Harry and picked up the discarded pyjama top, fully aware of what that was doing to him.

"You are pure evil, girl, that's just a cruel and unusual punishment, oh girlfriend of mine"

Ginny gave him her best angelic smile and flickered her eyelids at him.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean"

Slipping on a bra and her pink blouse, she slipped off the pyjama trousers and reached for a clean pair of knickers, if she had noticed how quiet it had gone, she gave no sign. Harry was transfixed, he'd never seen her naked bum before, and…well today was certainly a day of firsts. Lying back on the cover, Harry stared up at the ceiling with a big smile on his face, for once in his life he had to admit it was good to be him.

Rolling onto his front, Harry climbed to his feet with an extreme amount of difficulty and sat perched on the end of the double bed, waiting while Ginny combed her hair, with amazement he found he took a strange pleasure just watching her do the simplest of things.

"Ready?"

"Yeah, I suppose let's go"

OoOoO

**AN/** The warship featured here, the type 23 frigate HMS Iron Duke has recently been made famous for hosting Prince William as part of his military service, all information given about military hardware is publicly available online, but i hope i can pass on a little of the experiences involved, i hope my writing is up to the job.

**AN/ **Good night, sleep tight, don't let the Thestrals bite, assuming that you can even see them of course.


	9. 9 Family

**AN/ **This chapter features the first real piece of broom action in the story, never been very good at this sort of passage in the past, and to be honest wasn't comfortable with it here, but i was asked to leave it in.

**AN/ **Where in other chapter i have tried to show what is happening in the wider world, this chapter is a little different in that it remains focued on the Burrow.

* * *

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

"The family is one of nature's masterpieces"

George Santayana

Chapter Nine: Family

**The Burrow, 13:00 30 June**

By the time Harry reached the kitchen, he was in considerable pain, his thigh was felt like it was on fire, and forcing him to cry out with each step he took. He had quickly discarded the cane in favour of Ginny. When he had nearly fallen, on his way down the stairs, she had moved quickly and saved him from a head first plunge down three flights of steps.

She had positioned her shoulder snugly under his armpit, placing her arm tightly around his waist, and despite any discomfort it caused her, she was supporting a lot of his weight as he descended the stairs.

Harry was concentrating so hard on not falling over that he never saw Molly bounding across the kitchen towards him and Ginny. She swept them both up into a hug, although for once she was careful not to squeeze Harry too hard due to his injuries. Ginny however was not so lucky, Harry could see her face turning red, almost matching the colour of her hair.

Finally releasing her hold she kissed them both on the cheek. And then it was Arthur's turn, although he was slightly more restrained than his wife, the emotion was just as genuine. By the time he had stepped back Harry had also blushed red.

The kitchen was empty except for the four of them, which was unusual considering how many people were crammed into the burrow at that moment, there was normally always someone passing through for a drink, some food or just hanging out.

Arthur ushered Harry and Ginny to empty seats while he and Molly took seats opposite them, they had very strange looks on their faces. Ginny looked over at Harry nervously, whatever was going on, it was clear she had no idea what it was either.

Harry had a sudden fear that somehow Ginny's parents had found out about him laying his hands on her breasts, and they knew about the thoughts that had been running through his head about seeing their daughter naked, maybe they were about to ask him to leave! Or even worse, to stop seeing Ginny altogether!

"Harry, we, that is Molly and I, have to tell you something, something important. We were really hoping Remus would be here to when we told you, but he had to go and do something for the Order."

Both of them were sat there wide eyed with fear, looking from Arthur and then to Molly, both dreading what was coming, under the table they found each others hands and clutched desperately at each other in the hope they would still be able to be a couple after their parents had stopped talking.

"Since the very first moment we met you Harry, you have always been polite, considerate, generous, loyal and brave to a fault. We have watched you grow towards manhood with the same pride we have felt in all our other children."

Harry blushed again under the praise, he really was not very good at taking compliments.

"You have been a member of our family in our hearts probably since you pulled Ginny from the chamber of secrets."

Feeling the little shudder in her hand, Harry looked over at her and gave her a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand. He better than most understood the trauma that still remained from that experience, she still had the occasional nightmare.

Ginny turned to face him and gave him a little smile of gratitude.

"But we thought it was well past the time we did something to make our relationship official, today we filed the necessary paperwork to make everything legal and above board. Harry, welcome to the Weasley family!"

Ginny squealed with pleasure and shot from her seat, ran around the table and embraced her mother, Arthur sat watching Harry, who had not moved an inch, his face frozen. Arthur frowned, his expression concerned at the youths lack of reaction.

"Harry, it is what you wanted isn't it?"

Harry sat there, shocked into silence. His brain had completely locked up, he was really struggling to take in the information he had just been given.

Family, such a simple word, yet one that so many took for granted, it was the one thing he had been missing all these years, oh he had the Dursleys, but they had done nothing but abuse him.

For a moment he tried to contain the emotions that were welling up inside him, but it was no use, within seconds hot tears were cascading down his cheeks. He finally had everything he could ask for, family and a home, somewhere he belonged. It was like looking into the mirror of Erised during his first year at Hogwarts, yet this wasn't a magical fantasy, this was actually happening.

"I don't know what to say, thank you seems somehow to be terribly inadequate"

Harry looked at Molly and Arthur and could see nothing but love in their eyes.

"Thank you is more than enough for now, son"

There was a quiet scraping sound at the closed kitchen door, Arthur spun around and rose from his seat, he moved quickly to the door and flung it open. He was nearly buried for his trouble by the press of Wizarding kind that collapsed into the room in a big heap. Fred and George, Bill, Ron, Neville and most surprisingly of all Draco, other than the twins, they all had the good grace to look guilty at having been caught in the act of eavesdropping.

Arthur stood there, hands on hips, looking incredibly stern, but he couldn't hold the expression for very long, he grinned at the pile of wizards on the floor at his feet.

"Well you may as well come in I suppose" Raising his voice he called out into the yard "That goes for you lot as well, come in everyone"

Before long the kitchen was full of laughing and joking people, eight of them were now Harry's family, and he was still in a state of shock. He had not yet moved out of his seat, his body was taking even longer that his mind to catch on, he was no longer alone, and he had a family.

Helen jumped onto his lap and flung her arms around his neck.

"Thank you for rescuing me Harry"

"That's ok little one, you're welcome"

Draco had come up behind them, he leaned down and congratulated Harry, and he then messed Helen's hair up.

"Come on short stuff, give Potter some peace, poor guy's still in shock"

Draco turned and regarded Ginny.

"Oh by the way Weasley, I tripped over this just before I left Death Eater central, thought you'd want it back"

Draco held out Ginny's wand to her, she just looked open mouthed at Draco, she had believed the wand lost forever. Throwing her arms around Draco's neck, she kissed him on the cheek. Draco had the good grace to look flushed at this display of emotion.

"Thank you Malfoy"

Ginny replaced Helen in Harry's lap before he could say anything about her kissing Draco. She ran a hand through his hair, and scrunched her nose up, as if studying him for the first time.

"Well it was fun while it lasted, but I guess its time to move on"

"What are you talking about Ginny?"

"Harry I'm afraid I'm going to have to break up with you, now we're brother and sister, it just won't work out, it's not natural, I'm so sorry"

Harry stared at her open mouthed, he couldn't believe the words she had just spoken, he looked for a hint of humour in her face, some sign that she was winding him up, but there was a look of complete seriousness. Oh Merlin, she meant it, so what was he supposed to do now?

"Oh Ginny that's just great…"

"You should see your face Harry…"

"It's a treat, where's Colin and his"

"Camera when you need him?"

Harry shot a look of pure hatred at the twins, which just seemed to amuse them further, and then spun back around, to Ginny his anger building.

She lent in and kissed him on the lips, letting her tongue gently brush against his teasingly, his anger quickly cooled, he could never stay angry at her for very long and she knew it. Leaning in close, so that only he could hear her, she whispered.

"Welcome to the family, oh boyfriend of mine"

"Just wait, oh girlfriend of mine, vengeance shall be swift and brutal"

Ginny grinned, slapped him gently on the nose, then gave him a quick peck before going to speak to Luna, who Harry had just noticed was stood holding hands with Neville. Catching the eye of his friend, Harry grinned at him, Neville just shrugged and rolled his eyes. Harry laughed, pleased beyond measure that another of his friends had found some happiness.

The door opened and Thomas entered followed by Remus.

Remus looked at Arthur questioningly, who nodded back at him. Remus turned to Harry and gave him a small smile of congratulations.

"I take it the meeting went well!"

Arthur asked quietly, concerned about his friend.

"We'll discuss it later Arthur, i don't want to spoil the mood"

Thomas engulfed both of his sisters in an enormous hug, Katie quickly filled him in on what was happening, and he looked over at Harry and grinned. Taking an empty seat at the table, Thomas pulled out a black weapon that had been completely hidden under his robes, expertly removing the magazine he pocketed it. Pulling back on the slide, the weapon spat out the unfired round from the chamber which Thomas deftly caught in midair.

"Had a busy afternoon Tom?"

Thomas grinned at him.

"Yeah I had a lot of fun"

Harry groaned, knowing at first hand what kind of stupid, dangerous activities the man considered fun.

"How many of them were there?"

"Four, and nothing got hurt except a brick wall and their pride, I'm just going to put this where young hands can't find it"

Thomas stood and moved to the door, pausing he looked back over his shoulder.

"It's a beautiful day, shame to be stuck inside"

"Thomas is right, let's take this outside"

Arthur quickly had the group organised and all the furniture was levitated outside, with the customary midair furniture battles. Harry got himself sat down as quickly as possible, his thigh still hurt and he didn't want to be stood up longer than was necessary.

Before too long the group had put together two Quidditch teams, Fred, Ginny, Ron, Luna and Neville on one team, and George, Bill, Percy, Draco and Katie on the other side. Despite Bill's urgings, Fleur declined a spot on one of the teams, Harry couldn't actually ever remember seeing her on a broomstick, he wondered if Beauxbatons placed as much emphasis on teaching its students broomstick flight and competitive Quidditch as Hogwarts did

Harry also noticed that originally Neville and Draco had started out on each other's team, but had put their heads together and agreed to swap. So, in Harry's opinion, they could each be on the team with the girl they were interested in.

Fred, George and Ron were each on their clean sweep 11s, Draco and Katie were both riding Firebolt's, and Ginny had borrowed Draco's Nimbus

He sat watching them with Helen for about five minutes, listening with some amusement as the seven year old picked apart each players performance, comparing each to Viktor Krum. She really was quite knowledgeable about a game she had never played.

Molly approached Harry, she had seen him watching the play above him with a wistful expression on his face, she knew how much he loved flying, and how much it hurt him to have to stay on the ground.

"As long as you are careful, I don't see why you can't join them, just make sure you stop when you have had enough"

Harry grinned up at her.

"Thanks, mum"

Nothing he could have said would have pleased Molly more than that, she walked away with the biggest smile on her face.

Harry's firebolt was in his room on the second floor, standing, Harry almost collapsed immediately, sitting back down, Harry gritted his teeth in frustration, he wanted more than anything to play Quidditch but there was no way he could get his broom with his leg in this condition, he really wanted his Firebolt.

There was a slight tingling sensation in his hand like pins and needles, he opened it to stretch off the muscles, and there it was, the neck of the firebolt nestled comfortably in the palm of his hand as if it had always been there. Harry smiled, he knew now that his new gift was driven by his wants and needs, he had to really want or need something to make it appear before him.

Looking over, Harry saw that Helen was regarding him open mouthed in shock, even in the magical world things didn't just appear out of thin air on demand. Leaning closer, Harry dropped his voice to a whisper.

"It's magic!"

Sliding his injured leg carefully over the neck of the broom, Harry performed one of the most unconventional takeoffs anyone could say they had ever seen. Rather than the standard push off, it was more like a hop, skip and a one-footed jump.

Tucking his feet into the stirrups, Harry leaned forward over the neck of the broom and accelerated, until he was flashing along at near the Firebolt's top speed, with the tips of his toes only inches above the ground.

He was grinning like an idiot, he was in his element, there was nothing holding him back, his injured thigh couldn't slow him down here, even his injured shoulder was not holding him back. He cried in the delight of being on a broom once more.

Those playing Quidditch above him had not yet noticed him streaking along below them, he was lost in the ground clutter, and they weren't looking for him. Looking up he caught flashes of Ginny's lithe figure as she darted in and out of the pack above him.

Pulling back hard on the neck of the firebolt, Harry entered a vertical climb aiming straight for the pack of ten brooms and riders circling and wheeling above him. Leaning further forward over the neck of the broom , the firebolt reached its top speed of 150mph just as it passed through the centre of the aerial melee.

Whooping in the pure joy of flight, Harry roared straight through the centre of the pack and straight out the top, not slowing until he had climbed several hundred feet above the pack, he allowed his speed to bleed off, and hung there watching the ten riders below him milling about in confusion. Opening his robes, Harry grinned down at the Quaffle safely hidden there.

It took only a second for Ginny to realise that the Quaffle that should have been in her hands…wasn't, and from Fred's puzzled expression, he had carried out his part of the pass.

Looking up for a moment she grinned, and pulled her broom into a climb.

"Excuse me Mister, but can we have our ball back please?"

Harry grinned at Ginny as she pulled up alongside him.

"What, this little thing?"

He waved the Quaffle at her, and she nodded.

"It'll cost you a kiss"

"That's a fair price I guess"

Ginny nudged the Nimbus in closer until the two brooms were side by side, then she lent across and with her hand gently caressed Harry's cheek, sliding her hand down behind his neck she pulled his head down and gifted him with a passionate kiss to the lips.

"Alright you two get a room. Potter, are you playing? Longbottom just took a bludger to the head and is dropping out, leaves their team a player short"

Draco had climbed up to join them, Harry, still smiling from the kiss, tossed him the Quaffle.

"Sure, how does that sound, oh girlfriend of mine?"

"Sounds good to me, boyfriend of mine!"

"Oh please you two, I think I'm going to be sick"

Draco dived back to the pack, while Ginny and Harry began to spiral downwards more sedately.

The two teams had a quick mid-air chat as to rules. Each team would have one beater, unsurprisingly the twins would perform this function for each team. One seeker per team, again unsurprisingly Harry and Draco were nominated. Harry was pleased to see that the others seemed at least to be talking to Draco now. Three chasers on each team, with rush goalies, made up the team roster.

It was a close fought and evenly matched game, skill wise it was as well played as any game Harry had ever taken part in, but then of the ten players, eight of them had or still did play for house teams at Hogwarts, only Luna and Percy did not.

Harry had never seen Luna on a broom before that day and he was quite impressed, without seeming to put any effort in she effortlessly flowed between players, avoiding collisions and bludgers with grace and style.

The scores were 80-60 in his teams favour when Harry saw the snitch for the first time, it was at nearly ground level, flying in the opposite direction to him. Pushing his broom down into a dive, Harry began a vertical spinning descent to confuse any opposing players watching to which way he would pull out of the dive at the bottom in pursuit of the snitch.

He passed between Ginny and Luna, accelerating towards the ground, although the sound of the wind was loud in his ears, he thought he heard Ginny urging him on.

Pulling out of the dive with his toes brushing the ground, Harry zeroed in on the snitch, it was flying a straight course at his level. Gaining on the gold winged ball all the time, Harry took a hand off the broom to make a grab. The snitch chose this moment to climb vertically away.

Harry travelling at top speed, overshot the snitch and pulled into a climb trying to keep his eye on the little golden ball as he climbed after it. Spinning away from a well hit bludger, Harry sped back through the main pack, this time though Harry was aware he had company, Draco had seen the snitch climb and was after it now too.

Levelling out above the pack, Harry scanned the skies for a sign of the elusive snitch, he had lost it in the sun, and the only good thing about that, was so had Draco, who was circling slightly below him.

"Just like old times, Potter"

"Sure is, gonna beat you this time too!"

"We'll see"

Harry saw the snitch at the same time as Draco, it had doubled back and was diving below them. Both seekers dived at the same moment and neck and neck they dived for the ground, they were on identical brooms, it was all down to the skill of the player.

Then suddenly a third figure was diving straight for the ground alongside them. A unknown man wearing a dragon scale flight jacket and a helmet and goggles, he was lent low over his broom, matching them for speed, he was riding another firebolt! The three men screamed towards the ground neck and neck at 150mph.

The snitch levelled out, and Draco, knowing his skill wasn't up to the task pulled out of the dive early to cut the corner off, but Harry remained in the dive, urging every last bit of speed from the broom, so to Harry's surprise, did the newcomer. The ground was rushing up to them, and Harry knew he had to pull out soon, or he would make a mess on the lawn.

The two men pulled out at exactly the same moment, and the extra momentum pushed them well beyond Draco's reach, the two of them, Harry and the stranger both now flat on the neck of their brooms, tore after the snitch. Above them play had stopped as the pack watched the progress of these two maniac speed demons.

The snitch climbed again, but Harry had been prepared for that this time and didn't overshoot, but the newcomer was prepared as well, and together they both climbed hard in the snitches wake, matching each other move for move. Harry was beginning to think the other rider was in fact his shadow, so closely did he match Harry's movements.

Tearing upwards again, Harry reached for the snitch, narrowly missing the golden ball, the other player's hand was even closer, his arm was a couple of inches longer than Harry's, but he missed as well. Then the snitch did something Harry had never seen it do before, rather than change direction, it just stopped dead in the air.

Harry and the newcomer flashed passed either side of the stationary snitch, but Harry's reactions were simply outstanding, he reacted far quicker than the other rider.

Kicking his legs out of the stirrups, Harry threw himself backwards on the broom. So instead of laying flat along the neck, he now had his head over hanging the brooms tail, the only thing keeping him on the broom were his toes wrapped around the Firebolt's neck.

Reaching out as he passed it, Harry snatched the snitch out of the air by his fingertips.

Pumping the air in triumph, Harry regained his position on his broom, and looked around. The pack was all clapping and cheering, climbing up to him. The newcomer was sat hovering a short distance away, shaking his head in disbelief. He guided his broom over to Harry and sat upright.

"That was the most incredible catch I have ever seen any seeker make in my whole life, well done"

The flying helmet muffled the voice, but the newcomer tugged it off to reveal a familiar mass of untidy red hair, a heavily freckled face and a broad smile. Charlie Weasley offered his hand and Harry took it, gripping it with affection.

No wonder the other rider had kept up with him, Charlie had been the last Gryffindor seeker to come within touching distance of lifting the Quidditch cup before Harry had come to Hogwarts, for over seven years no Gryffindor team had won the cup, until Harry lifted it.

From the very beginning, Harry had been compared to Charlie Weasley at every turn, and long before he had ever met him, Harry had taken a strong dislike to the man. It was a completely unreasonable feeling which once he had come to know Charlie, he felt ashamed of.

He had not seen Charlie since the triwizard tournament, where he had supplied the dragons for the first task. Other members of the family had visited him in Romania, but not all at once. For the first time in many years the entire Weasley family was to be gathered all together at home.

There was no warning, with a yell of welcome the twins just flew their brooms right into their brother and began a massive midair hug, the other Weasley brothers quickly joined in, creating a mass midair huddle of red headed bodies.

Ginny came to a hover beside Harry, she threw her arm around his waist and squeezed him tight and leaned in to whisper to him.

"That was the most sensational piece of flying I have ever seen. Now go and join your brothers. You belong in there too, oh boyfriend of mine, take your rightful place"

Harry looked over at her startled, but she nodded at the scrum of red heads, he had never even considered he should be in there too. He floated over hesitantly, not sure he would be included. He need not have worried, as soon as an enthusiastic Bill had him within arms reach he found himself dragged into the scrum.

It must have lasted about five minutes as the brothers shouted news back and forth in a seemingly random manner. Harry stayed quiet, just absorbing the whole experience, he was still unused to this whole family dynamic thing.

When they finally separated from the aerial family gathering, the brothers began playing an energetic game of follow the leader. Harry looked around, Luna, Katie and Draco had headed down to land. It was the ideal time to practise his new skill, and spend some private time with his girlfriend.

"Ginny, will you come with me, I need to show you something"

She nodded, looking at him with a slightly puzzled expression on her face.

Leading off at a fairly sedate pace, so Ginny could follow, Harry dipped down into the trees of the wood bordering the Weasley land, and accelerated. Harry zipped in and out of the trees at breakneck speed, behind him he could hear Ginny shrieking with excitement as she followed him though every twist and turn, it was almost as much fun as Quidditch.

Finding a clearing, Harry slowed the firebolt and gently set it down, as he almost expected it to, his thigh buckled under him immediately the second that he put any weight on it, sending him crashing to the floor in a heap.

Ginny joined him on the ground in an instant, having seen his collapse, she discarded Draco's Nimbus and rushed to his side.

"Harry! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine"

"You always say that, even when you're plainly not, let me help you up"

With her help, he managed to get to his feet and limp to the edge of the clearing, lowering himself with his back to a fallen tree, with his leg stretched out in front of him, the tightness in his thigh had eased considerably.

Settling down beside him with her back to the tree, Ginny worked her way in under his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. For a long time they sat there together in comfortable silence, Harry with his cheek pressed to the top of her head and the fingers of both of his hands interlinked with hers.

It was funny how you could get so much enjoyment out of a moment where you were doing absolutely nothing at all, just being sat beside her was enough.

"Ginny I want to show you something, something I found out I could do completely by accident. When I set out to rescue you, before I let Wormtail bring me to Voldemort, I handed my wand to Thomas, I didn't want anyone else to get their hands on it."

Ginny had turned slightly so she could listen to him.

"During my escape, I found myself under fire from three Death Eaters, and without my wand I was helpless, and convinced I would die, then at the moment of greatest need, when I actually willed my wand to be in my hand, I looked down and found my wand actually was in my hand, and I had no idea how it got there"

"That's just not possible, no summoning spell could work over that distance!"

"I know, I didn't summon it, I called it! At least that's the term I'm using to describe this talent. I've used it twice more since. When you were all playing Quidditch and I needed my broom, my leg would not support me to go get it, I wanted to play so badly and suddenly my firebolt was in my hand!"

"And the third time?

Harry grinned and tenderly kissed her forehead.

"Well when you pushed me over in your bedroom, you do remember that right!"

Ginny gently cuffed him on the ear.

"Ah, so you do remember! I didn't want to hurt you or me when I hit the floor, so I called your bedding from the bed to give me a softer landing, I did it without even realising it, it just happened instinctively."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, as if trying to discover if this was his idea of some big practical joke. In all the years since they had met, Harry had never teased her or treated her like baby of the family not the way her brothers did, he did however have a quite well developed sense of humour.

"Alright, show me!"

Harry sighed, he had known this was coming, but he hadn't been looking forward to this part. As yet he didn't know how to control this new ability, or what he had to think about to trigger it.

"Ok, but give me a moment, this is still new to me too"

Time to carry out a little experimentation. So far he had called his own wand and his firebolt directly to his hand, Ginny's bedding had just arrived where he needed it to stop Ginny or himself getting injured.

Harry reasoned that his broomstick and wand were both such intimately personal objects that he already had a connection to them. The bedding was a puzzle, although he was stood in the same room as it and knew exactly where it was. He had known where the Firebolt was as well, but his wand might have been anywhere, he had just concentrated on needing it.

Where he was leaning against the tree, his back was getting sore, it gave him an idea, he needed a pillow, he concentrated on the fact he really needed a pillow. After a few minutes of nothing happening, he gave up on that idea.

Next plan, he knew exactly where one of Ginny's pillows was in her bedroom, after she had thrown it at him, it had ended up on the floor under the window. Focusing on the floral pattern of the pillow, the location of the pillow, and the fact it smelt of the flowery scent of Ginny's hair that he liked so much.

Harry concentrated on his need for the pillow, on willing it to his hand. As before he felt the pins and needles in his closed hand and he opened it and looked down to see the pillow clutched in it. Although he was watching his own hand, he could not have put his finger on the exact moment it arrived.

"YES!!"

Harry screamed so loudly that all the wildlife went instantly silent. Ginny nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Gin, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, oh and here, have a pillow"

She stared at the pillow in open-mouthed amazement, she recognised the pillow from her bed, just how in Merlin's name had he done that? She kept looking from the pillow in her hands to Harry and back again.

"How…What?"

"All good questions honey, I'm afraid I don't have the answers. I knew where the pillow was, and I just called it here, it's the best explanation I have"

"Show me again!"

Harry sighed, he realised she was right, one item was not a successful test he needed to try something else, but what? His Cane! He knew where it had been placed, in the kitchen, by the stairs, he had watched as Ginny placed it down.

"Ok, you remember where you placed my cane, by the stairs?"

Ginny nodded, and watched him carefully.

He needed his cane, or he might not be able to get up again. Harry concentrated, and the cane was in his hand, much quicker than the pillow had taken, he was really getting the hang of this.

"That's…just incredible Harry"

"Ginny, I wanted to show you this, because I don't want there to ever be any secrets between us, you deserve to know everything I know, but for now let's just keep it between the two of us"

"Not even Ron?"

"Not for now, he has a lot on his plate worrying about Hermione"

Thinking about his bushy haired friend made him sad, he missed her most at times like this, she would have been so excited about his new skill, insisting she use her sharp intelligence to go off and research it comprehensively. Hermione and her books, Harry sighed.

"I miss her too!"

Harry's head snapped around, Ginny was looking off towards the burrow, she looked a little sad.

Harry bent down and gently kissed her cheek.

"mmm, don't stop, that feels nice"

Harry moved onto Ginny's ear, gently blowing into it, knowing before he did so the small giggle it would cause. He wasn't disappointed.

"We should get back, before mum sends out the Weasley search patrol to find us"

Harry was disappointed, but agreed gracefully that it was time to go. Taking a quick look around the clearing, paying special attention to a bunch of wild flowers on the opposite side, Harry tossed the pillow and cane to one side. Seeing Ginny's strange look, he shrugged.

"I'll call them to me when we get back later"

Accepting Ginny's help, Harry struggled back to his feet, and stood leaning against a tree.

"Wait here I'll get the brooms"

"No need, here you go"

Harry held out the Nimbus in his hand, the firebolt was in his other hand. Ginny looked from the centre of the clearing back to the Nimbus and frowned. She had been looking right at the brooms, lying where they had been discarded, and she was completely mystified as to what point they had changed location.

"Ok. That could start freaking me out"

Laughing, Harry mounted his broom and pushed off, slowly circling the clearing until Ginny was also airborne, then he accelerated and climbed, heading back towards the burrow. With Ginny tucked in alongside him, so tight it was almost as if she belonged there, and Harry was starting to think and sincerely hope she really did.

The six Weasley brothers were just coming to the end of an elaborate aerobatic display, they approached the burrow at high speed in a tight formation, and just before passing over the house they all climbed and the formation burst apart. Each broom was somehow leaving a coloured trail behind it in the sky.

One broom dived straight for the ground, leaving a trail of green behind it. Although he couldn't identify the rider from this distance, Harry had a feeling it was Charlie, both of them were well known for their Quidditch power dives. The six riders had formed the shape of a rose, complete with petals.

The six riders quickly reformed up ready for a formation landing, and Harry and Ginny fell in with them, congratulating them all on their flying skills. Harry again found himself flying alongside Charlie.

"I meant what I said earlier you know, any professional Quidditch scout who had seen that catch would have signed you up in an instant Harry, that was simply amazing"

Harry just blushed and said nothing.

"Oh and welcome officially to the family by the way, I see our pick-up Quidditch games are going to be a lot more interesting from now on!"

Whooping in barely contained delight, Charlie rolled away and down into a vertical dive. Harry watched him go, the dive slowly turned into a gentle curve, which to Harry's shock and amusement took Charlie straight in through the open kitchen door of the burrow.

Molly's scream of anger quickly became a cry of unadulterated joy as her second eldest son made his arrival home known to his parents in some style.

The family gathering almost immediately became a party, as the number of red heads in close proximity to each other quickly reached critical mass.

The Weasley family had never really needed a reason to declare a party, they took pleasure in each others company. But this was the first time they had all been together under the same roof for some time and they celebrated the fact they were all together again for the first time in two years, Molly was overjoyed at the news that Charlie would be staying until sometime after Bill and Fleur's wedding, having taken an extended leave from the dragon reservation in Rumania.

Arthur and Molly just sat back and watched their children catch up on the myriad events that had taken place in their lives, they both had a content smile on their faces and a twinkle in their eye. They had eight children now and they loved each of them dearly, and to see them all together, enjoying each other's company was the best feeling a parent could have.

Arthur touched Molly's shoulder and pointed to the wall of the burrow, leaning up against the wall was a collection of brooms a professional Quidditch team would have been proud of. Pride of place went to the Firebolt's, Harry's, Charlie's, Draco's and Katie's, and then there was Draco's Nimbus, Fred, George, and Ron's Cleansweep 11's. All told there was nearly fifty thousand galleons worth of broomsticks leaning against their house.

Harry sat on the fringes of the festivities, not because he felt left out, but because all this was such a novel experience for him, and he was trying to savour every last moment.

"Its all a bit overwhelming isn't it?"

Harry looked up into Ginny's bright brown eyes that were twinkling with amusement and smiled warmly at her, she knew well enough to know exactly what to say to put his mind at rest.

"Yes it is, but I wouldn't change it for a single minute, for the first time since I was a baby I have a real family of my own, not just people related to me my blood that never actually wanted anything to do with me."

Ginny bent down and enveloped him in a huge hug, kissing him on his forehead, Harry in turn wrapped his arms around her slender waist and pulled her closer.

It was just starting to get dark now, and Percy was busy running around the garden enchanting candles to float around the garden to provide light for the continued revelry. While no one other than Ginny was looking, Harry called Ginny's pillow and his cane from the clearing, the effect was nearly instantaneous now.

Harry, while he tried hard to ignore it, was starting to feel very tired, as all the excitement of the day and the pain from his injuries began to catch up with him. The Quidditch game had taken more out of him than he had realised, he felt more tired than he could ever remember feeling in his life, and his very bones ached with exhaustion.

But he was determined to remain outside, he had been without family for so long that he didn't want to miss any of the family time he had available to him, he had a lot of years to catch up on. So he forced himself to push his exhaustion to the back of his mind and struggled to stay awake.

Ginny slid onto the bench beside him, and worked her way into her favourite spot under his arm, leaning back against him, she looked up and smiled.

He had looked happier today than she had seen him look since before Dumbledore had been killed, without the worry lines that he seemed to permanently wear on his face he actually looked his age, and very handsome with it.

"Sickle for your thoughts, oh boyfriend of mine?"

Harry gave her a tired smile, leaned down and planted a sloppy kiss on her forehead. His arm snaked around her shoulders and pulled her even closer into his embrace.

"I was just thinking that I must be one of the luckiest guys alive right now, I have so many friends, and now even a former enemy, I can trust with my life, I have a large family, filled with love, and most importantly, I have you, my dear sweet Ginny, I am truly blessed"

Ginny smiled happily, and snuggled in tighter under his shoulder, she reached up and stroked his face. She was the lucky one, to have him willing to watch out for her and protect her, As long as he was there to hold her hand, she knew everything would be alright. They sat there like that, allowing the party to go on around them for many minutes.

She felt Harry suddenly tense up for a moment, and she looked up concerned, worried that he might be in some pain, but he was grinning tiredly at her like an idiot and holding out a handful of beautiful blue wild flowers.

"To the most beautiful woman I have ever met, I wish every moment I spend in your company would last for eternity. I love you Ginny"

Ginny was suddenly silent for a time that seemed to last forever, and Harry faltered unsure of himself, oh god, she was crying! What had he said, had he hurt her feelings in some way, it seemed he still had so much to learn about women.

"I'm sorry Gin, I didn't mean to upset you"

Ginny reached over and gently slapped him on the nose.

"Shut up you idiot, I'm not upset"

"But you're crying?"

"Only because you make me feel so happy and so loved. Oh boyfriend of mine, I love thee so!"

Ginny threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, and then she grabbed the flowers and quickly stood up, her back to him.

"I'm going to put these in water, and to see if mum needs any help, I won't be long"

"Ok, don't be too long, I miss you when you're not around"

Harry watched as Ginny hurried away and out of sight, watching how her hips moved when she walked, shaking his head, he would never understand women, but it would be a lot of fun to find out a little more about just one of them.

Molly and Arthur had watched the byplay between Harry and Ginny with interest, their daughters' relationship with Harry was blossoming, and neither could remember Ginny ever being as happy.

Both of them knew that their daughter and Harry were growing closer with each passing day, and the couple reminded Molly and Arthur of another pair of teenagers that had been very much in love thirty years ago.

"I suppose this means I shall have to have the 'little wizards' chat with another one of my sons. The only difference this time is that the son in question is having impure thoughts about my only daughter. Any advice about how I should handle this topic?"

Molly smiled and caressed her husband's cheek, secretly taking more than just a little bit of pleasure in his discomfort.

"Oh Arthur, I'm sure something will come to you, it normally does, you're a very good father"

Ginny was stood in the kitchen trying to recover her composure, every time she thought she had Harry pegged, he came along and surprised her. Wiping her eyes dry, she was nearly ready to go back outside.

"He loves you very much you know! But inside there is something eating away at him, he is so terribly afraid of losing you that he is having trouble opening up to you completely."

The voice behind her nearly made Ginny jump out of her skin, turning she glared angrily at Luna. This appeared to make very little impression on the empath who just returned her glare with a level and calm look.

"I thought you kept yourself shielded to prevent picking up other peoples' unwanted thoughts and emotions."

Luna frowned, and appeared to consider her next words very carefully.

"Yes, I do. But although I am getting much better at blocking out what I don't want to hear, Harry is a special case, he broadcasts his emotions particularly strongly, and whenever you two are together and enjoying each others company, even more so, it cuts right through my shields."

"What does it feel like? Is it uncomfortable?"

Ginny asked

"No, not at all, quite the opposite in fact, Harry's feelings for you are like being wrapped in a warm blanket, would you like to feel what its like?"

Ginny nodded, and smiled at her friend. Luna crossed to her and placed a hand on her cheek.

"Shut your eyes, and relax, just focus on your breathing."

Ginny did what she was told and concentrated on her breathing.

_**Ginny**_

The voice appeared in her mind, and she was so startled she nearly opened her eyes.

_**Ginny, its Luna, can you hear me?**_

_**Yes, what's happening?**_

_**I'm projecting my thoughts directly into your mind.**_

Ginny was amazed, she had never heard of this skill.

_**What you will experience next is how Harry's emotions for you feel to me, ready?**_

_**Yes.**_

Ginny was conscious of a feeling of warmth spreading throughout her body, surprisingly it actually felt of Harry, an intense feeling of happiness and love with a slight tint of…fear, oh, Ginny was unprepared for the fear that Harry felt, it was so unexpected that Ginny didn't know what to do with the information.

Ginny broke the link and took a step back and blinked rapidly until she could focus on Luna. There was look of complete understanding mixed with slight amusement on Luna's face.

"I told you didn't I!"

"What do I do now, what do I do with this information?"

Luna cocked her head over and looked at Ginny.

"I know you love him Ginny, and I know he loves you, in the end does anything else really matter? Harry has had a very hard start to life Ginny, and he's known so little love, he's afraid you will be taken from him like those others he has loved or that you will leave him, all you can do is continue to be there for him, over time his fears will fade away until they are just a figment, something the wind will blow away."

"Thank you Luna"

Ginny hugged her friend hard. Then she turned and left the kitchen.

As Ginny went back outside, she passed Neville, he had a smile that went from ear to ear, and Ginny wondered what other secret skills Luna had that Neville was being exposed to. She shook her head and had to smile, poor Neville, he was so completely and utterly out of his depth.

Harry was sat with his head resting on the wall of the burrow, his eyes were closed and he was snoring quietly. Ginny smiled and for a long time she just stood there watching her boyfriend sleep, his face was so peaceful.

Although she was reluctant to disturb him, she knew he would get more rest if she could get him into his bed.

"Harry, Harry wake up lets get you into your bed"

Ginny gently shook his good shoulder. Harry opened one eye and regarded her for a second.

"Much rather be in yours honey"

Ginny laughed out loud at the front her boyfriend had shown, no one had been close enough to hear it, but statements like that could cause an awful lot of controversy in her family.

"Be that as it may, I'm not strong enough to carry you, you're going to have to provide at least some of the effort here!"

Harry grinning at her, levered himself upright and offered her an arm. She tucked herself under his shoulder and with her help he managed to make it up to his borrowed room on the second floor. But by the time he got there Harry was almost asleep on his feet. He was swaying alarmingly with exhaustion, and forcing Ginny to take more and more of his weight.

Harry was asleep before his head hit the pillow, and Ginny sat down beside him while she got her breath back, reaching over she removed his glasses and laid them on the bedside table. Then she removed his shoes and socks.

With great care so as not to wake him, Ginny removed his tracksuit top and bottoms, leaving him with a T-shirt and a pair of boxers on. For a moment she was tempted to take a look at his naked body, but she just shook her head and smiled to herself, all good things come to those who wait.

Pulling the covers over him, Ginny kissed his forehead and gently ran her fingers through his wild hair, bringing that half smile to his lips that she loved so much. Then with a final kiss, she went back to rejoin her family downstairs.

Much later, when the sounds of the party had long since faded, and the house was dark and quiet, a small figure slipped back into Harry's room and padded softly across the floor, reaching the bed, the figure looked down at the sleeping youth for a moment.

Coming to a decision, the figure let her silken nightgown slide to the floor, the moonlight shining off of her pale skin and her red hair. She moved around the bed before carefully peeling back the covers and sliding under them and sliding up close to the sleeping youth.

In his sleep, Harry detected a familiar scent, which scent triggered an automatic reaction in him, and he rolled so that he was facing the newcomer and placed his arms protectively around the slender shape alongside him, pulling the warm naked body in closer to him.

"Ginny"

Harry moaned softly in his sleep, and the slender figure just smiled, and settled comfortably in his arms.

Harry screamed. He had been having the most brilliant fantasy where he was sharing his bed with the witch of his dreams, not doing anything too provocative, just the two of them lying in each other's arms. And then the pain came, and along with the pain came the vision.

Trying to sit up, he clutched desperately at his forehead, as his scar threatened to split his head open. Crying out in pain, he flailed about wildly, looking for Merlin knew what to hold onto, something, anything to take the pain away.

As he thrashed on the bed, his wild movements made him over balance and he hit the floor with a loud thump. Ignoring the lesser pain in his thigh for the pure agony in his head, he brought his knees up to his chest, and he hugged himself, sobbing as the pain continued unchecked.

"Accio water jug!"

A familiar voice close by, a voice he knew he should take comfort in, he tried to open his eyes, but he couldn't, his eyelids remained screwed tightly shut against the pain, he could hear his own teeth grinding together, and his fists were clenched so tightly together his nails bit deeply into his palms.

Harry felt himself gently rolled over until he was sat upright, and a pair of soft arms envelope him in a loving embrace, rocking him back and forth, and a gentle voice softly crooning reassuring sounds to him. Something cool was pressed to his forehead, and after an indeterminable amount of time the burning pain eased.

Slowly, the worst of the pain began to fade, as he was able to raise his mental barriers against the worst of the intrusion that always seemed to hit him when he was at his most relaxed.

Finally able to open his eyes, he looked up into Ginny's blurred concerned face, he had never seen a more welcome sight in his entire life. She carefully placed his glasses in his hands.

She was cradling him in her lap, and had her dripping wet nightgown pressed to his forehead. This of course meant she was naked, but Harry was in no state to appreciate that fact, he felt so ill it was all he could do to maintain his lock on her worried and scared brown eyes.

"Harry, what is it? Is it your scar?"

Harry nodded, still too overwrought by his vision to speak, he clutched at her as if she was the only thing keeping him anchored to this world, as if his very life depended on keeping hold of her.

"Its ok, I've got you baby, just relax, I'm here shhh"

He was pale, almost grey from the pain, and his lightning bolt scar was bright red and inflamed, and a small trickle of crimson blood ran down his head from the scar. He was staring at her face with a strange intensity, as if trying to burn it into his memory so he would never forget it.

"Was there a vision?"

His eyes closed trying to shut out the horrifying vision out, with no success, and he nodded. His mind was already racing like a runaway train, he had somewhere to go, and once again he had to go alone. Raising his hand, he wiped the blood from his forehead, and then he carefully rolled onto his side.

"Gin, help me up"

"I think I should really get you back into bed and…"

"Gin! Help me up!"

He shouted at her.

It was the first time he had ever raised his voice to her in that way, he had been angry with her before, but he had never shouted. Ginny felt tears welling in her eyes, and tried to control her emotions, it wouldn't help him to see her crying like a little girl. Helping him up, she turned so that he couldn't see how upset she was.

"I'm sorry Ginny, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it!"

Harry suddenly realising what he had carelessly done without even thinking about it, scooped her into his arms and pulled her to him. It was at this point that it finally filtered through to his pain and sleep befuddled brain that he was in fact holding his beautiful and yet extremely naked girlfriend tightly to him, and that he only had a thin cotton t-shirt and a pair of boxers on.

Harry took a half step back and regarded his girlfriend with hungry eyes, her pale skin seemed to shine with an almost ethereal quality in the moonlight.

Only the remaining slight discolouration from the heavy bruising she had suffered at the hands of three Death Eaters marred the perfection of her body. Harry felt his pulse dramatically quicken, and suddenly his boxers didn't seem anywhere as roomy as they had moments before.

Knowing what would happen if he didn't act now, Harry reached forward and with a gentle pressure from his thumb and forefinger tilted Ginny's head up until they made eye contact.

"Ginny, I love you so very much, and at any other time I would truly appreciate and probably take advantage of you being here with nothing on, but I have something I have to do"

Ginny looked up sharply at his tone of voice, he sounded desperately sad and in pain, yet determined, she could see there was a fire burning in his eyes, and she could feel he was trembling slightly.

"You can't go anywhere in your condition Harry, you can barely walk!"

With an extreme force of will, Harry straightened and placed his weight down on his injured leg as if to spite her, there was a little wobble, and what little colour that remained in his face drained away.

Holding out his hand, a succession of clothing appeared in it and he put each item on. He handed a grey t-shirt with a dragon motif on the front to Ginny as well, and putting it on she found it came halfway down her thighs. She liked it, mainly because it smelt of Harry.

"Keep it, it looks better on you anyway"

Fully dressed now, he held out his hand one last time and his wand was suddenly there. Harry reached out and grabbed her up into a hug, whispering into her ear.

"Ginny, oh girlfriend of mine, I love thee so, I loved you with all my heart almost from the first moment I met you, it just took me a long time for my mind to catch up to what my heart already knew, and I always shall love you, never ever forget that. I'm sorry, I have to go now, I can't take you with me because it's a family matter."

Taking a deep breath, Harry turned and hobbled towards the door, Ginny stunned into immobility just watched him go, before the very fact he seemed to think he might not come back spurred her into motion. She caught him at the doorway, and grabbed hold of his arm, trying to turn him around.

But he just shook her off, making her stumble back into the room, and continued out the door, closing it behind him, there was the sound of a muttered incantation, and Ginny had a sinking feeling as she realised he had spelled the door shut behind him.

Slamming her petite body uselessly into the door, she hammered on it with her fists, screaming his name, but there was only silence from the other side of the door.

OoOoO

**Privet Drive**

Spinning rapidly, Harry appeared in a flash of green flame in the fireplace belonging to Arabella Figg, he had used her fireplace a few times in the past, but never without a direct invitation. She lived in Wisteria walk, just around the corner from Privet Drive, and as such it was the fastest way to get where he needed to go.

"You're too late Harry, you must know that, you can't save them. If you go out there, you'll just end up getting yourself killed!"

At the window, the small figure of Mrs Figg had turned to regard him with sad eyes, there were tears running down her cheeks as she watched the young man she had long ago been a babysitter for struggle with his inner demons. There was an extreme thunderous rage swirling behind his eyes, and his hair was being blown about by some magical wind.

"I have to, because regardless of their past deeds they are still my family, and that has to count for something, if I do nothing I become like Voldemort. Have you alerted the Order?"

Mrs Figg nodded, looking sad and uncomfortable. Never had she regretted more that she was a squib, if she had any power at all she would have stepped out there to stand and fight beside this child.

"Yes, the moment they arrived, but the Order said it had its hands full tonight, it said they would send who they could spare."

Stepping painfully towards the door, Harry turned and looked back over his shoulder.

"You might want to tell them I just arrived and to hurry up, and what I'm about to do on my own, oh, and I hope you have adequate home insurance."

"Harry, are you sure you want to do this, he-who-must-not-be-named might be here!"

Harry gritted his teeth, remembering every vivid, graphic detail of his vision.

"Oh, don't worry about that. I know for sure Tom was here but he left some time ago, but he left behind some friends of his, and I am just going to pay my respects"

With that, Harry stepped out onto the street and drew his wand, and started hobbling up Wisteria Walk, trying desperately to ignore the Dark Mark hanging menacing in the sky above Privet Drive. His anger was building now into an inferno, his robes billowed out behind him as if he was running at a full sprint, and static energy made his hair stand up on end.

There were two Death Eaters standing guard at the front end of uncle Vernon's estate car, and another one at the rear, the estate car was as normal facing out of the drive.

They saw him immediately as he rounded the corner into Privet Drive, but they hesitated, because as he walked towards them the streetlights were exploding as he passed them in turn, creating a wall of darkness that seemed to follow like liquid in his wake. The very street surface appeared to ripple as he stepped upon it, and a cold wind that had sprung up from nowhere seemed to announce his arrival.

Harry didn't hesitate, not even for a single second, raising his wand.

"Bombarda!"

The spell struck the engine of the car, and such was the sheer power of the spell, the car almost folded in half and crumbled in on itself, flying backwards into the wall of the house, crushing one Death Eater with two tonnes of crumpled estate car, and demolishing much of the front of the house.

The remaining two guards were knocked off their feet, but it only took a few seconds for them to pick themselves up again.

Pointing their wands at Harry, they were just about to fire off counter curses, when one of them noticed they were standing in a rapidly expanding pool of some sort of liquid, the severed fuel line in the shattered engine of the estate car was rapidly leaking the entire contents of the vehicles fuel tank onto the drive.

"Oh shit!"

Two loud cracks could be heard as the two Death Eaters wisely decided to call it a night and flee.

"Incendio!"

The explosion had enough force to blow out every window on Privet Drive and Wisteria Walk, and knock down a dozen walls, several small fires had been started. The entire front wall of number four collapsed inwards allowing Harry to see part of the first floor, the house had been well and truly set ablaze, and he could see that Aunt Petunia's prized three piece suite had caught fire and was burning merrily in the living room.

The explosion also launched the remains of the car into the air, and sent deadly shrapnel flying in all directions.

Through the centre of the inferno created by the burning fuel walked Harry, somehow beyond his understanding he remained completely unscathed by the fire licking at his robes, a piece of shrapnel had imbedded itself in his forearm, but he didn't feel it, he was completely focused on what had to be done.

Another Death Eater appeared in the gaping hole where the front window and wall of the living room had been, the man threw a hasty cutting curse at Harry that passed harmlessly over his shoulder, he was having trouble spotting Harry because of the heat haze rising above the inferno raging on the drive and the fire that was turning the living room into a close proximity of hell, Harry however had no intention of giving him the time to get a clear shot.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

With a grunt of effort as his charm took the weight, Harry took control of the now falling burning car wreckage before it could injure any of the innocents living in Privet Drive, slowing its descent, Harry added a spinning motion and then tossed it in through the hole the explosion had made in the wall of number four with all the force he could produce. The wreckage struck the Death Eater and a muffled scream was suddenly cut-off as he disappeared in a spray of red gore.

Knowing that the muggle emergency services including the police would be arriving shortly to investigate the disturbance, he moved towards the shattered front door as fast as he could, barely sparing a glance at the remains of the misshapen figure lying smoking on the drive.

Blasting the front door off its hinges with a Reducto curse, the wreckage smashed its way down the hall, leaving a trail of carnage behind it, tearing through plaster, wood and wall paper. Harry felt an inner glow of satisfaction at such casual destruction. All the years he had spent virtually imprisoned here had not left him feeling all that house proud about 4 Privet Drive.

Stepping across the threshold, Harry found himself face to face with yet another Death Eater, stood over the body of his uncle Vernon lying partially clothed just inside the hallway, Vernon lay on his back, dead, sightless eyes staring up at the ceiling. Harry had known his uncle was dead, he had seen him die in his vision, but not before he had been driven mad by the continued use of the torture curse.

"Avada ked…"

The man's wand was in Harry's hand before he could finish the incantation, his eyes wide with fear at this impossible feat of magic, the man began to back away down the hall, looking wildly about him for any avenue of escape, as Harry raised his wand the Death Eater shut his eyes and disappeared with a loud crack.

Snapping the wizard's wand, Harry dropped it to the floor and with great difficulty, for even in death Vernon was not a small figure, Harry stepped over his uncle's corpse and moved down the hall, nothing moved upstairs, turning to his left he entered the living room, wand at the ready.

Dudley lay exactly as Harry had already seen in his vision, on his back, with an expression of utter terror on his face, as dead as uncle Vernon had been. The car wreckage that had smashed through the living room had decapitated the Death Eater in the room that had thrown the cutting curse, it had also started numerous fires on its path of destruction. The house was now well alight, and unless the muggle fire brigade were there in moments, a total loss.

Aunt Petunia's kitchen had also been virtually destroyed by the wreckage, not that it mattered now, there would be no one left to cook in it anyway. Out in the garden was another family member's body.

Moving to the conservatory doors, Harry blew them off their hinges, catching the two Death Eaters who had been running back to the house right in the face. The two men staggered backwards, faces streaming blood, snarling in anger both men raised their wands.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Harry picked the first man up and threw him into next doors garden, he cried out as he flew through the air, striking the sturdily built tool shed and sliding to the floor with a muffled groan. The second Death Eater looked down at his suddenly empty hand in astonishment, looking up, his eyes widened even further when he saw Harry holding his wand.

In a move that surprised even Harry, he tossed the wand back to the Death Eater.

"I believe in fighting fair, not something you lot would know much about!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

Harry allowed himself to fall backwards, laying flat on his back on the ground, and the green flash of the killing curse passed over his head, exploding against some part of the house, Harry pointed his wand at the man's legs.

"Reducto!"

The spell hit the Death Eater at knee height, blasting him backward off his feet. Picking himself slowly and painfully up off of the floor, his thigh now numb from all the abuse he was giving it, Harry moved to stand over the now prone Death Eater. The man had virtually lost both of his legs at knee height, they were only still attached by scraps of skin and tendons. Bright red blood pumped rapidly from the wounds and the man was in the process of bleeding to death. He was moaning in pain, already starting to go pale, his lips turning blue, from the shock and loss of blood.

"Help me, sweet Merlin help me!"

"Even if I wanted to, there is nothing I can do"

Harry turned away.

"Please don't leave me like this!"

Ignoring him, Harry moved to the body he had seen from the kitchen, it was that of his aunt Marge, and by her side was the dog, ripper, that had once chased him up a tree in the garden. They were both dead.

Harry frowned, these two had not appeared in his vision, the others had been personally killed by Voldemort. Marge and Ripper were not.

Squaring his shoulders, Harry retraced his steps and began to climb the stairs to the second floor. He knew what he would find up here too, but his mind for some reason was refusing to accept it, as much as he didn't want to, he had to see with his own eyes, not just through Voldemort's.

He found his aunt Petunia in the main bedroom, just as his vision had shown him, with shaking hands he covered her with the duvet from the bed, and sat down beside her on the blood stained covers and placed his head in his hands. No one should ever have to look at a thing like that more than once.

His adoption by the Weasley's had unwittingly removed the blood protection on the Dursley's house. When they had signed over guardianship, they had literally been unknowingly signing their own death warrants. More blood on his hands, more deaths on his conscience, it was his fault, he was now last of his line, there was no one left.

Harry had never asked for anything from the Dursley's, which was just as well because they had never given him anything other than abuse. The bond of blood had mattered little to them, and their indifference and downright cruelty had coloured and influenced all of Harry's relationships down the years.

Ginny loved him, deep down in his soul he knew that, it was confirmed every time he looked into her eyes, but he still couldn't shake the dreadful gut wrenching fear that she would see him for what he truly was, and leave or be taken away from him like so many others before her.

All his doubts and fears had come from his time here at 4 Privet Drive, it all stemmed from his treatment by the Dursley's.

"WHY COULDN'T YOU LOVE ME?"

Harry screamed at the top of his voice, but now and forever there would be no answers forthcoming to that particular question, he would never know why these people, his family, had been so incapable of showing any love to a frightened, lonely child.

Flames began to lick up the outside of the house as the bottom floor quickly became an inferno, Harry could feel the heat rising up the stairwell as the smoke started to gather in cloying thickness on the ceiling.

Standing with difficulty, Harry slowly trudged down the stairs, in the distance he could hear the sirens of the muggle emergency services, it was time to go, or he could find himself having to face some very awkward questions, to which he had no answers they would be able to believe.

Harry left Number 4 Privet Drive, he stumbled as the tremendous pain in his thigh began to reappear as the immediate rush of adrenaline faded, pulling himself upright, he began to walk slowly back to Wisteria Walk, and Mrs Figg's house. There was a series of loud pops behind him, but he kept walking and he never looked around.

He rang the doorbell, and Mrs Figg answered it, still dressed in her nightgown and tartan slippers, upon seeing him she screamed and dragged him inside.

"You're covered in blood Harry, where are you cut?"

Harry was in a kind of daze and just whispered to her.

"It's not my blood, can I use your Floo?"

He didn't wait for an answer, just moved to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of powder form the jug on the mantelpiece and threw it into the fire.

"The Burrow!"

And in a flash of green flame he was gone.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Harry had taken only four incredibly painful steps out of the Weasley fireplace, when he was struck hard by a fast moving red headed tornado, looking down he saw that Ginny had buried her head in his chest and was sobbing quietly, her arms locked around his chest so tightly that it was likely she had cut off circulation to his legs.

Molly screamed and raised a horrified hand to her mouth, her eyes wide at the state of his appearance, he was deathly pale, and his face and the front of his robes were covered in blood, and as he looked around, it was as he wasn't really seeing anything in the kitchen.

Ginny, hearing her mother scream looked up into his face and seeing the bloody visage, she paled and her knees went weak. Molly recovered quickly and grabbed him by the arm and guided him to one of the seats around the table.

"Harry dear, you have to tell me where you are hurt."

"I'm fine"

He answered, but his voice sounded very far away, as if someone else was speaking for him. Ginny had sat in the next seat and was still holding him tightly, almost as is she was frightened to let go, she looked up and gave him a fierce look.

"Harry, you'd say you were fine if you'd lost both legs and your intestines were hanging out, now answer the damn question!"

She swore, she swore in front of her mother! Ginny swore only very occasionally, and never in front of her parents. Harry was shocked out of his stupor, and turned to regard her with a tired smile. He reached out with his good arm and brushed his fingers gently through her long hair.

"My arm"

Harry placed his injured arm on the table.

Molly took his hand and very gently rolled his arm over, resting it on the table. An inch of twisted metal protruded from his forearm, quickly slicing his sleeve open, Molly examined the object trying to find a way of getting the metal out without causing too much pain.

Ginny watched her mother with wide eyes, that piece of metal was actually sticking out of her boyfriend's body!

"Harry I think for the moment we are going to have to leave that in, at least until madam Pomfrey has had chance to look at it…Harry what…no!"

Harry had just reached up with his good arm, placed his hand on the piece of shrapnel and pulled hard, it came free of his arm with a wet sucking sound that made both Molly and Ginny feel ill. Harry's face didn't even twitch, not even a muscle.

Dropping the shrapnel on the table with a metallic clatter, Harry regarded it carefully for a moment and then said something that made no sense to the two women

"Well at least I'll never have to clean it again"

Quickly binding the arm as tight as she could, Molly looked in concern at her black haired son, he seemed somehow out of touch with reality, almost as if he wasn't really taking in what was happening to him. With several sweeps of her wand she cleaned his face and the front of his robes, so at least he didn't look like an abattoir worker.

"Where have you been dear, you had us all so worried? The others are all out searching for you."

Harry just stared at her with a puzzled expression on his face, as if he didn't understand the question.

"I think I would like to get some sleep now"

Harry stood, or at least tried to, his thigh, which had already stood up to an astonishing amount of punishment that evening, finally let him down, and collapsed under his weight. If Ginny hadn't been there, he would have hit the table edge on the way to the floor. She moved fast, standing, she ducked under his shoulder and positioned herself under his armpit and took his entire body weight.

She staggered, but managed to remain upright, grunting with the effort, Molly joined her on his other side and helped Harry to a couch in the living room, with a wave of her wand, Molly widened it enough so Ginny could lie down beside him.

Ginny looked in amazement at her mother, she was actually encouraging her to sleep next to Harry.

"Don't look at me like that Ginny dear, I know you wouldn't leave him now even if I wanted you to, so you might as well both be comfortable."

Ginny smiled with gratitude as Molly raised her wand, she summoned the covers from Ginny's own bed, grabbing them as they came flying down the stairs, she carefully placed them over Harry, who appeared to already be asleep. Careful not to knock him, Ginny lifted the covers and slid under them, adjusting her position so that her back was to him.

It only took a few seconds for him to register her presence, he rolled closer and put a protective arm around her waist, gently pulling her tight to him until she could feel his breath on the back of her neck. She could feel him trembling slightly in his sleep, and occasionally his entire body would give a little jerk and he would groan, as if in pain.

Rolling over to face him, Ginny put her arms around him and pulled his head onto her shoulder, she stroked his forehead and ran her fingers through his hair until he settled into a dreamless sleep. She remained awake for a long while just watching him sleep, aware of the return of each of the searchers, all her brothers, Neville and Draco had gone out looking for Harry, but eventually she too drifted off.

OoOoO

**AN/ **I hope nobody loses any sleep over the fact i killed off the Dursley's off, what goes around, comes around.

**AN/ **Goodnight, don't let the Blast-ended skrewts bite, but since they will be busy fighting each other you many be ok.


	10. 10 Reunion

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

"At the lowest ebb is the turn of the tide."

Henry Longfellow

Chapter Ten: Reunion

**The Burrow, 03:30 31 June**

Ginny awoke with a sense of unease. She lay there still for a long moment, trying to isolate what was causing the unease she was feeling, but there was nothing tangible she could put her finger on. It was still dark outside, she could only have slept for a few hours at most.

She was still laid on the couch, although she had rolled over while she slept so that she and Harry were spooning, with his face pressed into her hair, she could feel his breath warm on the back of her neck, and he was snoring very quietly.

Her head rested in the hollow made by the elbow of one of his arms, her cheek laid against his uninjured forearm. His other arm snaked over her waist, and she smiled as she realised his hand had gently cupped one of her breasts. Harry, bless him, would be mortified when he woke up, apologetic and contrite, when in actual fact she didn't mind at all.

As she gradually became more aware of her surroundings, Ginny could hear the sound of muted conversation from the kitchen, she recognised her mothers and fathers voices, then Remus Lupin spoke, but there was a fourth voice that was unfamiliar to her.

"There were according to eye witnesses, ten of them, he killed three, apparently without even breaking a sweat, and damn near demolished the house in the progress. Ok so he only faced one or two at a time, but he's only a kid! His power level is still growing isn't it?"

This was the unknown voice, male with a slight north London accent, the voice had a tone to it as if the owner was used to being obeyed.

"How do we know it was Harry that did all of this?"

This from Remus, he sounded old, tired and very worried.

"Mrs Figg said he had used her fireplace to arrive and depart, and when he left he was covered in blood, although he did mutter to her it wasn't his own. The Dursley's had been dead for some time before the first Death Eater died, Harry's wand was the only wand other than the Death Eaters used in the area tonight"

"Hardly conclusive proof of any wrongdoing Marcus"

"Look Arthur, I'm not here to build a case that will allow me to arrest the boy! I may not be a member of this order of yours, but Shacklebolt has told me enough however for me to recognise a just cause when I see it in front of me. And as things stand you lot seem to be the only ones standing up to Voldemort…oh please Molly, it's his name!"

"So what are you suggesting, Auror Washburn?"

Ginny thought her mother sounded very suspicious.

"Molly please call me Marcus. For what ever reason, the ministry has opted not to try and fight Voldemort, and I and a few selected others in the DMLE think that's wrong, and we are willing to supply you with any information we might get as to Death Eater activity."

"So who are this new group I ran into the other day, the department of security and justice?"

This from Remus, he sounded puzzled and a little angry.

"The new department is the Ministers idea, a group that's supposed to watch over the MLE and provide us with back up. However in my opinion they have become the Minister's private army, they have wide ranging powers and operate without any oversight. They are fast becoming his secret police!"

"And the Wizengamot has allowed this?"

Her father sounded anger and frustrated.

"Arthur, the Wizengamot is not the force for good it was when Dumbledore led it, it is populated by scared old men who do pretty much whatever the Minister tells them."

"Then maybe what we need is a new Minister"

Remus spoke the words so softly that Ginny had to strain to hear them, they stunned her to the core, what was he suggesting?

"What are you suggesting Remus, we overthrow the Ministry?"

Her father sounded just as shocked as she felt. There was a sound of a chair being drawn back and quiet footsteps, Ginny could just imagine her former dark arts professor pacing the length of the kitchen with his hands clasped behind his back.

"A very wise muggle once said 'All that is essential for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'. When will be the right time? When Voldemort rules our land with an iron fist, by then it may be too late."

"But Remus you're talking about a coup!"

"Yes Molly I am. Voldemort and Harry will eventually face each other in combat, and only one of them will walk away from it, the way I see is that our job is to increase Harry's odds as much as possible. With the numbers we have available to us, we cannot possibly fight both the Death Eaters and our own Ministry!"

"But why Potter, I don't understand?"

"There is a prophesy Marcus, Dumbledore told me of it, not the exact wording, however I do believe Harry alone knows it, suffice it to say that Voldemort believes rightly or wrongly that Harry is the only one who can stop him from ruling over this land and perhaps more, and will do everything in his power to kill him.

"And as for Harry, well let's just say that everyday that passes makes him more determined to exact revenge on Voldemort prophesy or no prophesy. They will face each other, of that fact there can be no dispute, it all depends on how much we can tip the odds in Harry's favour."

"Look Remus, I agree in principle in taking action to stop Voldemort, and that the Ministry has let everyone down, and might even be unintentionally aiding him, but what do you want me to do?"

"Marcus, you are in a prime position, a respected senior Auror, a shift commander, we need you to very carefully start feeling out your colleagues, find how many feel the same way we do, we need to know how much support we would have should we be forced to take action."

"I suppose I can do that, I know a couple already who have expressed concerns, and there are others…"

"Just be very careful Marcus, I hate for you to end up in Azkaban."

"Well even if I did, I could just bust myself straight back out, it's hardly as secure as it used to be, in fact these days it's almost operating an open door policy. I'll be in touch. Oh and what about Tonks? Should I approach her?"

"No, she and Kingsley are already taking enough of a risk."

"Right, I'd better get back to the Ministry before I'm missed, Potter did extremely well tonight, better than he had any right to expect, and you have my word that I'll cover for him as much as possible, but suggest to him that backup is not an evil word ok!"

More sounds of chairs been drawn back and the kitchen door opening and closing. There was silence for a moment, then her mother spoke.

"So what now?"

"Well now Molly there is still time to get in a few hours sleep before the new day hits us, I suggest the two of you use that time, I have a feeling that the pace of our little war may be about to pick up."

"Goodnight Remus"

"Arthur, Molly"

Ginny heard her parents' footsteps head up the stairs.

"Ginny, if you can untangle yourself from Harry without waking him, please come and join me"

Startled, Ginny couldn't see how Remus could possibly know she wasn't asleep, he couldn't see her through the back of the couch. Carefully, she lifted Harry's arm from her waist and rolled from under it. He seemed to notice her absence immediately and tried to reach for her in his sleep. Smiling, Ginny bent down and kissed his forehead.

"I'll be back soon, Harry"

Seemingly satisfied with her answer, Harry rolled over and resumed his peaceful sleep.

Remus was sat at the table with two steaming cups of tea in front of him, he waved at one of the chairs across from him, and pushed one of the cups over to her.

"Professor Lupin, how did you know?"

"That you were eavesdropping?"

Ginny nodded.

"Just because I look like a down on his luck school teacher Ginny, don't let looks deceive you. People tend to forget the wolf that lurks inside me, my sense of smell is astonishing, as is my hearing, I could hear the rhythm of your breathing change the moment you woke up."

Remus smiled to take any sting out of his allegation of eavesdropping, he took a long drag from his tea, closing his eyes and sighing in appreciation. Placing the cup down on the table, he looked across at her for a long moment.

"Ginny, your mother and i disagree on many things, one of those is whether or not your group is old enough to be informed of, or participate in, the unfolding events. In my opinion you have faced trials that children should never have to face, and handled yourselves as well as or better than most adults, hence i shall treat you as an adult, whether that pleases your mother or not."

Ginny grinned at her former professor and bobbed her head in thanks.

"Ginny, as one adult to another, I need to ask you a question, it's of a personal nature and it is really important. Of course if you don't want to answer I'll completely understand."

"Professor you can ask me anything, you know that"

"Ginny I haven't taught you in three years, and its unlikely I will again, please, its Remus."

"ok…Remus"

"Ginny I need to know how serious your feelings are for Harry"

She just looked at him, feeling her cheeks slowly turning as red as her hair, wondering what could possibly she say to her former professor in answer to such a question.

Did she tell him that she lay awake at nights sometimes imagining Harry and her ten years into the future, happily married and with many children? That when he wasn't within her sight line she felt like a piece of herself was missing. That if Harry asked her to, she would march into the very mouth of hell at Harry's side.

Remus reached across the table and gently placed a hand on her arm.

"I'm not trying to pry Ginny, I promise. And I will explain, but I need to know. I've seen the way he looks at you, I've seen what he put himself through when you were taken by Voldemort, I just need to hear from your lips that you feel as seriously about your relationship as he does."

Ginny took a deep breath, and tried to compose herself.

"Remus, I know we're both still very young, in my mother's eyes, too young I have no doubt, but I assure you this relationship for me is not just 'a bit of fun', I have dated other guys and have never felt this way before about anyone. I'm not sure how to explain it but Harry and I…just feel so right."

Remus nodded, and rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly, over the last couple of days it seemed as if he had aged considerably.

"You heard most of what happened tonight?"

"I think so"

Remus nodded and sighed, he rose from the table and crossed to the sink, he stood leaning on the kitchen side, his back to her, staring out the window and into the blackness beyond, not really actually seeing anything, he stayed that way for a moment, before turning back around to face her.

"Ginny this war is affecting all of us. But its Affecting Harry worst of all, the things he has seen, and all the things he is being forced to do…it's taking him to a very dark place, and…I'm afraid for him."

Remus crossed his arms over his chest and leant back against the sink.

"Dumbledore's greatest fear was that a new dark lord would rise up and either join Voldemort or cast him down and take his place, Dumbledore thought that rising dark lord could possibly end up being Harry."

Ginny gasped in astonishment and blinked at the sheer stupidity of such a thought, Harry had as much chance of becoming a dark wizard as she had of featuring on the front cover of teen witch weekly.

"Your part in all this may end up being the most important of all of us, he is going to need you Ginny, to talk to, to hold, to bring him out of his black depressions. Things are going to get much worse before they get any better, and without your love and understanding, he may decide it isn't worth the constant pain and anguish and give up, or worse become the thing he hates the most. You know he has killed on two different occasions?"

Ginny nodded, after Harry had left the Burrow she had forced Draco at wand point into telling her the full story of her rescue, including the battle in the clearing. She had decided to keep quiet, hoping that when Harry was ready, he would talk to her about it. But tonight, according to what she had just heard, he had killed again.

"But I'm willing to bet he hasn't told you himself"

"No, Draco Malfoy told me about the first time."

It still sounded strange to Ginny ears to say that name without pouring scorn upon it, despite his past, his every word and deed since he had arrived at the Burrow wormed Draco further into her trust. His intervention had already saved both Harry and her lives, and while the rest of her siblings barely tolerated the young man, she found herself beginning to warm to him.

"Want to know why he hasn't told you himself? He's scared, scared that when you find out what he's becoming, what he is being forced to do, that you won't want anything to do with him anymore, he's terrified beyond belief of losing you"

"That's just stupid!"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth Ginny suddenly remembered her experience of seeing Harry's feelings through Luna's eyes, of feeling the fear Harry felt, perhaps it wasn't as stupid as she had at first thought.

"Yes I know, but that's how Harry's mind works. Thanks to his upbringing by those muggles, in some ways he is the most mature youth of his age you will ever meet, in others he is almost like an infant. He has known so little love in his life that he is terrified of losing the love that he has now found, so he is clinging onto it desperately with both hands. Harry just needs you to be you Ginny, and to be there for him"

"I won't let you, or him down Remus, I promise!"

"That's all I needed to know, thank you Ginny, you've put the mind of this worn out old wolf at rest, now go on, off back to sleep with you"

Ginny walked back to the couch with a lot on her mind, she had never dreamed she could be so important in the greater scheme of things, she was just…Ginny, the youngest Weasley, the baby of the family and the only daughter.

Until Harry had come along she had become used to being overlooked by her own family, her voice overruled, her opinion discounted as being the babblings of a little child. But he had seen something inside her that the others had missed.

Lifting the cover, Ginny lay back on the couch, Harry had rolled so his back was to her, and had started twitching and moaning again in his sleep. Placing her mouth by his ear she whispered quietly to him.

"Its ok, I'm back now"

Harry rolled back over and placed his arms protectively around her, he muttered something in his sleep, but Ginny only caught her name, gently stroking his arm, she felt him settle back down again. She lay there a long time listening to Harry quietly snore, thinking about what Remus had said.

OoOoO

Draco opened the door and slipped quietly inside, Katie looked up from where she had been reading the daily Prophet out loud and smiled at him, Katie had a smile that could blow his socks off, and at that moment Draco considered his socks officially blown off.

"Any change?"

Katie turned to look at the still figure in the bed, and sadly shook her head. Hermione had not so much as stirred since she had arrived at the burrow, and the decline in her health became more noticeable every day. Her weight had plummeted, and her complexion had paled until every vain in her face seemed to stand out in stark contrast. Even her eyes seemed to have sunken into her sockets.

She did not have to be a healer for Katie to know Hermione was fading, and that nothing they did seemed to make any difference. They still all took it in turns to sit with her and talk to her, telling her about the stupid pointless things they had been doing, just so that she could hear their voices and know she wasn't alone.

Draco, to the surprise of nearly everyone at the burrow including her, had asked to be included on the watch list, and it was this singular act more than anything that had led to his begrudging acceptance by the Weasley's.

Katie had found him to be an interesting and surprisingly likeable companion, and against her better judgement she found herself actually looking forward to his company.

He normally sat with her during her shift then carried on and did his own after that as well, she wasn't entirely sure, but she thought the signs were there to indicate that was something growing between them, she sometimes caught him studying her when he thought she wasn't looking, and he normally had a stupid grin on his face while he was doing it.

She studied the Blond youth as he pulled up a second chair beside the bed, he had changed, in a lot more ways than just his worldly views, the arrogance and swagger, so long a Malfoy trait at Hogwarts had disappeared, they had been replaced by an insecurity that was in some ways endearing.

He had a haunted look about him these days, as if all his past thoughts and deeds were weighing heavily upon him and he wasn't sure how to make amends. He had willingly sat for hours, being interrogated by various members of the Order of the Phoenix, Thomas had called it a detailed debriefing, but the haunted look had still not left him.

"Do you want to take a break Katie, I'll stay, and I don't think she will notice?"

Katie stretched and heard several audible cracks from her spine, she knew she could do with a loo break.

"Alright I could do with a trip to the toilet, I'll be back in ten"

Katie stood up and stretched again.

"I'll be here, so will she."

Draco indicated the comatose Hermione. Katie scowled at him, sometimes his sense of humour was not all that it should be.

Once Katie had left, Draco leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands studying the still form of Hermione. Despite the odd moment here and there of joviality, the burrow was suffering right alongside her, even the twins seemed to be a repressed image of their normally manic selves. Harry's adoption had lifted spirits somewhat, but until she was awake nothing would lift the ever present cloud from the Burrow.

"Hi Hermione, it's Draco, Katie just stepped out for a break so I'm standing in, hope you don't mind…Of course you don't mind, how could you, you're a vegetable."

Draco pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to think of something to say that would sound positive, but he was struggling. Then he struck upon an idea, Hermione was renowned for giving advice, even to those who didn't want it.

"I could really do with some advice about now. Its about Katie, I like her Hermione, I like her a lot, but I don't really know what to do about it. Believe it or not, I've never really had a proper girlfriend, not someone I could consider an equal, Pansy Parkinson was never that, and I never had any real feelings for her, not like I do for Katie."

Draco shook his head, not believing he was unburdening himself to someone that would probably never even wake up.

"Its hard for me here Hermione, harder than I thought it would be, I just don't fit in here, and I certainly can never go back to Malfoy Manor, I've well and truly burnt those bridges. Everyone here apart from Harry, Katie and Ginny looks at me with suspicion and mistrust, and why shouldn't they, after the things I've said and things I've done in the past, why should any of them ever trust me?"

Draco was finding it difficult to keep his emotions under control, and in a rare display of temper he slammed his fist into the wall, not caring about how much it hurt.

"I have apologised until I'm blue in the face to these people and it's not enough, I don't know what else I can do, they won't let me get involved in anything they are planning, so I cannot show them I really have changed."

Draco punched the wall again, this time leaving a bloody smear on the plaster, he was so frustrated and he had no idea what to do.

"And of all of these people, the person I need to seek forgiveness from the most is you Hermione, the way I treated you for six years, the names I called you…the hurt I saw in your eyes and took satisfaction from. I was so wrong. Everything I had been told, everything I believed to be true, it was all lies, I know that now, and I'm trying so hard to put everything right, but I don't know how."

Draco rubbed his eyes, wiping away the sudden tears that had formed there.

"Maybe asking for your forgiveness is a start, a step down the road for my own personal redemption. Hermione, for the pain I have caused you in word and deed down the years, I can only say that I am so very sorry, and one day I hope I can put it right, and that you will find it in your heart to forgive me!"

Draco bowed his head, he had said what he had to say, for what good it did. Not that any of it had made the slightest difference, Hermione wasn't any better and if she didn't wake up soon she would die.

OOooOO

"Its no wonder no one can stand her"

Ron said to Harry as they pushed their way out into the crowded corridor.

"She's a nightmare, honestly."

Hermione was surprised how much that simple comment hurt, it caught her completely off guard, and the tears began flowing before she had a chance to try and stop them. Embarrassed at her sudden lapse of control and upset that such a simple comment could have wounded her so deeply, Hermione pushed past her two Gryffindor classmates, she caught Harry's surprised glance out of the corner of her eye as she dashed full pelt towards the girl's toilets.

Locking herself into the cubicle, Hermione sat on the toilet seat and tried to stop the tears cascading down her cheeks, she felt more alone and frightened than at any time she could remember.

It was like being at primary school all over again! She tried so very hard to make friends, she really did, but she just didn't relate well to the children her own age, she had hoped things would be different at Hogwarts, but it was happening all over again.

The other children after a while always started to shun her company, laughed at her and her love of books, called her names and made fun of her. In the end she knew she would always end up sat somewhere alone with just a book for company.

Time crawled past, how long she was not sure, the evening meal must have ended by now, and although she didn't fancy facing all her house-mates, she couldn't sit alone in the toilet for the whole school year. Peeves would eventually find her and start making her life hell.

Wiping her eyes dry with her robe sleeve, Hermione reached up and unlocked the cubicle door, and stepped out. As she turned around she suddenly found herself face to kneecap with the most disgusting and ugly creature she had ever seen.

It stood at least twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, mottled grey and it had a tiny pin head mounted on massive shoulders. Each leg was the width of a tree trunk and each foot had three massive overgrown and disgusting toes.

'Mountain trolls, while possessing incredible upper body strength, are considered quite dim by human standards, and can be easily confused and outwitted, however it is far better to just avoid contact with the species all together as they are quick to anger and hard to control'

Hermione had nearly total recall of anything she had ever read, she had the information in her mind, but her mind point blank refused to do anything practical with the information she remembered. All she was able to do was stare at this…thing before with her mouth handing open.

Her wand was in the pocket of her school robes, and she knew several spells that could have been useful in the circumstances, but she couldn't force her hand to move to her pocket. I'm going to die in the girl's toilet all alone, Hermione thought to herself, just like moaning myrtle a few floors above, how very undignified.

The troll frowned at her, and raised its club, which was far larger than her. This movement broke Hermione out of her trance and she backed into the toilet cubicle and screamed in absolute terror. The troll flinched and the club began to swing in a downward arc.

Hermione hit the floor of the cubicle with seconds to spare as the club easily blasted through the thin partition walls of the toilet cubicles, levelling a half dozen.

"Hermione!"

She looked up, as Harry and Ron dashed full pelt into the toilet, and skidded to a stop behind the troll, who was gearing up for a second swing of the club. They had come to help her, now she wasn't alone!

"Confuse it!"

Harry cried out desperately to Ron, as he threw a jagged piece of wood at the troll, it bounced off the creatures shoulder with no visible effect.

"Oi pea brain"

Bellowed Ron, while chucking his own piece of debris at the troll, the yell got its attention and it swung its attention away from her and focused on Ron. Scrambling up she ran across the toilet and took shelter under a series of sinks. However it seemed her movement had attracted the troll's attention once again back to her.

The club descended in a blur, smashing through the sinks as if they weren't there, missing her by inches, the smashed Fawcett covered her in debris and the damaged piping sprayed water all over the place, she screamed again. The troll raised the club high in the air for a final time, but this time Harry was somehow hanging off of the end of it. It was the most amazing, most suicidal, most heroic act she had ever seen.

Harry managed to get onto the troll's shoulders, and using the only weapon available to him, jammed his wand up the troll's nostril. His intention was to distract the troll's attention away from Hermione, and that had worked. Now Hermione could only watch in horror as the troll flailed about trying to unseat the young wizard.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Part of her brain took pride in the fact Ron had got the incantation right after his lack of success in class, part was concerned for Harry's safety, and a part watched in fascination as the club levitated out of the trolls hand to hover in the air for a moment, just long enough for the troll to notice its absence, before coming crashing down with brutal force upon the top of the troll's head.

The troll swayed for a moment before crashing down flat on its face, and lay there still. Hermione watched as Harry recovered his snot-covered wand and wiped it on the troll's trousers.

"You didn't leave me, I was so afraid I would be left alone in the dark, I thought I was going to be alone here forever!"

Harry grinned and pulled her into a hug, quickly joined by Ron.

"Don't be silly Hermione, we have never left your side, and your family and friends care so much for you, please wake up and come back to us!"

Ron and Harry had taken an arm each and were dragging her towards the toilet door, as much as she fought, they were too strong. Suddenly a small blond haired youth was stood in front of her, Malfoy! What was he doing here? Was he here in an effort to stop her leaving the bathroom?

"Granger I think maybe asking for your forgiveness is a start, a step down the road for my own personal redemption. Hermione, for the pain I have caused you in word and deed down the years, I can only say that I am so very sorry, and one day I hope I can put it right, and that you will find it in your heart to forgive me!"

With Malfoy's help, Ron and Harry finally manhandled her to the door and pushed her through into the brightest white light Hermione had ever seen.

OOooOO

When the thin, delicate hand reached out and tightly grabbed hold of his, Draco nearly fell backwards out of his chair, he was that shocked he never even made a sound. Looking up, he found himself being regarded by a pair of bright brown eyes from underneath the white of the bandage.

"Draco?"

Hermione's voice cracked through lack of use.

"Er…yes Hermione"

"Apology accepted, now please shut up and let me get some sleep, ok"

With that she withdrew her hand and rolled over in the bed until her back was to him. He just sat there staring open mouthed at the back of her head, he was still sat there in stunned silence a few minutes later when Katie came back in.

Katie gasped seeing Hermione had changed position in the bed, then frowned and turned on Draco about to accuse him of moving Hermione just to get a reaction out of her. Before she could even open her mouth Draco had held up a hand to stop her.

"I didn't do it, I swear! She spoke to me Katie, get her parents, quickly!"

Katie hurried from the room. He could hear her sprinting up the stairs, Draco got up and walked to the door and stood out on the landing to wait for the Grangers, he didn't have long too wait. Dan and Emma came running down the stairs dressing gowns flapping as they ran, behind them came Molly and Arthur with Katie following in their wake.

Dan grabbed Draco by the tops of his arms just below his shoulders and began to shake him furiously, his head jerked forward and back like a rag doll.

"What did you do? What did she say? What did you say?"

Draco was being shaken so hard he thought his head might actually fall off. Emma pushed her husband forcibly aside and laid a comforting hand on the youth's shoulder.

"Dan, honey maybe if you didn't shake the poor lad quite so hard, he might actually be able to answer one of your questions. Go on Draco please tell us what happened"

Draco explained about the fact he had apologised to Hermione and what she had said in return. Molly and Emma went into the room, after a few moments Molly returned, tears running down her cheeks in floods.

Draco suddenly had a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach, no it couldn't be, she had just spoken to him, she had to be getting better, she just had to be.

"She's not…?"

"No Draco, she's fine. Hermione's just asleep, she's just asleep she going to be absolutely fine!"

Molly hugged Dan, who was stood rooted to the spot in shock with his mouth opening and closing randomly.

"She's ok?"

"Yes Dan, she just needs some rest, plenty of exercise and a good meal or two"

Tears of happiness ran unabashed down Dan's cheeks, and he proceeded to hug everyone on the landing, including Draco and Katie.

OoOoO

**The North Sea**

"Captain! Flash traffic from Nav Com at Northwood!"

Owen Jackson looked up from the bridge chart table where he and his navigations officer had been plotting a course down the eastern coast of Britain on the final leg home to Portsmouth. Before being diverted to investigate a distress call, _**HMS Iron Duke**_ and her crew had just taken part in a two month long joint NATO exercise alongside the ships of several other navies, before that the ship had completed a six month long deployment in the Arabian gulf protecting shipping.

The ship was only two years old, but this deployment had tested both her and her crew, and now they were looking forward to a three month period on the beach with their families while their ship underwent a refit and routine maintenance.

Owen Jackson had become a grandfather while he had been at sea, and was looking forward to getting to know his new granddaughter.

But he wasn't home yet, and for several days longer he still had a ship and 185 other children to look after, this total didn't include the marines or the aviators, both those sections had quite capable fathers in John Healey and Paul Wills.

Reaching out he took the message, nodding his thanks to the communications petty officer, and knowing from the man's expression it wasn't going to be good news. Although the message was marked 'Captain's eyes only' the message still had to be received and decoded, then delivered to him. The communications department were the grapevine of the ship, the crew would know of the message within ten minutes of the Captain reading it.

Jackson held the message in front of him and tried to focus upon it, the writing was blurry and indistinct. Sighing softly and muttering about the unfairness of growing old the officer looked around the bridge to see if anyone was watching him, and then withdrew the small half-moon spectacles from their case and placed them on. His crew were all being very careful to seem to not be watching him, but he could feel the dozen ears trained in his direction.

_To : the Officer Commanding, **Her Majesties Ship** **Iron Duke**_

_From : Naval Operations Command, Northwood._

_Due to the unidentified nature of recent attacks on shipping and installations in the North Sea, a quarantine area has been established at waypoint Green Zero One Five. Stop._

_Proceed immediately to this waypoint along with your salvage. When on station establish contact **Her Majesties Ship** **Caernarvon Castle** for a list of vessels to be held under quarantine. Stop_

_You will become cordon commander upon your arrival, you must ensure no vessel leaves the area until the quarantine is lifted, you may use any force at your disposal to carry out this task. If required, re-supply is available to you. Stop_

_Be aware, Russian surveillance vessels believed to be in your area of operations. Stop_

_Admiral Tigh_

_Chief of Naval Operations._

"Bugger it!"

Owen Jackson crushed the message slip in his hand, anger flashing through him at the cruelty of his superiors, his ship and crew were tired, worn out by their tour of duty, they had been away from port for nearly nine months and all of them longed desperately to see friends and family again.

But, orders were orders, and he had been in the Armed Forces for a long time and not once had he disobeyed a direct command from his superiors, he wasn't going to start now.

Turning back to the map, Jackson used his finger to quickly locate the stated waypoint, as he had suspected, it was a day's hard sailing behind them, back into the very heart of the still raging storm. It would also put them in the near vicinity of a large oil drilling platform. The Russian ships added another complication he could have done without. The fact that entire blue water fleet of the Royal Navy had put to sea at once had not gone unnoticed by both allies and enemies alike, Jackson prayed that the Russians would not prove rsponsible for the current wave of attacks...the repercussions did not bare thinking about.

He glanced out of the window at the _**Iron Duke**_'s companion, the cargo vessel was running on a parallel course to them, two miles away, and that distance had not diminished the vessels size at all. Jackson had placed a small crew of his own people onboard along with a detail of marines to ensure the ship's security.

Reaching up, without looking, for the intercom system above his head, he selected 1MC which would broadcast his voice live to the whole ship. He paused a moment to collect his thoughts, before holding down the button.

"Now here this, this is the Captain speaking. We are going to have to put off our return to port for a little while longer, hopefully only a few days. We have been ordered to enforce quarantine around a point a day behind us. I know you were all looking forward to going home, but I ask for your patience and you professionalism for just a little bit longer, I know you won't let me down. That is all."

Jackson replaced the handset to its overhead stowage and turned to his navigation officer and handed him the orders slip..

"Right take us to that waypoint, along with our big friend out there, best possible speed."

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic**

Rufus Scrimgeour looked up at the knock on his door. The new assistant he had taken on to replace that traitor Weasley stood there holding the file he had requested from the archive. Waving him in, he reached up and took the file.

The file consisted of a brown outer envelope with a page on the front that listed all the people that had ever signed it out from the archive. Scrimgeour was surprised to learn that there had been an update placed in the file only six months before.

Opening it, he quickly reviewed the contents, not that he really needed to, most of it had been written by him in the first place after all. There were several pictures, one of a much younger version of him leading a young boy from the holding cells, the younger version of him looked very pleased with himself and the child looked terrified.

Satisfied he had remembered the details of the case, all the details, not just what was written in the file, he skipped to the latest update.

_Thomas Daniel Bell, subject 2341, has to this point not violated any of the conditions of his exile. He is serving in the British Muggle Army, in a Regiment called the Special Air Service, although we are unsure of his actual job specifications. _

_According to his service record he has served with distinction for several years, been decorated for gallantry on three occasions and been wounded in action twice. His last promotion was to the rank of sergeant, a rank he has now held for two years._

_There are many parts of his service record detailing where he served and when that has been purposefully blanked out, and despite enquiries made, we have not been given any satisfactory answers on this matter. A shroud of secrecy has been thrown over this military unit for reasons unknown._

_It is the opinion of the review board that this subject is of no further interest to this department and will be reviewed again in four years._

Scrimgeour had the seed of an idea growing inside him, to take this troublemaker down by magical means would mean significant exposure to a secret he really wanted to keep people away from. But Bell had joined the muggle military, and they had rules about letting their people run around the countryside defying the authorities.

Even if he was allowed to be here, his superiors would take a dim view of his actions, assaulting government personnel, snatching criminals, he could get the muggle army to do his dirty work for him, and if things got really messy, maybe Bell might even be killed.

Sitting back with a broad grin on his face, Scrimgeour welcomed one less problem to deal with, now he could turn his thoughts to dealing with Potter and his merry band of outlaws.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Ginny woke to someone shaking her shoulder. Opening her eyes she looked up into the smiling face of her mother, Katie was stood nearby and she seemed to be almost bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Time to get up dear, breakfast is on the table"

Ginny groaned and closed her eyes, what with the party last night and Harry's little outing she had not gotten a lot of sleep, and definitely felt she needed at least another twelve hours. Early night tonight then she told herself.

She pulled the covers back, and gently lifted Harry's arm from her waist, luckily he had kept his hands to himself this time, Ginny hadn't been looking forward to **that** conversation with her mother.

Talking of her mother, there was something very strange about the way she was stood there beaming at her, and Katie was acting downright bizarre. Dropping the cover back over the still sleeping Harry, as before, Harry noticed her absence in his sleep and tried to reach for her, and as before with a quick word in his ear Ginny managed to get him to slip back to his dreamless sleep.

Ginny turned to the table, Emma and Dan were stood there, blocking the view of the table, also looking insufferably pleased with themselves.

"Alright what's going on, why is everyone stood around looking so smug and pleased with themselves? Have i goy something stuck in my teeth?"

Dan and Emma parted to allow Ginny to see the table, sat there tucking into a large bowl of porridge was…

"Hermione!"

Ginny never remembered crossing the room, suddenly she was at her friends side and holding her tight, they were both crying and laughing and rocking. It was the best surprise she had ever had, her best friend had woken up!

Finally separating, Ginny looked closely at her friend, she had already gotten some colour back in her cheeks, but it would take her a while to completely recover. She still wore the bandage over her entire head, and her eyes had dark circles around them.

"We have so much to talk about Hermione, but first eat your breakfast, knowing my mother, she'll insist on at least another bowl after that."

Hermione laughed, a sound they had all longed to hear for so long and pointed at her bowl.

"It's already my third bowl."

Ginny left her friend to eat her porridge and spend some time with her parents, as she walked back to the couch, Ginny realised the grin on her face matched that of Katie and her mother. Suddenly losing control of the moment, her good feelings exploded to the surface and Ginny grabbed Katie, and spontaneously they both started bouncing on the spot and whooping loudly with happiness.

Harry woke to the sound of loud, excited voices, his entire body ached, and his thigh burned with pain. Cracking one eye open, he was astonished to see Ginny and Katie jumping up and down in front of him like two little kids on their first trip to Honeydukes sweet shop.

"Do you two mind, some of us had a busy night and are trying to get some sleep"

Ginny rushed over to him and threw her arms around him and kissed him on the lips, not exactly an unpleasant way to be greeted in the morning, but he was in a grumpy mood, and it would take more than that to distract him.

"Harry, its Hermione, she's awake!"

Harry's mind, still asleep, didn't process that information with his normal speed of thought.

"Oh is that all, that's nice, now keep the noise down please"

With that he closed his eyes. Ginny just waited expectantly, Harry wasn't always the fastest out of the trap, but by Merlin he got there in the end.

Harry's eyes snapped back open and he stared at her.

"What did you just say?"

"Hermione's awake Harry!"

He was out from under the covers in a flash and nearly ended up straight on his face, there was no way his thigh would support his weight, luckily Ginny had been prepared for this reaction from him, and once again caught him. Supporting him, she helped him across to the table.

He stood there for a long moment, wobbling slightly, looking down at his friend, Hermione looked up at him and smiled, and she had tears in her eyes. Sitting down in the chair next to her, slowly almost hesitantly, Harry reached out and touched her cheek just to check she was real, there were tears rolling down his face too.

"Alright there Hermione?"

His voice was so soft it barely carried to Hermione.

"Never better Harry, you?"

With a squeak of surprise Hermione found herself scooped into Harry's arms and hugged tightly. He was shaking with emotion and she found she was too.

"I'm all the better for seeing you! I was so worried, I have missed you so very much!"

Harry whispered so quietly that even Ginny stood by his shoulder couldn't hear him.

Ron chose this moment to appear stretching and yawning from upstairs. His hair was sticking straight up and with sleep blurred eyes he walked past Harry and Hermione, and slumped into one of the chairs.

"Oi Potter, get your hands off my girlfriend!"

It suddenly dawned on Ron what the impact of what he had just said actually had, and his head snapped back up and his eyes widened until it appeared they would pop right out of his head. He mouthed the word 'Hermione', then wiped at his eyes, not trusting them. Looking again, his face broke into the broadest possible grin and he was around the table in a flash.

Standing, Harry gave up his seat to Ron, and with Ginny's help they took seats on the other side of the table, and watched as Ron put a hand on either cheek and leant in and passionately kissed Hermione on the lips. The fact that her parents were stood right there didn't even seem to have occurred to him.

It wasn't until Dan cleared his throat in a meaningful manner a few minutes later that Ron got the hint and reluctantly released Hermione, her eyes were unfocused, and she appeared flushed and was breathing heavily. Ginny nudged Harry in the side with her elbow and leant in close to whisper to him.

"See, that's how to kiss your girlfriend, hope you're taking notes!"

Harry grinned at her, his eyes promising that later she would get all the kissing she could stand.

"Oh Hermione, thank Merlin"

Ron too was now in floods of tears, he sat in the chair next to her and just held onto her hand, gently stroking it, it was almost as if he believed if he let go she would become a figment of his imagination, Hermione just beamed at him, her smile all the more dazzling because it hadn't been seen for so very long.

"Katie, will you please get everybody up? Dobby and Winky have breakfast nearly finished. I think Draco deserves an extra large portion today, don't you?"

Katie just grinned, and raced up the stairs.

"Why, what's Malfoy done?"

Harry asked Molly in puzzlement.

"He was the one that woke Hermione up"

Harry just blinked at her, not really taking that piece of information in, he looked across at Hermione, who giggled at the look of utter astonishment on his face.

"It's true, I clearly remember him talking to me, and saying sorry for all he had done since we met, and suddenly I was able to answer him."

There was a sudden rush of mostly red headed bodies down the stairs as word spread of Hermione's revival, everyone soundly hugged her, and by the end there was not a dry eye in the house. Even Thomas, the supposedly big tough soldier, who had never even met Hermione while she was conscious, complained loudly to anyone that listened that he really did have something in his eye.

Draco became an instant celebrity to the inhabitants of the burrow, the-boy-who-woke-Hermione-up, a fact he obviously didn't like in the slightest, Harry just grinned knowingly at him, having suffered all those years of publicity and torment, payback was great.

The group spent the morning all gathered around the kitchen table catching up on each other's activities, there was sadness and happiness in equal measures, Hermione beamed at everyone until Harry thought her face would burst. Harry didn't feel like he was able to mention his activities of the previous night, and everyone else, taking the hint, left the subject alone as well.

Hermione was amazed at how much had happened since she was injured, battles, kidnappings, deaths, new relationships, and new family members, Harry gaining a family, it all too much to take in. In fact it was all a bit overwhelming.

"Mrs Weasley, as it's nearly lunchtime, would it be possible to eat my lunch in my room, just the four of us, we have so much to catch up on?"

Hermione indicated Ron, Ginny and Harry. Molly looked over at Dan, who looked at Emma and shrugged. Emma nodded.

"That will be fine, but call me Molly, Hermione"

Ron helped Hermione to her feet, then with a grin pulled her into a tight embrace and with a loud pop disappeared. Harry grumbled, he hated being the youngest in his year group; once he was seventeen and had his apparation license and could legally apparate without the fear of Ministry sanction, he would never walk anywhere, ever again.

Reappearing with barely a sound at Harry's side, Ron put a hand on his shoulder, and looked over at his sister.

"Sorry Ginny, you need to travel the old fashioned way"

Then with a pop, he and Harry disappeared.

Hermione grinned at both of them as Ron deposited Harry in her room, outside on the stairs they could hear Ginny muttering to herself about the unfairness of it all, but she had made much quicker time than if she had to drag Harry up the stairs with her.

Within moments the four of them were all stood together in the centre of the room hugging each other again, none of them had admitted, even to each other, how much Hermione had become such an integral part of their lives and how much of a gaping hole her enforced absence from the group had left.

When the hug finally broke up all four sat cross-legged upon Hermione's bed, which Ron had widened to comfortably seat them all. They chatted about light, inconsequential matters, not wanting to touch upon more serious issues so soon after their reunion.

Hermione gave Harry and Ginny a knowing glance, as they sat on their side of the bed holding hands, just as she and Ron were.

"So I'm guessing Harry that you put that whole breaking up with Ginny foolishness behind you then?"

Harry laughed, and squeezed Ginny's hand.

"Yeah, that was a moment of stupidity on my part, what can I say, I was educated as to the error of my ways! That and she can really scare me sometimes!"

Harry leaned closer to Hermione and whispered in a mock conspiratorial fashion.

"It's her temper, you must have noticed with Ron, she can't control herself, it's the red hair!"

Ron glared at him, and Ginny slapped him playfully on the shoulder.

"See, my point exactly, it's the hair!"

Hermione grinned as Ginny pounced upon her boyfriend, she was so pleased that two of her best friends seemed so very happy together, Ginny had held a torch for Harry for so long that he just had to notice eventually.

But despite the laughter and joviality on display, she thought that Harry seemed different somehow, his humour seemed to be more forced, less natural than it had been before, as if he was trying to hide his feelings behind a mask.

Although everyone had been careful to skirt around the issue, Hermione was sure that something terrible had happened involving Harry recently. The looks the adults were giving each other behind his back, and the way Ginny and Remus were being very careful what they said around him. Hermione hoped that whatever it was, he was able to get it off his conscience before it began to eat at him.

Harry looked over at Ginny, and held out his hand and made a grabbing gesture with it, and raised his eyebrow. Ginny caught on immediately and nodded her agreement, beaming encouragement at him, this was the right time to tell them.

"Guys, I have something I want to show you, something new I have learned to do, up to now Ginny is the only person I have shown, the twins know from experience. Before I allowed Wormtail to take me before Voldemort, I gave my wand to Thomas Bell for safekeeping, I didn't want Wormtail to get his paws on it. During my escape I came under fire from three Death Eaters, and I thought I would die, I was unarmed and alone."

Hermione listened intently to Harry's explanation, she couldn't imagine anyone going in front of Voldemort alone, unarmed and surviving, let alone escaping to rescue someone, it truly was the stuff of legends. If the public found out about it the myth surrounding the-boy-who-lived would grow in the telling.

"I thought about my wand, how it felt, its weight and how much I wanted it. And suddenly it was there in my hand, my wand!"

"That's impossible, no summoning spell would have the power to work over that kind of range!"

"Yes Ron I know, Ginny said exactly the same thing, I didn't summon it, I called it, at least that's what I have named this new skill. I have done it several times since, and I think I am getting the hang of it."

"Alright then show me!"

Hermione looked extremely sceptical, she'd probably never read anything about such a skill in any book, and so was having a hard time believing it could possibly be true.

"If I have a connection to the item I want, I don't have to know its exact location, for example my wand or my broom, I can now call them from wherever they are."

Harry concentrated, and reached out his hand, and he was clutching his firebolt. It was just suddenly there, where there had been empty air before. Holding out his other hand, his wand was suddenly there.

"That's bloody brilliant that is! What else can you do?"

Harry laughed at Ron's enthusiasm, he looked across at Hermione and his grin broadened. She had a look of intense concentration on her face, Harry knew there was an imminent suggestion incoming that she get out a book and do some research, in the offing, oh how he had missed her!

"As I said, if I know the item intimately I don't have to know where it is, otherwise I have to know its location, or at least have been there, for example…"

Reaching out again, Harry turned and presented Hermione with a bunch of wild flowers that had not been in his hand a second before. She accepted them blushing as red as Ron's hair.

"They are from a clearing Ginny and I were in yesterday. The third example is objects I can see at that moment, these are the easiest and quickest to call."

Harry held out his hand, and the bunch of flowers he had presented to Hermione was suddenly right back in his hand, Hermione was looking down at her empty hand in open-mouthed amazement. Harry presented the flowers back to her.

"Its object apparation!"

Hermione exclaimed excitedly, smiling at him, almost bouncing up and down on the bed.

"It's what Hermione?"

"It's just like apparation! But instead of moving yourself from one location to another, you concentrate and by force of will move an object to your location, its object apparation! But if that's the case, then it follows that you should have another ability, you should be able to move an object in your hand or within sight to a completely different location you have been to before!"

He had never even considered that, he'd been too pleased with himself to put that much thought into the process, that's why the group needed Hermione, she was the studious one, the thinker of the group, the brains.

"I would never have even thought to try that!"

"That's what you have me for, to suggest the obvious to you"

Hermione put on a haughty tone and stuck her nose in the air. Ginny laughed, and Harry called a pillow to him and then threw it at her, causing her to burst into a fit of giggles. But Ron however had a shrewd gleam in his eye.

"But you know what this skill means? In combat you could…"

"Take an opponents wand right out of his hand, I…I know, I have used it to do just that already"

Harry sat there with his head bowed, he didn't know that any of the three of them knew about the previous night. Ginny was the only one to know he had killed some of the men he had faced last night. He didn't want to tell them, he didn't want to see the fear and loathing in their faces at what he had become.

But he couldn't keep it inside any longer.

"Harry, we are all your friends, whatever it is worrying you, we are here for you if you want to talk about it!"

Hermione's voice was soft and full of compassion, she reached over and took his hand, and Ginny had hold of the other. Harry shuddered, sudden shivers running down his spine, he knew he had to come clean, he had just hoped to be able to avoid this moment for a little longer, he had been enjoying the time he was spending with Ginny.

"Last night I had a scar vision. It showed me Voldemort torturing and killing the Dursley's. Because of my legal adoption by the Weasley's, the blood protection on 4 Privet Drive was removed and they became vulnerable to attack."

Harry kept his head bowed, not making eye contact with any of them, his voice was full of pain, it was his fault the Dursley's were dead, he had wanted a proper family, and in gaining one he had condemned another family to death.

"By the time the pain had faded enough for me to move, they had all died, but I didn't know for sure, I had to see it, I had to see it with my own eyes. But I feared Voldemort could have been showing me another false vision, just like…like Sirius."

His voice cracked at the mention of his dead godfather, they all knew how much he still blamed himself for Sirius's death in the department of mysteries. He had nearly led them all, including Neville and Luna to their deaths as well.

"I had to go alone, I couldn't risk it being another trap, I just couldn't lead anyone else into that situation again! If any of you or your family had been injured i would never have forgiven myself."

Ginny scowled at him, but kept quiet until he had finished, thanks to Remus she knew how much this confession was costing him, how scared he was, she had to let him get it all off his chest first, before she began to educate him in the proper respect to show to your friends and girlfriend, all of whom were powerful wizards and witches in their own right.

"When I got to Privet Drive the dark mark was already hanging over the house, and Voldemort had left behind some of his goons in case someone turned up to investigate. I don't think he expected me to come in person, or I'm fairly sure he would have stayed himself."

"How many were there?"

Hermione asked softly.

"To tell you the truth I don't really know how many there were, i was trying not to feel anything, become numb to the entire ordeal, I didn't have time to stop and count, a lot, that's the best I can say."

There was a long pause, as Harry built up the courage to tell them everything, how he had killed at least three men, he never gave them a chance, never tried to take them prisoner.

"I killed three of them, and maybe a fourth, not by accident or in defence of myself or others, this time I set out with the intention of killing them, i wanted them to pay for what had happened to the Dursley's, I didn't try to capture them, I gave them no chance to surrender…oh god, what am I becoming!"

Harry was crying now, more tears running down his face, he still couldn't meet anyone's eyes, afraid of what he might find there, fear and revulsion possibly, he was putting off that moment for as long as possible.

"Harry…Harry, pay attention to what I'm saying!"

Hermione had her strict voice engaged, and slowly Harry's head came up and he stared at her, he couldn't bear to look over at Ginny, couldn't risk seeing the rejection in her eyes.

"We are involved in fighting a war. We didn't ask for it, and we didn't want it, but we have a war on our hands regardless. Yes you killed those men, but they made a choice, to side with a monster that is barely human anymore, and places no worth on human life. Do you really think if you had given them the option to surrender they would have taken it? They would have used the time you had given to them to attack you, and you know this deep down, you acted properly, if not exactly correctly."

She squeezed his hand reassuring.

"I was so afraid I had disappointed you all"

Ginny growled at him and grabbed his hand.

"Harry you idiot! The very fact you feel this badly about your actions is what sets you apart from them, do you think Death Eaters feel anything after carrying out the atrocities we have heard about, but you feel this way even though you did nothing wrong! Harry, I love you because you are sweet and caring, shy and considerate. I love you because no matter what happens, as long as you are there to hold my hand, I know everything is going to be all right! I LOVE YOU! And I know you well enough to know that nothing you could possibly do will ever change that!"

Harry looked across at Ginny, she was smiling tenderly at him, and she reached up and gently caressed his cheek. He felt such relief that for a moment he actually felt light headed, he had been so certain that she would not want him after she found out he had killed, he had worked himself up into a state so badly he had actually felt sick.

Reaching out mentally, Harry snatched another bunch of flowers from empty air and handed them to Ginny, she blushed as much as Hermione had done as she accepted them. Harry knew he'd have to find a new source of flowers, the bunch in the clearing was taking a battering.

Ginny looked into Harry's eyes and knew now was the moment to broach the subject that had been eating at her since the night before.

"Now, Harry you and I need to have a little talk!"

Harry didn't like the tone in Ginny's voice one little bit, she was angry with him about something, and what followed could prove to be unpleasant.

"Harry, I think it's about time you realised that it's not a weakness to rely on other people to help you. I would have thought you of all people would have learnt that particular lesson after the end of your first year, you would not have saved the Philosophers stone from Voldemort without the help of the people sitting here! You trusted them then, why not now."

Harry opened his mouth to reply, but Ginny ploughed on regardless of his objections, much to the amusement of Ron and Hermione.

"Even fully trained Aurors work in teams of twos or fours. Why do you insist on trying to do everything on your own?"

"Because I don't want to get anyone else hurt or killed!"

Harry snapped back.

"But Harry we all know the risks, just as we knew the risks in the department of mysteries"

Ron voice was level and his tone reasonable. Harry was so shocked he was forced to do a double take, Hermione was the logical, reasonable one, Ron was passionate and emotional one, was he finally growing up?

"Harry, no matter how powerful you are, not even you can fight your way through the ranks of all the Death Eaters to get to Voldemort, unless you wake up tomorrow morning with the powers of a god you're going to need help"

Hermione, as normal, the logical one.

Harry knew what they were saying made sense, but if he agreed to what they were suggesting more of his friends and family would be exposed to danger and possible death. Yet he also knew deep down that he could not carry out his allotted task alone.

"What are you suggesting?"

Hermione looked at Ron and got a nod of reassurance before continuing.

"There is an organisation already in existence that is ready and willing to do battle on your behalf, what I suggest is that we expand upon their original function and begin training to fight this war our way!"

"The Order of the Phoenix, while they might be willing to fight Hermione, they are neither equipped nor trained for what we might face!"

Hermione was shaking her head, and Ron was laughing quietly.

"Harry you really are the dumbest smart person I know! Not the Order you idiot, the D.A! Dumbledore's Army began two years ago as purely a defence club, to make up for a terrible teacher, to get us through our exams, I think its time they became what their name says they are, an Army!"

Harry was shaking his head violently.

"No Hermione, most of them are the same age or younger than us, I cannot and will not lead children into battle! I won't have their deaths on my hands, we will have to do this with adults or not at all!"

He was angry now, he could not bear to see any of his friends, his classmates dead because of his leadership or lack of it. How could she suggest such a thing?

"Do you think you're the only one suffering in this war Harry? Because let me assure you, you're not! Take Susan Bones for example, between Voldemort's last rising and now, she's lost her entire family, yet I bet if you asked for her opinion she would want to fight! Neville, with his parents in St Mungo's, he's got no one left in the world now, and I know without having to ask what his choice would be, he would follow you to the ends of the Earth if need be! Katie Bell, she has lost her parents and now has to raise her sister, ask her, go and ask her, and see what her response is, she wants to fight!"

Hermione was flushed and angry but her eyes had their old sparkle back in them, Harry cocked his head over and grinned at her.

"You know you're awfully pretty when you're angry!"

Ginny burst out into a fit of giggles. Hermione had opened her mouth to retort, but had been completely caught out by the comment, and just sat there with her mouth open, blushing a bright red. Ron leaned over to her and kissed her cheek.

"Well he is right, Mione!"

Turning to Harry, Ron fixed him with a stern glance.

"When he was alive, Dumbledore was a name even Voldemort feared, I think if we work at it we can turn the D.A. into a name the Death Eaters hold with a similar fear, but it will mean hard work and a lot of training."

"When the Death Eaters attacked here, we Weasley siblings proved that working together we could out fight the Death Eaters working as individuals, five of us held off at least twenty of them. That's what we need to bring to the D.A. I just don't see how we are going to do it!"

Ginny was thinking out loud, not really expecting any response, so she was quite surprised when Harry's eyes lit up and his face was split by a huge grin. He grabbed her into a wild embrace, and kissed her all over her face.

"You're brilliant Ginny, you know that, just brilliant! Ron, come with me!"

Before any of them could respond Harry held out his hand and pulled his cane out of thin air, using his wand, he quickly transfigured it into a crutch, and grunting with the effort he levered himself upright and was disappearing out the door.

Ginny, still flushed from the amount of kisses she had just received, turned to Ron and Hermione, who appeared just as nonplussed by Harry's behaviour as she was.

"Does either of you have any idea what that was about?"

"Yes, apparently little sis you're brilliant, don't quite see it myself, but hey! I'd better go and make sure he doesn't fall down the stairs or something"

Ron stood and hurried after Harry, he already fairly sure that he knew where his friend was going, after all this time he knew how Harry's mind worked.

"Well, I for one agree with Harry, I think you're brilliant too!"

Ginny beamed at Hermione, coming from her that was quite a compliment.

"Now the boys have finally left us alone, tell me all about Luna and Neville, how in Merlin's name did that happen?"

The two girls forgot about the war for the moment and got down to the serious business of swapping gossip.

Harry stumbled the last couple of steps to the kitchen, which was still full of people, Ron was right on his heels, still smiling at some private joke.

"Thomas, can I speak to you in private for a moment?"

The tall dark haired man looked puzzled and a little surprised, but nodded and rose from his place at the table, Helen made to follow her big brother, but Draco catching the small shake of the head from Harry placed a hand on her knee, and once he had her attention, shook his head.

"I think this is big peoples talk short stuff, what do you say we get some brooms out and you can show your sister what you have learnt? Are you up for that Katie?"

Helen's face went from disappointment to happiness in the space of a second, anything to do with a broom made her happy, Harry knew that feeling well, the joy of flight made him smile too. Nodding his gratitude to Draco for the distraction, Harry led the way outside.

Ron conjured a table and three chairs and a pitcher and glasses full of pumpkin juice, and once they had all taken a seat Harry leaned in towards Thomas.

"Firstly I want to thank you for the other night, you came here to ensure the safety of your family, and all I have done since your arrival is drag you along with me into all sorts of trouble."

Thomas grinned and shook his head.

"I don't have to ever go looking for trouble Harry, it seeks me out plenty well enough on its own. I was already in trouble, it started fifteen years ago, and I suppose it has never really stopped."

"That's one of the things I need to speak to you about, what is it between you and Rufus Scrimgeour? You obviously have some history, what exactly happened in the past to make you hate him so?"

Thomas looked at Harry for a moment, and to Harry it felt like he was being examined under a microscope, a not at all pleasant sensation.

"I have not discussed what happened with anyone for nearly ten years, it's a hard thing to do, talk about the reasons why I became so estranged from my family that the last time I spoke to my parents was the night of the birth of my youngest sister"

Thomas sat back in his seat and looked thoughtful for a few seconds.

"You have to understand what that period was like, it was only a few short months before the attack on your parents Harry, old snake face was at the height of his power. The entire Wizarding population was effectively operating under a siege mentality, living in a state of fear as Death Eaters seemed to have free reign, not just in this country, but across most of Europe as well."

Harry nodded, he had been told of this period by both Hagrid and Remus, he understood as much about what it had felt like as anyone who had not actually lived through it themselves. It was one of the reasons he was willing to fight so hard, so that no-one had to live through such a period of history again.

"People were jumping at shadows, Death Eaters lurked around every corner and the death toll was mounting. The Ministry had passed all sorts of laws giving Aurors and hit wizards powers unheard of at any other time."

"Such as the power to imprison without trial, and to use the three unforgivable curses without any repercussions?"

Harry asked quietly, thinking of Sirius and his term of imprisonment without trial, and what he knew of the measures passed by Barty Crouch Snr.

"That and worse. Stop and search measures, random enforced Veritaserum questioning sessions, curse to kill policies. Law Enforcement personnel were becoming the oppressors in order to try and stop the Death Eaters. Society itself seemed to be unravelling at the seams. It was a dark time for everyone."

Thomas looked away and sighed deeply, he ran his fingers through his short dark hair and when he looked up he had a sad, haunted expression on his face.

"I wasn't one of the popular children at Hogwarts, at fourteen I was chubby, a mediocre wizard, clumsy and awkward. I was placed in Hufflepuff, mainly I suspect because I was neither brave enough for Gryffindor nor smart enough for Ravenclaw. I had few friends, and little chance of making many. So you can imagine my surprise when a very pretty young witch started showing an interest in me.

I was immediately smitten, she was everything I wanted to be, talented, popular, socially adept and if I do say so, a great kisser, It was the best feeling in the world knowing that this girl, this angel had eyes only for me. In my youthful stupidity I thought she felt the same way about me as I did for her. The girls' surname was Parkinson"

Thomas paused for a few seconds as both Harry and Ron gasped, and dropped his eyes again.

"This girl was only interested in me for the information I could provide about my mother and the other Aurors activities, which admittedly wasn't much, but with the other sources the Death Eaters had, it was enough to allow them discover the location of some ancient Goblin artefact that had been seized during the last Goblin rebellion. The ironic thing was that at the time of the attack the object was being returned to Gringotts as the price of ensuring the Goblins neutrality in the war."

"So the Death Eaters got hold of this artefact then?"

Ron spoke for the first time during the conversation. Thomas shook his head.

"No, but it was a close run thing, the ensuing battle left Diagon ally a smoking ruin and cost the live of seven Aurors and twelve civilians. No one was really sure of the numbers of Death Eater dead as they carried their casualties away with them."

Harry nodded, that was the case in most engagements.

"There was an investigation and interrogations carried out under Veritaserum, unsurprisingly I was eventually discovered to have been the source of the leak. The Auror in charge of the investigation was a young, ambitious man, Someone who had his sights set on the top job and didn't care whose lives he destroyed to get there, a man who knew enough about the inner workings of the Ministry to be truly dangerous. A man who knew what a boon to his career it would be to be able to point the finger of blame squarely at the son of a senior Auror who was in the running to be the next head of the DMLE."

"Scrimgeour!"

Harry stated with sudden insight, he now knew why Thomas felt such a level of hate towards the current Minister of Magic.

"Rufus Scrimgeour was nothing if not thorough, where there was little or no evidence, he created it. By the time he had finished the investigation and presented his findings, it looked to the Wizengamot that I was a Fully fledged Death Eater wannabe on the cusp of accepting the dark mark."

"But surely Dumbledore…..!"

Ron started to object.

"Dumbledore, at the time was fighting a losing battle trying to stop the purebloods taking control of the Wizengamot, he was not going to burn what little political influence he had left to defend a child that when all was said and done was actually guilty of what he was being accused of. As he explained it to my mother such an act would not be towards the greater good."

Thomas' words struck a cord in Harry, he wondered how far Dumbledore would have gone to defend him against the Wizengamot when he had fought off the Dementors if he hadn't of been the subject of the prophesy, if he hadn't of been Dumbledore's weapon in training.

"I'm sure that allowing you to be thrown to the wolves was for the greater good, Dumbledore was all about the greater good."

Harry allowed a hint of bitterness to creep into his voice, there were so many questions he had for Dumbledore and the likelihood that he would never get any answers for any of them.

"If it hadn't been for my mother calling in every favour owed to her I would have been sent to Azkaban for life, as it was I had my wand snapped in front of me and a lifetime magic ban imposed on me."

Ron shuddered and looked physically ill at the thought of having the magical world stripped away from him, Harry found it easier to imagine not having been brought up in the magical world.

"I was forced to live as a squib until I reached my age of majority, my family tried to help, but living in the magical world without being able to use any magic was sheer torture. I couldn't ride a broom, use the Floo, or even ride the Knight bus. It was the worst time of my entire life, and I made everyone around me as miserable as I felt. At seventeen I decided that I no longer wanted anything to do with the magical world or my family for that matter, I took myself into exile, and joined the muggle Army, and to some extent I think my parents were always grateful that I left, the rest you know!"

"But I know you have a wand, where did you get it?!

Ron asked, asking the question Harry had wanted answered himself.

"It turns out that my mother managed to get her hands on my snapped wand, and when she died it was returned to me, although with it now in two halves I'm not sure what use it will be."

Thomas reached into the two pouches he always wore on the back of his belt and pulled out the metal cylinders Harry and Ron had seen before, he extended them with a snap of each wrist, the movement was fast and precise and Harry couldn't help but be impressed.

"The handles are hollow, I have placed half of my wand into each baton, it allows me to cast certain less complicated spells, and if necessary bust some heads at the same time! I never graduated from Hogwarts, all of your D.A. are more capable wizards than i am."

Harry knew of at least one other example of someone who had his or her wand snapped placing the pieces inside another object. Anyone that knew Hagrid knew that he performed magic using his tattered old umbrella that must contain the remains of his wand.

"That's the main reason I needed to speak to you. I need you to tell Ron and myself a little about what your career in the Army, some of the stuff you have already told me, trust me, it's important"

Thomas frowned for a moment before answering.

"Ok sure, well at seventeen when i came of age, I enlisted into the British Army and joined the 2nd Battalion the parachute regiment, their job is to jump into battle out the back of low flying aircraft."

"But…that's just crazy, what stops you from hitting the ground so hard you die?"

Ron asked in amazement. Harry and Thomas just looked at each other and rolled their eyes, being muggle born or raised by muggles meant that Harry took so much for granted that pure blood wizards didn't understand.

"We use parachutes, giant bits of fabric designed to catch the wind and slow your descent, it was exciting and dangerous, and I loved it, but after a while I felt that there was something more, I needed a new challenge, so after four years I applied for the Special Forces."

"What are they?"

Now it was Ron's turn to sound puzzled.

"The special forces are the very best of the three armed services, the fittest, smartest, bravest and most highly trained. The Special Air Service, or SAS is the British Army's special forces Regiment. To join you have to be a volunteer and you have to pass a six month course called selection, selection is without a doubt the hardest, most demanding military course in the world, only the very best apply and of them only one in five pass it."

"It can't be harder than Auror training"

Ron replied. Thomas just looked at him as if he had grown an extra head.

"Some time remind me to tell you about what we call the fan dance, Pen-y-fan is not for the faint hearted."

"So what exactly does this regiment do?"

Harry leaned forward, he didn't know the exact answer to Ron's question either.

"The simple answer is whatever the government asks us to, hostage rescue, sabotage behind enemy lines, VIP protection, its not the jobs we do, it's the fact that we have the training, motivation and equipment to do anything asked of us, that and we are normally heavily outnumbered and operating on our own in small teams."

"How small?"

Harry asked, he thought he saw a slight smile cross Ron's face as he finally knew where all this was heading.

"A normal infantry section consists of eight men, which break down into two four man fire teams or 'bricks', the SAS is a bit different we mainly work in teams of four, the harder the task the more teams that are involved.

But it's not really about numbers, its all about teamwork, those four men live together, train together and work together until they know each other better than their own families. You have to be able to know what the man next to you is thinking, to trust the man next to you as much as he trusts you, because when you're in combat, your team is all you've got."

"Thomas I don't know what the others have told you, but apparently I am the only one who can stop Voldemort…"

"Yes Harry, I am aware of the prophecy, not really sure I believe in all that stuff myself."

"But what's important is that Voldemort does believe it, we will face one another, and one of us will kill the other, it's inevitable at this point, but that doesn't mean I intend facing him without some help."

Harry looked over at Ron and smiled, his eyes twinkling with merriment as he used the line of Ginny's earlier argument, he smiled back at him, encouraging him to go on.

"There is a group, that if they are willing, will engage the Death Eaters and keep them off my back while I duel with old snake face, but they are probably going to be heavily out numbered."

Thomas muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like 'story of my life'.

"When the Death Eaters attacked here, my beautiful and brilliant girlfriend commented that the five Weasley siblings were able to hold off a much larger force because they worked as a team, so I thought what if I could train my group to do just that, work together in small groups, like your fire teams, supporting each other."

Thomas looked intrigued at the idea.

"What are you talking about, small scale actions or large pitch battles?"

"Probably both, why? What's the difference?"

"A lot, in a small scale action one group of four can tip the balance, for example, I stormed a building with eight hostiles and two hostages inside, but because I used the right tactics and the right equipment, I only needed four men to win the battle. When the British Army fights a large scale battle it uses a concept called combined arms operations."

"And this means?"

Ron looked as if he wished Hermione was there with her parchment in front of her so she could take notes.

"It means all the different arms of the Army working towards a common goal, engineers, artillery, infantry, armour, medics and air support, all working as one."

"But we don't have any of that?"

"If you are going into combat you will suffer casualties, no matter how well trained you are, the Army always has combat medics serving with the front line troops, they stabilise the patient until they can be medi-vaced off the battlefield."

"Medivacced?"

Ron made a face at the unknown word.

"Yes, if you are injured in combat, the faster they can get you to medical help the better your chances of survival, there are flying machines called helicopters whose job it is to land and pick up the injured, sometimes under enemy fire, to get them to the healers."

Ron was grinning broadly at Harry, and Harry knew exactly what he was thinking, The D.A. could easily be expanded to allow the formation of a flying arm, there were several students that were not particularly strong at offensive spell craft but who were great flyers.

"So Thomas you're saying we need some form of integral medical unit on the battlefield?"

"Yes, or at least very close by, and the facilities to transfer wounded to a proper hospital as soon as possible, portkeys or whatever"

"Thomas, we were wondering with your knowledge of tactics and how these fire teams are supposed to work, if you would help us train our group?"

"Who is this group? Those Order fellas I saw the other night?"

"No, the other group, Dumbledore's Army, or the D.A. for short!"

"Children! You want to take children into battle!"

"Not particularly no, but as my exceptionally intelligent friend Hermione pointed out, children are being caught up in this war when they are not doing anything, take your sisters for example, they weren't actively fighting this war!"

"I suppose you have a point, I take it there will be some adult members of the Order involved at some point?"

"Not to start with, we are hoping on keeping this our little secret for at least a little while, it needs some work on the planning and training side before we gather everyone together, will you help us Tom?"

"Sure, it sounds like it could be a lot of fun!"

Both Ron and Harry groaned and Harry slapped the palm of his hand against his forehead.

"Like a version of boot camp, but for little folk, smashing"

"I'm not that little!"

Ginny exclaimed loudly, she had approached the table unnoticed by Harry and Ron, behind Ginny, Hermione was trying hard to keep the stupid grin off of her face, and failing terribly.

"Well I'm not little! I'm petite!"

Harry, grinning at his red headed girlfriend, stood up and leaned over, kissing her forehead, and brushed a loose lock of hair out of her eyes and tucked it back behind her ear.

Ginny looked up into his sparkling green eyes and found herself lost in them, she could stare for hours into those portals into Harry's soul. Right now all she could see love in those eyes, love for her, and it made her feel weak at the knees.

"And I love every petite inch of you, oh girlfriend of mine!"

OOooOO

Dan Granger was a happy man.

His daughter was awake, and by every measurable aspect had suffered little to no ill affects from her enforced coma, yes she was weak and tired, but nothing that lots of rest and a few of Molly's meals couldn't fix.

But despite his current mood, he had not become so carried away in the moment that he hadn't noticed his wife and how oddly she had been acting.

Over the last few days Emma had become very quiet, unusually so, and it could not be explained away by the injuries to Hermione. She had started spending more and more time alone, and when they were together she had snapped at him for the slightest reason. All in all Dan was happy, yet confused.

He wanted to help, to say something to make everthing better, but he had no idea what was wrong, and no idea what to say.

His thoughts were interrupted as the door opened and Emma slipped into the room and closed the door behind her. She had a concerned look on her face and was cradling something in both hands. She approached him hesitantly and sat down beside him on the bed.

"Dan, i have something to tell you..."

Okay, Dan thought to himself, this does not sound good.

"I know we have discussed it in passing but..."

That statement covered every topic from divorce to the chances of Portsmouth ever coming top of the premier league. Now Dan was really concerned. He reached over and took hold of one of Emma's hands.

Whatever she was cradling in her hands fell through her limp fingers to the floor. Dan leant down and picked it up. The item was white and plastic, in a rectangular shape with a window, inside the window was a line, a blue line.

Dan froze. A look of stunned disbelief on his face. He knew what this was, he knew what it meant, although it had been eighteen years ago the last time he had seen one in the hands of his wife.

"Does this mean what i think it means?"

Dan could hear his voice trembling with emotion. Everything in their lives was about to change.

Emma turned to him and opened her hands, there were four similar pieces of plastic in her hands, all the windows had a blue line displayed.

"I wanted to be sure, i had to be certain i hadn't made a mistake. I'm so sorry Dan."

Dan laughed with pure joy and threw his arms around his wife and pulled her in tight.

"Sorry! What are you talking about you crazy woman, what have you got to be sorry about. We're going to have a baby!"

OOooOO

Some time later Katie crossed the upper landing and descended the stairs, her lips still forming the smile put upon her face by her two siblings.

Since the death of her parents she had been forced into the role of 'surrogate' mother to the bundle of nervous energy that was her little sister, the sudden enforced period of responsibility had given her a rather unique view on some of what her parents had been through raising her.

She had not been the easiest of children to bring up, always poking her nose into the affairs of her parents, their neighbours, even passers-by, curious about the world around her and everything in it. It had at times driven her parents to distraction, and looking back Katie finally understood what had been meant when her parents had said '_some day when you have children of your own you will understand_', for although strictly speaking Helen wasn't her child, she now could relate to how her parents had felt.

But it was the look on her brother's face when Helen had asked him to read her a bed-time story that made her smile so broadly, the look of abject terror that had crossed this supposedly highly trained soldier's face had been comical.

Despite all his training, all the courses, Thomas in his Army career had spent virtually no time around children, which was fairly obvious, however he had recovered well, and with a world weary look of resignation Thomas had picked up the indicated book and began to read 'The Hungry Caterpillar'.

With her brothers self sacrificing act, Katie found herself suddenly with a free hour on her hands, her sister rarely went to bed willingly or quietly, and Katie knew just who she wanted to spend it with. It had been a busy, hectic day and she had barely a chance to say two words to Draco since Hermione's miraculous revival.

Katie paused outside the room that had once belonged to Percy Weasley, but now housed Neville and Draco. She could hear voices inside and smiled, happy that Draco might finally be finding some acceptance from the burrow's inhabitants as she pushed the door open.

Harry, Neville, Ron and Draco all looked up with the guilty expression of children caught with their hands firmly planted in the cookie jar. Harry was sat on a bed with Draco, Ron and Neville sat cross legged on the floor at his feet, in open front of them was an ancient looking leather bound spell book.

"What are you lot up to that has you all looking so guilty?"

Draco tried to act casually, he reached over and closed the cover of the book and adjusted his position slightly to block her view of it. Of course this only made him look more guilty and ensured that she wanted to see the book more.

"Accio book!"

Even great and powerful Harry Potter was caught flat footed by her use of wandless magic from the look of surprise on his face. It was something she was immensely proud of and had kept as a closely guarded secret, for only a very small percentage of witches and wizards were capable of casting wandlessly at all. It had of course taken every bit of magical power she had, and if the book hadn't of been so close it probably wouldn't even have trembled, let alone flown to her outstretched hand.

She recognised the tome the instant she set eyes on it, while its subject matter was considered to be more than a little dark, it was on the Auror academy syllabus although not until late on in the third year, but more importantly her mother had had a well used copy in the library of her now destroyed house.

_**MAGICKS OF THINE OWN DARKER NATURE**_

The tome dealt with the complicated subject of natural elemental magic, allowing the caster to summon fireballs that could be guided by the caster, or lightning strikes on your enemies, even hurricane force winds could be used as a weapon if cast at the right time. Other spells could cast razor sharp shards of ice at an opponent, or deep thick fog.

Elemental magic was complicated, hard to master, and was generally considered beyond the scope of what could be taught to students at a standard level magical school such as Hogwarts.

"Where in Merlin's name did you get this from? Let me guess, the restricted section at Hogwarts?"

Draco shook his head and look up to meet her eyes.

"I took it from my fathers personal collection, this book and another that my father seemed to show a lot of interest in, the other book is spelled shut, however this one has showed a lot of potential so far."

Katie frowned, she was not sure whether or not she approved of underage students studying questionable magic. Draco and she were of age, the others however were not. But then again being underage wasn't going to stop Voldemort coming after them, anything that might give them an advantage couldn't be ignored.

"Ok, so show me what you have."

Using Draco's and her wand to get around the underage magic restrictions they spent two hours learning a small number of spells and practising the movements. Katie was instantly reminded of why Harry had been the obvious choice to lead the D.A. He picked up the new spells quickly, almost instinctively, and began helping the others perfect them as well.

By the end of the period they could all cast the ice shards and the fog, Harry, Neville and Draco had each perfected the fireball, lightning and gale force winds, although repeated casting left them all exhausted. Katie however had managed to summon a small earth elemental that resembled a very lumpy Goblin sized figure, but it required all her concentration to maintain it.

OoOoO

**AN/** Despite the fact she is my favourite character in the books, i seem to find Hermione very difficult to write for, so my solution, put her into a coma for ten chapters...At least i didn't do what first entered my head...kill her off in chapter one!


	11. 11 An Unholy Alliance

**AN/ **This is it, hold tight.

* * *

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowlingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

"All that is essential for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing"

Edmund Burke

Chapter Eleven : An Unholy Alliance

**Ali Al Salem Air Base, British Forces Logistics Base, Kuwait, 10:00 3 July**

David Wilks rapped his knuckle on the doorframe and waited for the officer placed in charge over of all British Special Forces in the Middle East theatre to call him in. The Major was a Royal Marine commando, but despite fact that he wasn't a bad boss, for a boot neck.

The Special Forces Middle East command was made up of Special Air Service, Special Boat Service and the RAF special operations pilots from 7 Squadron for the helicopter pilots and 47 Squadron for the Hercules pilots, and there was a constant rivalry and a certain begrudging respect amongst the three services.

"Come on in Wilky"

Wilks entered and with no formality, immediately sat himself down in the only chair across the desk from the officer that had nothing piled up upon it, the office was cluttered with charts and maps, intelligence reports, aerial photos and weapon manuals.

Unlike most officers that ended up commanding Special Forces soldiers, Major Paul Scott had been a Special Forces soldier from the beginning, he understood them and their strange world, because he was one of them.

"I have a task order for you and your team Wilky"

"Boss that's not a problem, but just to bring to your attention that I'm still a man short on my team, i don't suppose there is any news on a replacement yet?"

"The fact you are a man short won't effect this task order, I have a Hercules from 47 Squadron waiting for the three of you down on the strip. You are going to be taking a short trip back home, you will meet up with another team from A Squadron that is already waiting for your arrival in Hereford, your orders are that you will find and apprehend Thomas Bell and return him to Hereford for questioning."

Wilky stared at the wall above the officers head and hoped the expression on his face didn't give anything away, he had sincerely hoped that Tom would have at least two more weeks before someone had a fix on his location, and that it would be someone from home that would have to go after him.

Knowing a little bit about his…unusual personal circumstances, made Wilky feel that this mission was destined not to go well. If his friend got it into his head to make a fight of it, this mission would get really messy, really fast.

But if these were his orders, then he would have to go and capture his best friend, not a task he was overjoyed about having to complete, or one he felt confident about a successful completion.

"Here is all the information we have on his whereabouts, he is presently living in Devon near a small village called Ottery St. Catchpole at some sort of religious commune according to our sources. I don't have to tell you how dangerous the information in his head could prove to be should it fall into the wrong hands."

Wilky took the indicated file and quickly skimmed through it, there was no mention of magic, not that he was expecting to see it. The file was light on details, but included a high definition satellite photo of the house and the surrounding area.

"Ok boss, we'll get it done, any rules of engagement I should know about?"

"Because of the risk to civilians try to avoid the use of lethal force, however if you feel your team is being placed in any danger then lethal force is authorised, oh and Wilky I have just had the signal through, your promotion to Sergeant had been made official, congratulations!"

Wilky shook the offered hand and turned and left the office, the last thing he had wanted was a promotion, it was Tom's team and his position, and it just felt wrong. Shaking his head, Wilky went to break the good news to the rest of the team.

OoOoO

**Family Chapel, Auror Academy**

Katie Bell was holding her emotions together for the sake of her sister…but only Just. She had walked, head held high, down the isle of the chapel holding her sisters hand, braving the pitying looks and ignoring the many muttered conversation, and quietly taken her reserved seat on the front row.

She was dressed in her Auror cadet uniform, the only item of her own clothing to have escaped the fire that had consumed her family home, while Helen was dressed in an old dress of Ginny Weasley's that had been modified, since all her clothes had also been destroyed in the fire that had consumed their home. The five year old was still a too little young to understand all of what was going on. Whatever it was it involved her parents and it was seriously upsetting her older sister.

Katie bit the inside of her lip, trying to keep the emotions threatening to overwhelm her, under some form of control. There were a lot of people here, the chapel was only of modest size but today it was packed to capacity.

Some of the people she recognised as Auror instructors from the Academy or field Aurors her mother had once worked with, but most were complete strangers to her, a sea of unfamiliar faces looking on, and all she longed for was a friendly face in the crowd, someone that would understand what she was going through.

_'someone like Draco'_

That thought rose unbidden in her mind, and she frowned, not really sure how the blond youth had worked his way into her thoughts. She was forced to admit that Draco Malfoy confused her, she enjoyed his company, and yet for six years he had been the enemy, and had nearly killed her, although she had not been the intended target. That he had changed was not up for debate, but had he changed enough?

"Draco!"

Katie's head snapped around at Helen's happy greeting, sure enough Draco Malfoy himself was walking down the isle towards them, he was wearing a set of well cut sombre dress robes in midnight blue, and Katie thought they made him look quite respectable. He stopped at her side and smiled down at the two them.

"Hi there short stuff, Katie, I was wondering if this seat was taken?"

He was indicating the space between Katie and Helen. Katie just shook her head numbly, and he gently eased into position between the two sisters. He looked over at Katie, and picked up something from her expression, he placed his hand gently on top of both of hers, where he could feel her hands trembling slightly beneath his touch.

Casually he leaned over and ruffled Helen's hair, which instead of the fits of giggles it normally generated, just raised a sad smile from the little girl.

"What are you doing here?"

Katie hissed at him.

Draco glanced around in a highly exaggerated conspiratorial fashion and then leaned in closer so those in the row behind wouldn't hear his answer, and more importantly, so he could just place his head closer to Katie.

"We at the burrow all drew straws to see which of us would have to come and sit with you, unfortunately I lost! I was most upset at having to spend all this quality time with you."

Katie's eye widened, and despite her current situation she snorted with amusement. Draco's appearance was the answer to her prayers, his irrelevant manner always made her feel better when she was down. He always seemed to be there when she needed cheering up, recently she had found herself more than just enjoying his company, she found herself actually missing his company when he wasn't there.

"Seriously, I thought you might like a bit of support, especially since your brother couldn't be here, I thought a friendly face might help you get through this. But if you would rather I wasn't here…"

Katie didn't even have to think about her response, she reached out quickly for his hand and clutched at it tightly cutting him off mid flow, a look of surprise crossed his face at the speed of her reaction, then she leaned in and quickly kissed him on the cheek.

"When this is over I think you and I have some things we need to talk about Draco"

Draco smiled and with his free hand took hold of Helen's hand as well.

"We are gathered here today to honour the memory of Daniel Jason Bell and Rebecca Anne Bell, taken from us…"

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

"Miss Weasley, I'm pleased to say you are healing remarkably well, I should think that in a few days time there would be no visible marks left over from your ordeal at all. How are you sleeping? Any nightmares?"

Ginny caught Harry's eye and then bowed her head and looked a little sheepish, she muttered something noncommittal in response to Madam Pomfrey's question. Whenever she slept alone, she had terrible nightmares, and woke up drenched in sweat, screaming in fear.

But for the three nights since Hermione had woken up, Ginny had not been sleeping alone, she had been sneaking quietly into Harry's room and curling up in his warm and loving embrace, and had enjoyed three peaceful nights of sleep.

As yet they had not taken their relationship to the next logical stage, both of them more than happy just to enjoy each other's company at night, why should either of them suffer from being afraid and alone in the dark, when together they both slept so much better. And if one of them should occasionally suffer from a wondering hand, then that was all part of the experience.

Hermione coughed into her hand to hide a laugh, even if Ginny hadn't already told her of the pair's new sleeping arrangements, Ginny's plainly guilty expression would have tipped her off that something had changed. In truth she was a little jealous, her relationship with Ron had not moved past the point of heavy petting yet.

Seemingly satisfied with Ginny's reply, Madam Pomfrey turned her attention to the second female sat down before her.

"Well Miss Granger I'm very pleased to be able to give you a clean bill of health as well, I don't think I need to take any further action, just continue to eat well and do a reasonable amount of exercise, and now onto my last patient…"

Madam Pomfrey turned from Hermione's beaming face to Harry's irritated scowl.

"There's no need to look at me like that Mr Potter! You would have been properly back on your feet by now if you had actually done what I told you to do, instead you have undone some of the healing and put back your recovery by at least a week."

Harry groaned and shook his head, another week of limping about the place like some crippled old man.

"When your thigh cramps up at the end of the day you will require someone to massage these oils into your muscles, it will speed your recovery and ease the pain, from what I understand Miss Weasley here is a most willing volunteer for this task."

"Yeah, I bet, she loves seeing me in pain"

Harry muttered under his breath. A chuckle from the normally stern Hogwarts school nurse indicated there was nothing wrong with her hearing.

"If you do what I tell you I won't have to see you again until you are back at school, where no doubt you will do something else heroic and foolhardy and I shall see you back in the infirmary in no time, until then farewell"

Madam Pomfrey picked up her healers bundle and crossed the kitchen to where Molly Weasley and Emma Granger waited nervously for news. Harry turned to Hermione and Ginny, scowling at them.

"Well at least that's two of us now fit to fight, how are you and Ron getting on with the plans? Is Thomas proving helpful?"

It had been three days since Harry had asked Thomas for help with ideas for the D.A. and since then Hermione, Ron and Thomas, and occasionally Ginny, had been shut behind closed doors. Harry had stepped back from this part of the planning, as he knew his friends were better at this aspect.

Ron was the strategy master, who could translate Thomas' muggle ideas into something the magical world would understand. Hermione was the brains behind the operation, and what she didn't know, she knew exactly where to find it, normally in some book or other. And Ginny was simply inspirational, she seemed to come up with new ideas without even trying.

"Thomas is a mine of information, I'm not joking when I say he might win this war for us, another day and we should be ready to show you a little of what you want to see."

"That's great Hermione, I have some plans of my own to make with Thomas, I need to try and keep his mind off the memorial service today as much as possible, so I'll see you later"

Harry had acquired two proper crutches to keep the weight off of his thigh, he could achieve a good turn of speed now. He stood and moved to the fireplace, using the Floo system he contacted the twins and asked if they were free to come to the burrow.

A little time later the twins were stood outside in the meadow with Harry and Thomas. Fred and George looked puzzled as to why Harry had asked them to come. Thomas had recover his large black bag of tricks from the twin's flat, and it lay at his feet alongside two weapons Harry had already seen.

"Guys, when it comes to creating havoc I know you two are unparalleled in the Wizarding world, I could not have pulled off the rescue of Ginny and Helen without your 'special talents'. Now I need your talents to help us win a war, Thomas if you would"

"Certainly Harry. Fred, George first off let me show you the flashbang"

Thomas reached down and pulled a familiar cylindrical shape from the bag, he pulled a pin from a cylindrical object, and threw it over arm as far as he could. The object flew in an arc, landing some distance away, the twins watched the scene with interest.

**BOOM **

It was like being stood next to a lightning strike, for Harry, who with past experience had been prepared for the explosion, it wasn't as shocking as having a devive go off inside a small room, he had enjoyed the look of delight that had crossed the faces of the twins, like children visiting Honeydukes for the first time.

"That was brilliant Harry can…"

"We have a go with one of those"

"Thomas isn't finished yet fellas, that was a flashbang, its designed to be used inside buildings to incapacitate everyone in a room, it's what Thomas used to such good effect inside the Ministry. The next one however is the really good one, what is it called again Tom?"

Thomas Bell smiled an held out his hand, another, smaller device lay in the palm of his hand.

"A grenade, this is the standard fragmentation grenade in use with the Army. It explodes, throwing out metal in all directions, it's lethal within ten metres and dangerous up to twenty-five metres. If you wouldn't mind Harry"

Waving his wand Harry conjured two dummy targets in the meadow similar to what the D.A. practised spells against.

"Whenever you're ready Tom"

"Grenade out!"

Thomas lobbed the weapon with a perfectly weighted throw, the grenade dropped at the feet of one of the dummies, and lay there for a few seconds.

**BOOM **

This time the twins were positively bouncing up and down with excitement, a look of childlike glee upon their faces. Harry smiled, knowing he'd gotten the point across. The closest dummy was nothing more than cloth tatters on the wind, the second, while still retaining its basic shape had been left utterly shredded by the metal fragments.

"Wow!"

Said Fred.

"Damn!"

Said George.

While the twins were distracted Thomas had picked up the smaller of the two weapons at his feet, the one that only fired lethal rounds, raised it to his shoulder and thumbed off the safety.

**Bang, bang, bang.**

With one pull of the trigger, three rounds struck the center of the target forty feet away, the target jerked from the impact and before the echo had died away Thomas fired again and again, each batch of three shots drilled into the target, not a single round was wasted.

Letting the smaller weapon fall on top of the black bag, Thomas raised the second weapon and pulled back the slide under the barrel.

Walking forward towards the target Thomas braced the larger weapon into his shoulder and fired. This time a large part of the target was shredded by the impact, pulling back on the slide under the barrel Thomas fired again, all the time walking slowly forwards.

When the second weapon clicked empty Thomas tossed it aside and drew the pistol from its holster under his shoulder so fast it appeared to magically appear in his hands, he then proceeded to empty sixteen rounds into the target in under five seconds.

Removing the empty magazine and clearing the pistol, Thomas turned around and smiled at the look of awe and hero worship on the faces of Fred and George, even Harry looked impressed at the small firepower demonstration, it made Thomas wish he could call in an airstrike or an artilley barrage, that would really impress them.

"Now you've seen what muggle weapons are capable of, what I need you two to do is copy them, and improve on them using your own unique talents. I need something similar to a grenade for the ground troops, and something that can be dropped by someone riding a broom, do you think you can do this? Cost will not be an option, the money will come out of my trust vault."

The twins put their heads together for a moment, communicating in particular unique form of twin shorthand, before turning back to Harry and Thomas.

"Yeah, we think we can do what you ask…"

"When will you want to see a finished product?"

"Research and development is not a fast…"

"Process, give us a couple of weeks"

Harry laughed, and nodded.

"Alright I will give you three weeks, and then I shall want a progress report on how well you're doing, by then we should have started training up the D.A. I know you are both members, and if you can make training that's great, but if not I'll understand."

The twins nodded and turned back towards the burrow, they were already deep in conversation, making plans to buy equipment and provisions. It was all nonsense to Harry, but it all seemed to make sense to them.

"Those two crack me up, I'm almost afraid to turn my back on them"

Thomas was walking slowly, keeping pace alongside Harry, and watching the twins as they disappeared inside the burrow. Harry smiled.

"Oh they have their uses, you just have to provide the correct motivation, point them in the required direction, then stand back and let the mayhem commence."

Thomas suddenly stopped, he reached over and touched Harry's arm, stopping his progress.

"Harry, I need to ask your advice about something while I've got you alone, my mother sent me an object inside the same package as the remains of my wand. She also gave me instructions on what to do with the object, but I cannot carry out the instructions"

"Why not?"

Harry asked, puzzled. Thomas seemed unsure of himself, which was unusual for the normally brash, confident soldier.

"My mother says I should give the object to a man I now know to be dead, and since you knew him I thought you might have some insight in how to proceed."

Harry felt his mouth go dry, and a cold chill swept through him.

"Dumbledore, it was Dumbledore wasn't it?"

"Yes, here what should I do with it?"

Thomas held out his hand and placed the object into Harry's palm, Harry felt a sudden fear, a sense of foreboding that slowly dragged his head down until he was staring at the object that sat in the palm of his hand.

It was a locket, a gold locket marked with the stylised emblem of Salazar Slytherin, that of the snake. This was the locket that had led Harry and Dumbledore to leave the school that fateful night when the Death Eaters had attacked.

It was a Horcrux, one of the items that Harry had sworn over Dumbledore's tomb that he would seek out and destroy, it held a sliver of the evil and twisted soul of Voldemort. There had originally been seven such slivers, the one in the diary had been destroyed in the chamber of secrets, and Dumbledore had destroyed the sliver contained in the ring.

Harry now held the third in his hand. But was it really that simple, closing his eyes, he stretched forth his senses, as if he was searching for a wizards wand signature. In his hand was something dark and evil, a faint…darkness that indicated magic of the worst kind, its very touch made Harry feel queasy.

Harry remembered how these things were created, using an act of murder and the darkest magic to literally rip the soul apart and place a sliver into an object.

"You don't know what this is do you? No of course not, how could you! This locket is vitally important Tom, it will help us stop Voldemort, but I need you to hold onto this for me, I need you to keep it secret and guard it until I tell you."

Harry handed the locket back to Thomas, shuddering with revulsion at the mere touch of the thing. He smiled, he knew a sliver of Voldemort's soul resided in the dark wizard himself, another possibly resided in the snake familiar, Nagini, that only left two more to find, one was suspected to reside in a small cup belonging to Hufflepuff, the last, well Dumbledore had believed the last sliver resided in an artefact belonging to either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor.

"Maybe one day, you'll tell me what all this is about, but for now you know I'll guard this carefully."

Thomas was looking down at the locket sat in the palm of his hand, then he stuffed it safely back inside his pocket.

"There is something else I have to tell you Harry, something I want you to keep for yourself for now."

Harry indicated he should continue.

"I abandoned my post when I heard about my parents, about Helen and Katie. I didn't get permission, I just left, its called going AWOL, Absent Without Leave, its considered a crime, and considering what my job involves, not one the Army will forget about."

Harry looked up at the soldier and nodded his understanding of what Thomas was telling him.

"They are going to be coming for you, aren't they?"

Thomas nodded.

"Well my friend, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, for now lets get back inside."

The two of them continued on in companionable silence. By the time the two of them entered the kitchen the twins had used the Floo to return to their shop.

In the middle of the kitchen, Hermione was hugging her parents and crying, while Ron, Molly and Arthur looked on. Harry wondered with a sinking heart what else had happened, so much had changed recently, so much pain, what else had gone wrong.

"Hermione, what's happened?"

Wiping her face dry, Hermione turned to face Harry.

"I'm happy you idiot, not sad! Mum and Dad have just told me that i'm going to have a brother or sister. Its the best news! Now I'm better mum and dad are heading home, they have to go back to work, but they are letting me stay here rather than go back with them,"

Thomas had crossed to Dan and Emma, he stood deep in conversation with them for a moment before shaking their hands and returning to Harry.

"What was that all about?"

Harry enquired.

"I just told Dan and Emma not to worry. If any Death Eater manages to lay a finger on Hermione, then they would already have to have killed me, and I don't die easily."

Harry nodded, he knew how Thomas felt, he would never let harm come to anyone staying at the burrow. But for the moment his priority was to get his thigh healed up, he couldn't train with the D.A. or fight Death Eaters if he could barely walk.

"If it will help Hermione, your parents are quite welcome to stay at 12 Grimmauld Place, it's nearer to the surgery than your house, and it will be safer, after Dumbledore's death 'mad eye' replaced the Fidelis charm. Or maybe we can get some wards placed on your home, I'll speak to Remus when he returns"

Hermione hugged him in gratitude then returned to her parents to say goodbye. After a long moment Dan Granger turned back towards Harry and waved him over. Using his crutches, Harry hobbled over to join the Granger family group.

"Its time for Emma and I to go back to work. Fixing the teeth of the nation is a thankless task, but someone has to do it, I didn't want to leave without saying goodbye. From the time I have spent here I know some of the dangers you face, I just want you to know that no matter how bad things get, you'll never be alone"

Dan grabbed Harry's shoulder and gave it a sympathetic squeeze, he grinned at the emotion displayed on Harry's face. He really was easy to read once you knew what you were looking for.

"Harry, I know you have a family to call your own now, but you will always be welcome in our home, you are a part of more than one family."

Emma had pulled him into a tight hug and squeezed tight. Ron chose this moment to come downstairs, followed by Ginny, he was carrying the few possessions the Grangers had accumulated, he placed them on the table, and was surprised when Emma pulled him into the same hug as Harry.

"Ron, I want you to promise me you will look after our little girl"

Emma's voice sounded small and scared.

"I promise you, no one will harm a hair on her head while I have a say in the matter, I couldn't bear to see her hurt again!"

Ron was determined, and a fire burnt in his eyes. He caught Harry's eye and something passed between them, a non-verbal communication, each understood the other perfectly. Any Death Eater wishing to harm either of their girlfriends was in for a short but painful experience.

"Come on then honey, lets get home, we have some…things to talk about."

Emma grinned at the tone in Dan's voice, she knew exactly what he wanted to 'talk about' the subject required a bed and very little or no clothes. He really was such a romantic devil

OoOoO

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry**

Professor McGonagall sat at what she still struggled to think of as 'her' desk and picked up the list that was at the top of her in tray, she had been putting off these decisions since the end of term, but time was growing short, and decisions had to be made.

There was a knock on the door, since there were no students currently in the school, and only staff members knew the password to the magical staircase anyway, it limited the number of people who could be stood outside her door. But the height on the door of the knock gave her all the clues she needed.

"Come in Filius"

Professor Flitwick entered the office and climbed up onto the specially built chair that had for years sat in the deputy heads office, for the two professors had long been friends and genuinely enjoyed each others company and valued each others opinions.

"I have some difficult decisions to make before the start of the new term Filius, I'd appreciate your input as always"

Flitwick inclined his head towards her and frowned, Minerva had started to look old and tired, she had lost some of her youthful vigour.

"Firstly, we need a Defence against the dark arts teacher…again!"

Filius chuckled at the humour in her tone.

"Minerva, you already know who I want, he has been the finest teacher we have had in the post for many years, and with what is happening we need to hire the best teacher we can get, damn the opinion of the Ministry!"

"We can ask him Filius, but he may not want the job, not after last time. Now, as head teacher I cannot also be a head of house, so I must also nominate a replacement for the head of Gryffindor."

"Minerva, if he agrees to teach he might also agree to take on that task as well, he was in Gryffindor after all, and is as brave as they come."

Minerva looked surprised that the idea had not occurred to her already, and a smile played across her face, yes the candidate was someone she could trust to oversee her house in her stead.

"Then there is Mr Malfoy. What do we do about him, you saw him with Harry's group at the burrow, supposing he returns in the New school Year, after turning his back on his former life he will be in severe danger with his former housemates."

"I'm sorry Minerva, on that subject I have no answer to give, Draco has been sorted and must stay in his assigned house."

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

The Grangers had departed, Molly and Arthur apparating them to the Leaky Cauldron, from there they would use public transport to return home, Arthur had gone with them in order to repair the damage from the attack and place some basic defensive wards on the property.

Despite this Hermione was worried, her parents were vulnerable and exposed, and she didn't like it, but she also knew they couldn't remain in hiding forever, they weren't the sort of people to take the cowards path. She had also picked up on the unease her parents shared, they were just as worried as she was.

"They are very brave"

Hermione turned to look at Luna, the original group of six from the department of mysteries were sat in the garden enjoying the last of the days' warm sun. The blond Ravenclaw appeared to be staring off into space, with the look on her face the others had become accustomed to when she was flexing her mental might.

"Why do you say that Luna?"

Luna shook her head and dragged herself back to reality, she smiled at Hermione and continued.

"Your parents are brave, they know they are in danger and they are scared, yet they go anyway. I hope when my time comes I can be so brave."

"Luna you have already proven that bravery is not just a Gryffindor trait, facing the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries took plenty of courage. I have absolute faith in the five of you sat here, I know that when the darkness falls you will be there, you are my friends, and I won't ever take that for granted."

Harry looked around the group from face to face, Ginny was sat in her favourite spot, tucked in tight under his armpit, beaming at him. Hermione looked thoughtful, she still had a slight discolouration around her eyes, but she was putting her weight back and her colour was much better. Luna gave him a shy smile and Ron and Neville just grinned at him.

Harry knew he was very lucky with his friends, he also knew he would need all their friendship and trust in the coming days. Despite the warmth of the sun, Harry felt a chill, for some reason he could not put his finger on, he knew that the war was about to enter a new deadly phase, and the days of peace would soon come to an end.

OoOoO

**Ministry of Magic**

Rufus Scrimgeour passed through the door to his office and frowned. The lighting level was significantly lower than it should have been, and there was a sense of 'wrongness' about the office.

The door suddenly slammed shut behind him, and he felt a privacy charm spring into existence, effectively isolating the office from the outside world.

"Come in Minister and sit down, I think it's time you and I had a talk."

There was a figure sat down on his sofa, a dark hooded figure that somehow chilled Scrimgeour's soul to the very bone, the voice had a neutral tone, but there was something in it that made the Minister fear for his life.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

From underneath the hood of the cloak came a dry chuckle. Two pale hands reached up and pulled down the hood, revealing a bald white head and red slits for eyes that seemed to glow with an inner malice.

"As to who I am, I'm sure you can figure it out, what I want? Well that is a more complicated topic."

Scrimgeour felt himself start to shudder in fear, he knew now who the figure was that was sat in front of him, he backed up until he ran into his desk and found himself frozen to the floor like a rabbit in the headlights of a muggle car.

"V…Voldemort"

Voldemort slowly clapped his hands together sarcastically.

"I knew you had it in you Rufus, well done"

Scrimgeour went for his wand, Voldemort just watched him with those red slits, not even bothering to raise his own wand that lay on the seat beside him. He waited until the Minister had the wand pointed at him, then he disarmed the man with a casual wave of his hand, sending the wand clattering against the far wall.

"Rufus, Rufus, if I had wanted to harm you, you would already be dead, why don't you sit down?"

With a further wave of his hand, Voldemort wandlessly summoned an arm chair from across the room and brought it crashing into the back of the Minister's knees, giving him no option but to fall into the seat.

"Now isn't that better, much more civilised, just two men talking exchanging opinions and thoughts, how very cultured."

Scrimgeour wasn't sure if he was being mocked or not, with his voice, Voldemort could have been mortally insulting him or complimenting him and it would have sounded exactly the same. Not that he wanted the dark lord to do either, but he admitted to himself that he was extremely curious why he was here.

"So what is it you are so anxious to discuss with me?"

He tried very hard to sound brave and decisive, but there was a slight quaver in his voice that made his fear quite evident.

"Well Rufus, I was going to kick off tonight with a conversation about the uncommonly warm seasonal weather we have been having, but since you want to get straight to the point. I'm here to discuss the problems we are both encountering in our day-to-day activities."

Scrimgeour frowned at tried to predict where this conversation was heading, he couldn't imagine what the dark lord could possibly want from him, but whatever it was he was determined not to give it to him. He was an Auror and Voldemort was therefore his greatest enemy.

"What problems are you talking about?"

"Who would have thought it, but it seems like we have something in common Rufus, it appears that our greatest problems are one and the same, a certain teenage brat with an over active hero complex"

Scrimgeour blinked, feeling the anger rising inside him he allowed the emotion to spill into his reply.

"Potter!"

"Indeed, Harry Potter. The annoying child has been a thorn in my side for some time now, just as he has been a thorn in yours, I think now would be an appropriate time to pluck that thorn."

"What are you suggesting?"

Voldemort sat back and studied the Minister, he had read the signs correctly, the man hated Potter with an intense passion that burned bright. He was also power hungry and ambitious, a perfect combination that would allow him to create a useful tool out of this bumbling fool. With a small amount of mental manipulation applied to the right areas, the Minister was about to find himself allying himself to a dark lord.

"Only this, we co-operate you and I to remove the obstacle that is Harry Potter and his little band of thugs. They are the only thing standing in the way of progress for you and the Ministry, and in the way of the completion of my plans, which do not I might add, include total domination over Great Britain, despite what you may have been told."

Voldemort lied smoothly, he actually sounded almost sincere. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, Scrimgeour heard only what he wanted to hear anyway.

"Potter's power rests primarily in his close friends, strip them from him and he will be much easier to handle. What do you say Minister?"

Voldemort could read the answer in the Minister's eyes before he spoke, he knew he now had a willing participant in this plan, and every decision he made would bring Scrimgeour deeper and deeper into his pocket, until the man was his to control.

"Agreed, Potter must be stopped, his flouting of the law makes the Ministry look weak and incompetent. Without his friends he can be arrested and detained for his crimes, you shall have my co-operation in this matter."

"Excellent, in that case Minister I think our business here is concluded, I look forward to working with you"

Voldemort stood, picked up his wand and without a sound disappeared. Scrimgeour spared a moment to wander how the dark lord had managed to bypass the anti-apparation wards, before starting to make plans that would bring the reign of lord-high-and-mighty Potter crashing down around his ears.

OoOoO

**Family Chapel, Auror Academy**

Katie stood at the open doors of the chapel as the last of the mourner's muttered condolences in quiet voices and moved in a solemn line past her, she was acutely aware of the comforting presence of Draco stood at her side holding her hand.

She hadn't really heard that much of the service, her parents were gone, and the memorial service was just a formality that had to be endured, a formality she would have avoided if at all possible. Her mind had been caught up worrying about her sister, and trying to come to terms with the strange turn of recent events. Someone she had known as an enemy for six years, had somehow managed to work his way into her heart, and it was with mixed feelings that Katie finally realised she had actually fallen for him.

The last Mourner approached and held out his hand and shook hers, Senior Auror Marcus Washburn looked down at her sadly, she had served on his shift at the academy and had been due to be on duty the night of the attack.

"Katie, I'm so sorry, your mother was a good friend and a great Auror and I'm going to miss her."

Katie found herself suddenly unable to speak, as the emotions she had kept bottled up inside, threatened to spill out.

"I have spoken to your instructors at the Academy on your behalf and your place will be held open indefinitely, the next intake is in October and you would be more than welcome to return. I will look forward to seeing you back on my shift."

The Auror moved past, but stopped when he reached Draco, none of the other mourners had paid the blond haired youth any attention, if any had recognised him they had kept it quiet. Marcus looked at him carefully, and the fact he held Katie's hand and smiled, you could never predict when and where love would strike.

Marcus held out his hand shook Draco's hand as well, and gave a small smile as Draco's eyes widened slightly. The letter that Marcus had just slipped him so expertly slid into the pocket of his robes for later examination. Who would have thought that such a senior Auror could be so sneaky?

When finally it was just the three of them left in the chapel, Draco turned and pulled Katie into a quick embrace, squeezing her in sympathy.

"Right, shall we get back to the burrow?"

They had moved into the corridor when they found their way blocked by a half dozen men. They were big hulking brutes, and Draco immediately recognised the type, after all he had once gathered men like this to his side, they were adult versions of Crabbe and Goyle.

"Draco Malfoy, In the name of the Department of Security and Justice you are hereby placed under arrest, you will surrender your wand and come with us!"

Draco first thought was for the safety of Katie and Helen, he quickly pushed them behind him, the six men all had their wands out, held down by their sides, while his was still in the pocket of his robes, any attempt to reach it with the intention of fighting it out would be clearly visible to the men and utterly stupid.

Taking a deep breath, Draco knew he had only one option, due to the academy apparation wards he was unable to leave, and any exchange of spell fire in such a confined space would almost certainly be extremely dangerous to Katie and Helen, he had to go with them peacefully, or cause a confrontation that could easily escalate out of all control.

Behind him, it would have horrified him to know that Katie Bell was thinking thoughts diametrically opposite to those in Draco's head. Hidden from the view of the men by Draco's body, she had carefully withdrawn her wand from her pocket and held it down by her side. She didn't know who these men were but she wasn't willing to give Draco up with out a fight.

"Identify yourselves and your reason for drawing wands inside my Academy immediately!"

The stern voice spoke from behind the six thugs, and three of them span to face the new threat. Ignoring the implied challenge in the movement, a small wizened old man pushed his way between the two groups and stood there glaring at them all with his arms crossed.

Katie gulped as she recognised the Director of the Auror Academy, Richard Bendrik was a figure that struck fear, dread and utter respect into the students, although small in stature, he had the ability to make any misbehaving student cower before him with just a well placed glare.

"Don't make me ask you again"

The menacing tone of Bendrik's voice obviously worked on adult wizards as well as on students, because none of the six thugs could meet his eyes.

"We are here under Ministry authority to arrest Draco Malfoy, you would do well to stand aside."

One of the thugs had managed to pluck up enough courage to try and intimidate the much smaller man stood before him. Bendrik just laughed.

"Please, you cannot threaten me inside my own school! And don't think you can tell me about how to go about arresting someone, this is where we teach Auror cadets how to do it. Do you have an arrest warrant signed by the duty Auror shift commander? Are you trained and qualified to make a fugitive arrest? Are you even members of the department of Magical Law Enforcement? No I thought not, I suggest you gentlemen leave the capturing of criminals to those trained to do it. I think its time you left the premises."

The men looked as if they were about to argue the point when somewhere above them a bell rang announcing the end of the current lesson. From doors on both sides of the corridor Academy students erupted out into the hall, heading for their next scheduled lessons.

Auror cadets paused in astonishment at the unfolding spectacle before them. Six men pointing wands at their director, a thin male, a first year Auror cadet and a little girl, unsurprisingly most of the cadets closed ranks and drew their wands in response to the implied threat against one of their own.

In the space of a few seconds the six men had gone from being the numerically superior force to being outnumbered many times over, a point that was not lost on them. Slowly pocketing their wands the six men backed away and turned and moved away down the corridor.

"Well that takes care of that, thank you all of you, now please continue to your next lessons"

Bendrik nodded as the cadets put away wands and began to move away down the corridor quietly talking about what they had just witnessed, once satisfied that his school was returning to normal he turned to face the trio left standing alone in the corridor.

"It is very good to see you Cadet Bell, I am very sorry for your loss, I taught your mother many years ago, and watched her career with interest."

The old man turned his attention to the seven year old that was standing hidden behind Katie's legs. He didn't have to bend down very far to get near her eye level.

"And you must be Helen, my aren't you a pretty little thing, and quite the broomstick rider from what I hear!"

Helen found herself smiling at this unusual little man. Katie was amazed, she had never heard the director of the academy use such a soft tone with anyone, and it showed a totally different side to the strict disciplinarian she thought she knew.

Bendrik stood up straight and faced Draco, the man only came up to Draco's shoulder, but behind his eyes burned an intensity that reminded Draco a lot of Harry. The man's gaze seemed to burn through him, seeing all his past deeds and judging him, it made Draco shiver.

"Well Mr Malfoy, it certainly is refreshing to see in you a reverse of the normal trend that troubled teens seem to follow. You seem to have fallen in with a good crowd who are having a positive influence on you, drawing you further into the light with every passing day. Ensure you continue making good choices, the fate of us all may depend on you and the choices you make before all this is over."

With that the diminutive man moved off down the corridor, his hands clasped tightly behind his back, whistling quietly to himself.

Draco and Katie shared a look of utter bafflement, and Katie slipped her wand back into her pocket, a movement Draco noticed eliciting a big grin from him. Slipping his arm around Katie's waist, and taking hold of Helen's hand, the three set off back to the burrow.

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic**

The Auror crew room was a much quieter, more depressed place to be in recent days, something was happening, everyone could feel it, taste it in the air, and none of them liked it. Auror's, the magical world's policemen, had always been a tight knit community, and they closed ranks against external threats, but now the unease was being generated by the Ministry itself, and none of them could predict when the gathering storm would break or what would happen when it did.

Peter Deacon looked down at the roll call parchment again and frowned even more than normal, several Aurors had not shown up for the start of the shift, and he knew the reason why, and he wasn't sure he disagreed with them. They were being asked to crack down upon the magical community in a harsh and unheard of series of measures, and to some these new measures were too unpalatable to carry out.

In response, a larger than normal number of Auror cadets was on duty to fill in the numbers, and it wasn't just his shift. In all nearly one in ten Ministry Aurors had refused to carry out the latest Ministry directives, a few had resigned in protest, but most had just not shown up for work.

The worst thing about it was that none of what was occurring was actually illegal, the Ministry had passed new laws, it might be completely against the spirit of the law, but it certainly was within the letter of the law. So for now the majority of the MLE were going along with the declarations in the hope that things would improve.

Peter looked up as Tonks entered the crew room, the recent change in the young Aurors appearance had been dramatic, assuming of course what he was seeing was actually Tonks and not her ability, she had lost weight and now had dark circles around her eyes, and her eyes had lost their sparkle and zest for life, appearing dead and empty in comparison. She had made a choice, to enforce the law, but that choice was costing her heavily.

"The warrants for tonight"

It was the way she said it, the pain in her voice was extreme, it made it sound almost as if her heart was breaking, she sort of spat it out, Peter Deacon took the proffered list and ran his eyes down the long string of names and the crimes each were accused of. His eyes widened in astonishment.

"This…this can't be right!"

Tonks just looked at him, her eyes were red and puffy, and it crossed his mind that she had already been crying, some of these names were very familiar, and for good reason. The one at the bottom of the list stood out in his mind.

"Potter!"

Then Deacon noticed the same family featured quite prominently towards the end of the list. Starting again from the top Deacon scanned the list again, this time he just concentrated on the names he recognised.

_**Abbot, Hannah **_

_**Branstone, Eleanor**_

_**Brocklehurst, Mandy **_

_**Brown, Lavender**_

_**Bell, Katie **_

_**Bones, Susan**_

_**Boot, Terry **_

_**Bundy, Kevin**_

_**Carmichael, Edward **_

_**Capper, Steven**_

_**Chang, Cho **_

_**Coote, Richard**_

_**Corner, Michael **_

_**Creevey, Colin**_

_**Creevey, Dennis **_

_**Delacour, Fleur**_

_**Diggle, Dedalus **_

_**Doge, Elphias**_

_**Dunstan, Brian **_

_**Fawcett, Sarah**_

_**Finch-Fletchly, Justin **_

_**Fletcher, Mundungus**_

_**Flitwick, Filius **_

_**Finnegan, Seamus**_

_**Goldstein, Anthony **_

_**Granger, Hermione**_

_**Hagrid, Rubeus **_

_**Hooch, Rolanda**_

_**Johnston, Angelina **_

_**Jones, Hestia**_

_**Jordan, Lee **_

_**Kirke, Andrew**_

_**Longbottom, Neville **_

_**Lovegood, Jonas**_

_**Lovegood, Luna **_

_**Lupin, Remus**_

_**Macmillan, Ernie **_

_**Madley, Laura**_

_**Malfoy, Draco **_

_**McDonald, Natalie**_

_**McGonagall, Minerva **_

_**Moody, Alastor **_

_**Patil, Padma **_

_**Patil, Parvati**_

_**Peakes, James **_

_**Podmore, Sturgis**_

_**Pomfrey, Poppy **_

_**Sinistra, Selina**_

_**Smith, Zacharias **_

_**Spinnet, Alicia**_

_**Sprout, Pomona **_

_**Slughorn, Horace**_

_**Thomas, Dean **_

_**Trelawney, Sibyll**_

_**Turpin, Lisa **_

_**Weasley, Arthur**_

_**Weasley, Charles **_

_**Weasley, Fred**_

_**Weasley, George **_

_**Weasley, Ginevra**_

_**Weasley, Molly **_

_**Weasley, Percy**_

_**Weasley, Ronald **_

_**Weasley, William**_

_**Whitby, Kevin **_

_**Vector, James**_

**_Potter, Harry (_**Approach with extreme caution, subject dangerous)

"I can't believe it, this has to be a mistake, it just has to be!"

Peter Deacon pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. He had been a law enforcement officer for nearly fifteen years, and he had never felt the way he did at that moment, so disgusted with the Ministry.

But the warrants had been posted correctly, and the crimes committed were real, under the current laws he really had no choice but to act. Peter Deacon had become an Auror to keep people safe from harm, he was very good at his job. He had made more fugitive arrests than he could remember, been awarded for gallantry and been wounded in the field. Now he felt so very tired.

Taking up the stamp on his desk, he looked at it for a moment as if considering how history would remember his actions, what he was doing was wrong, and yet it was the law. With a bitterness that would remain with him for a long time to come he stamped the warrant list and handed it back to Tonks.

For a moment he held her eye contact, before sighing and looking down at his hands.

"Alright Tonks, go get them"

Tonks hurried from the room holding the spiteful bit of paper in her hand so tightly, how easy she thought just to screw it up and toss it away. It would not stop the arrests, but it would delay them for several hours, perhaps even an entire day.

Such an act would get her dismissed, especially given her relationship with some of those on the list. But for a moment she didn't care, suddenly she found herself once again an active member of the Order of the Phoenix, and to her astonishment it felt almost like a relief, like an enormous weight was being lifted from her shoulders.

She knew what she had to do, and she knew who she had to see

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Ginny helped Harry up the stairs, his thigh was burning and every step was an effort, just the short journey from the garden to his bedroom had made beads of sweat stand out on his forehead.

Once inside the room, she helped him to the bed and he sat down, sinking into the soft covers gratefully with a large sigh and kicked off his trainers. Harry looked up to find Ginny stood there with her hands on her hips regarding him with an odd expression on her face.

"What's wrong Gin?"

She shook her head and smiled down at him, she reached forward and absently ran a hand through his hair.

"Nothing, I was miles away. Now young man, get your trousers off!"

Harry cocked his head to one side and grinned tiredly up at her.

"Nothing would give me greater pleasure oh girlfriend of mine, but what are you going to take off in return, or do I get to chose?"

Ginny's eyes widened in surprise at the comment, she reached down and gently slapped the side of his nose.

"Time for that sort of business later, I need to have a look at your thigh. This time you are going to follow Madam Pomfrey's instructions to the letter! I want my boyfriend able to be dance with me at my brother's wedding, not hobble around like a cripple!"

Ginny leaned forward, and without warning pushed him back onto the bed and had unbuckled his belt before Harry could do anything about it, she had began to unbutton his jeans before Harry was able to bat her hands away and take over the task himself.

"Alright woman, it's my thigh that's injured, not my hands!"

A look of disappointment flashed for a moment across Ginny's face, replaced quickly by a look of utter innocence that made Harry laugh out loud. Once the trousers were off and discarded in a heap on the floor, Harry lay back on the bed and laced his hands behind his head, whistling nonchalantly.

Ginny climbed onto the bed and knelt alongside him.

"I need you to roll over Harry, let me see your thigh."

Harry groaned and rolled onto his front, revealing the ugly mass of red and purple scar tissue on the back of his thigh. Ginny smothered a gasp, although they had been sharing a bed for the last few nights, she had always snuck in when Harry was already under the covers.

On the night of his vision she had been concerned with other matters and had not been paying attention to his scar. This was the first time she had got a good look at it.

The wound looked almost as if the flesh had been melted and the molten tissue had run down his leg in streams like candle wax. Madam Pomfrey had already told her that the angry colouration would fade over time until it was barely noticeable against the background skin.

Ginny felt wet tears form in her eyes, Harry had gotten this terrible wound saving her life, it finally began to sink in just how far he would go to protect her and how close he had come to dying in an effort to save her. She made a vow to never knowingly place herself in the position where Harry would have to take another wound like this to save her.

Perhaps, just a little, the youngest Weasley began to grow up at that moment.

Wiping the tears away, Ginny gently placed both hands onto the thigh, she felt Harry tense up beneath her hands and heard him suck in a mouthful of air against the expected pain. The wound site was hot to the touch and she could feel the muscles under the skin in great tangled knots, she knew this would be painful and that was the last thing she wanted, to cause Harry more pain.

"Are you ready babe?"

Harry just nodded his eyes screwed shut.

Placing the flat of both palms on what she considered the worst of the knotted muscles, Ginny took a deep breath, and pushed down hard. There was a hiss of air from between Harry's teeth, but that was the only outward sign he was in any pain.

OoOoO

The fireplace flashed green and Katie and Helen stepped out into the kitchen, followed a moment later by Draco. Remus could tell by the hard look in the teenager's grey eyes, that something had happened, Draco waited until Katie had taken Helen to get changed out of her borrowed dress before he related the events of the memorial service and what had happened afterwards to Remus and a concerned Molly.

Draco fished the parchment from his pocket and handed it to Remus, whose name was written on the front.

Tearing it open Remus began to read it, and a slight smile played over his face, when he had finished he passed the letter to Molly.

"I told you we were right to trust him Molly, thirty five Aurors already, that's incredible, things at the Ministry must be worse than even I suspected if there is this level of dissatisfaction amongst law enforcement personnel. If we get enough support we could possibly just force the Wizengamot to hold a new election, just vote in a new Minister."

Remus was staring off into space, talking out loud, imagining the possibilities, trying to think several steps ahead of his opponent, for that was how he now saw Scrimgeour, a man to be outwitted and defeated. Molly and Draco exchanged amused looks, before Draco excused himself to go and find his two favourite ladies.

OoOoO

Ginny carefully stood up and pulled the covers over the softly snoring form of Harry, the massage of his thigh had been excruciatingly painful, but tomorrow he would be able to walk that much better on it for all the pain he had been forced to endure.

In an attempt to ease his suffering Ginny had started to gently massage his back, gently working her small hands into all his muscles, it was a talent she had not known she had, he had groaned with pleasure and slowly relaxed until he had fallen asleep.

Bending down Ginny lightly brushed a hand through his hair and kissed his forehead.

"I'll be up later, sleep well"

The little half smile appeared on his face while he slept. Being careful not to wake him, Ginny silently crossed the room and opened the door.

On the landing Draco nearly knocked Ginny over, he was a thousand miles away, and she wasn't really paying attention either. Draco was now nearly a foot taller than Harry, and Ginny only came up to Harry's chin so the impact sent her flying.

But Draco was a seeker and despite often being eclipsed by Harry's skill, his reflexes were still lightning fast. Draco caught Ginny before she could hit the floor. With a gentle strength he set her back on her feet and studied her with concern on his face.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine Draco, good catch. So how was the service?"

Draco shrugged and grinned down at her.

"These things are never pleasant, but I enjoyed the company, I think I might have actually made some progress in our relationship. Plus there was a little excitement afterwards."

Ginny smiled, Katie and Draco had been circling each other for a while now, and she hoped they would finally be able admit that they actually each cared for the other.

"What do you mean by excitement?"

Draco quickly related the events that had occurred at the Auror Academy, and Ginny's eyes widened in alarm at the news. More goons from this new security and justice department, trying to grab Draco inside the Auror academy! Either they were very brave, or extremely stupid, Ginny decided she would have bet her entire savings on the latter.

Suddenly Ginny paled as a thought occurred to her.

"They went after you, inside the Auror Academy! That wouldn't exactly make you an easy target, maybe you weren't the only one they tried to take, maybe they went after others, all those others that stood up to the Ministry that night, the staff of Hogwarts, the Order, the D.A.! We need to get the word out!"

Draco stared at her with a stunned look on his face, he had never considered for a moment that this might not be just an isolated incident, how could he have been so stupid.

"Wake Harry, I'll get Katie, if you're right this is going to be an all hands alert!"

Draco turned and took the steps two at a time, while behind him Ginny slipped back into Harry's room.

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic, Special Duties Office**

Kingsley Shacklebolt lifted the three quarters full bottle of vintage Ogden's premium brand firewhiskey and slowly poured himself a tall glass, and for a long moment he stared intently at the full glass sitting on his desk, as if he was seeking answers in the alcohol, answers that would never be forthcoming.

Then he reached forward and picked up the glass and used it to salute a picture mounted in a solid silver frame that stood displayed prominently upon his desk, then with one swift movement he tossed the contents of the glass down his throat and slammed the glass down onto the desktop.

With slightly unsteady hands Shacklebolt reached for the picture frame and he picked it up, bringing it closer for his inspection, although he didn't really need to see it. The image on display in the frame had been permanently burned into his mind for several years.

There were five people in the photo, four men and a woman, all of them were smiling and waving happily, occasionally jostling each other good naturedly for a better position in the photo.

The four men, one of whom was a younger version of himself, wore Auror combat robes of dark grey, and the woman, a tall, strikingly beautiful figure with long raven black hair, wore a green tunic of a medi-witch with the patch of St Mungos hospital proudly displayed upon it. The woman was pregnant, although at the time the picture was taken not yet obviously so, to the uninformed she could have been just a bit plump, except this woman had never in her entire life had anything but the perfect figure.

One of the Aurors, a tall, good looking young man, was constantly placing his arms around the waist of the woman, and gently patting her belly, or resting his chin on her shoulder or kissing her neck. The other three Aurors could be seen rolling their eyes at this behaviour, even the outwardly stern team leader, who even managed to roll his magical eye as well.

Even now, after all this time, it still seemed strange for Shacklebolt to see his wife of seven years in the arms of another, even though she hadn't been married to him back then and had been engaged to one of his closest friends. Why then did he suddenly feel so jealous of a dead man?

"It's hard to believe isn't it, hard to believe it's been eight years."

Shacklebolt swore and nearly dropped the picture to the floor in shock, he'd been so intent on studying the picture he had never even heard the door to the office open. In the now partially open doorway stood an older version of the third Auror in the picture held in his hands.

Marcus Washburn, tall and fair, seemed to have hardly aged a day since the photo had been taken, and truth be told Shacklebolt hadn't aged all that much either, in appearance at least. But inside it felt as if a hundred years had gone by since the picture was taken that day, instead of the eight it actually was. They had been such happy carefree days.

"I thought you could use some company."

Marcus held out his own bottle of Ogden's firewhiskey, his was still wrapped in the gift paper it had arrived in, Shacklebolt's gift paper had long since found its way into the bin by his desk. Washburn's bottle even still had the little hand written card attached to the paper, just as Shacklebolt's bottle had had. Shacklebolt didn't have to read the card to know what it said, the words hadn't changed once in the seven years the two men had been getting the bottles.

On the card, in the scraggily and untidy hand of retired Auror Alastor Moody were written the words.

**_Auror William Bonnet, he died so that three should live, may his memory never fade_**.

Shacklebolt grinned a little sadly up at his friend and waved him inside.

"Pull up a chair, the more the merrier."

Shacklebolt waited until Marcus had fully unwrapped his bottle, and poured out a large measure of firewhiskey into the glass that Shacklebolt had removed from his desk and thrown to him, and then he raised his glass and proposed a toast.

"Auror William Bonnet, he was the very best of us!"

The two men tossed the drinks back and refilled their glasses without comment. Then it was Marcus' turn to propose a toast.

"To Auror Alastor Moody, the best team leader an Auror capture team could have!"

Again the drinks were thrown back and the glasses refilled. A maudlin silence overtook the two men, each wrapped up in their own memories of a friend these eight years dead. Marcus reached over and picked up the photo and sat studying it for several seconds, Shacklebolt knew that image would be as engraved on his friend's mind as it was his own, Washburn had his own framed copy of it on his own desk.

"How are Emily and Rachel?"

Washburn finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Fine, Emily's on a night shift at the hospital tonight, Rachel is staying over at a friend's house."

Shacklebolt found that he smiled automatically as he thought of his wife and eight year old child, they were simply put, his heart's delight. Although he knew he wasn't in the eyes of the law, the girl's natural father, that honorific already belonged to a dead man, the very same dead man they were presently remembering, but in all respects that mattered he was the only father that Rachel had ever known.

Rachel had been barely a year old when Kingsley had asked Emily to marry him. The relationship had crept up upon both of them over the course of the year after William Bonnet had been killed in the line of duty.

Shacklebolt had felt duty bound to look after the mother and child after the death of his friend, he had been there to help them through some very hard times. It had been Shacklebolt that had been present at the difficult birth and Emily and he had become close, more than close.

It had come as some surprise to Shacklebolt, the eternal bachelor, when he finally realised that he loved the woman and her child with all his heart, and that his love was returned. He had been forced to rapidly change his world view almost over night.

Kingsley and Emily had married in the Auror family chapel, in a small ceremony presided over by Albus Dumbledore, with only a few family and close friends in attendance. Shacklebolt had been worried about the reactions of other Ministry personnel, his marrying a dead Aurors partner, he needn't have worried because the union was greeted with universal acclaim.

And so his life had changed out of all recognition to how it had been before, he had to think about much more than just himself when he made critical decisions, and he was always concerned about his own safety, knowing he now had people at home that depended on him.

When he had initially been offered the position of heading up the protection detail for the muggle prime minister, Kingsley Shacklebolt had turned it down. Not because it wasn't an important post, it was probably the MOST important protection job currently active, and not because he thought he wasn't up to the task, his skills were certainly of a high enough standard to do the job well. No, it was because at heart Shacklebolt was a thief taker.

It had always been his job to rid the magical community of its rotten elements, investigating a crime scene, making enquiries, tracking the culprits down and arresting the criminals and those that practised dark magic. He had always taken a certain amount of pride in his work, it allowed him to sleep very well at night.

But it was dangerous work, and the life of a street Auror was never an easy one. After all if someone was willing to study dark magic, to just what lengths would they be willing to go to avoid arrest?

This was why the Aurors serving together in a capture team formed such close, and often lifelong relationships, because when the brown smelly stuff collided with the muggle spinning metal thingy, who else were you going to be able to really count on.

But in the end he had listened to his wife's logical arguments in favour of taking the protection job.

It was on the whole a considerably safer job than that of a street Auror, and that was a big plus for Shacklebolt, now he had more than just himself to think about.

The job offered a sizable wage increase and a promotion to Senior Auror. Again, now that he was providing not just for himself the extra wages would certainly not go amiss.

The position of head of this particular protection detail was very high profile and would provide his career with a massive boost, and who knew, maybe one day he could be inline for the head of the Auror division, or even director of the DMLE itself.

So Shacklebolt had bowed to the wishes of his wife and accepted the post and the promotion it provided, and to be truthful he enjoyed the work. It was challenging and varied, and allowed him to know in advance when he was required to be at work, another plus for someone with a family.

Snapping out of his reflective mood, partly brought about by the alcohol he had consumed and partly by the feeling of melancholy he always felt on this particular day of the year, Shacklebolt was about to start the usual round of storytelling that ensued whenever he and Marcus Washburn settled down over a bottle of firewhiskey when he distinctly heard the sound of running feet from the corridor outside.

"Are you expecting anyone?"

Marcus asked, his wand already in his hand. Shacklebolt shook his head, his wand out too. Even though they were deep inside the Ministry building, you could never take the Auror out of a man, especially an Auror who had been trained by 'mad-eye' Moody.

The two men looked at each other and spoke simultaneously.

"Constant Vigilance"

Both men grinned, and turned to watch the door. Auror Nymphadora Tonks burst into the office, her hair colour rapidly cascading through all the colours of the rainbow, a sure sign for those who knew her of the woman's mental state.

She paid no heed to the two wands pointed more or less in her direction, she was talking fast the moment she came through the door, a never ending and indecipherable stream of chaos that caused the two senior Aurors to just look at each other and grin in amusement.

"Tonks"

Shacklebolt tried to get the young woman to take a pause in her diatribe and take a deep breath, but she didn't hear him and kept talking, her face going red from the effort.

"Tonks"

He tried again a little louder, but met with similar results.

"Nymphadora!"

Shacklebolt resorted to using the woman's detested first name, a thing he had once promised her he would never, ever do. It stopped the woman dead in her tracks, her mouth hanging open and a look of immense surprise on her face.

"That's better, now take a deep breath, count to ten and…slowly…tell us what's the matter."

Tonks nodded and took the deep breath, she held out a piece of parchment to him and Shacklebolt took it. His eyes widened as he recognised it for what it was, and the names upon it. Wordlessly he passed the parchment to Marcus.

"What the hell?"

Marcus put into words exactly what Shacklebolt had been thinking.

"What should we do Shack?"

The childlike, plaintive tone that came from the young woman brought both men up short. Normally when they looked at Tonks they saw the fully trained, if a little inexperienced, Auror, the only Metamorphmagus currently on the Auror active list. Both of them had forgotten the woman was only twenty five, and perhaps a slightly immature twenty five at that.

"What are your feelings on this list?"

Shacklebolt heard his own voice asking, his tone expressionless. He knew his feelings, he wanted to go upstairs to the Ministers office and drag the raving idiot across his desk and slap some sense into him. Issuing warrants against so many, most of them children, those that had made no secret of their stand against Voldemort, it would send all the wrong signals to the public, and it would undoubtedly help Voldemort in his quest for power.

Shacklebolt had known of the existence of the prophesy since the battle in the department of Mysteries, Dumbledore, having learnt his lesson about keeping secrets, had told all the senior members of the Order. He was not sure he believed all that pre-ordained stuff himself, but a prophesy or not, young Potter and his small but ever growing group of intensely loyal sidekicks had proven to be a major inconvenience to Voldemort in the past.

What the Minister had done was akin to blowing his own foot off with a wand, there could be no coming back from this insanity, and it was the start of something much larger, something that Shacklebolt was afraid could end up splitting the ministry in two.

"It's wrong, spiteful and full of hate. But the warrants are in order, the paperwork is all in order, and as an Auror I am duty bound to serve these warrants on those named below, no matter how much I don't want to. Should I destroy this list?"

Tonks sounded close to tears, from her face she had cried once already, and Shacklebolt couldn't blame her either, it was a tough choice to be asked to again make, side with your friends and loved ones, the supposed law-breakers, or chose to uphold the law, no matter how unpalatable it was.

"No, destroying the list would only delay the inevitable, the warrants would still be served, all that would happen is you would draw attention and official wrath down upon yourself Tonks, at the moment you both hold invaluable positions, the Order needs you right where you are."

Both Shacklebolt and Tonks turned to stare at him. Neither had told him that they were each acting as loyal Ministry foot soldiers while still remaining members of the Order.

"Oh come on, how dumb do you think I am? That was a rhetorical question Shack. I knew you were both spies the night Harry returned with the Weasley girl."

Washburn glanced at Shacklbolt and a small smile crossed his face.

"What will Harry's reaction to this be? If he is served a warrant, will he go quietly or will he resist? I ask because I hardly know the lad, you both know him far better than I do."

Marcus Washburn spoke softly, he was staring past the woman now, his attention fixed on a point on the far wall, Shacklebolt had seen him do this many times before when they had worked together. His friend was working the problem through in his head, attacking it from a number of angles, trying to see a solution.

Tonks looked over at Shacklebolt and they both grinned at each other, there wasn't really any doubt what Harry would do when he was presented with such a dilemma.

"Harry will fight, it's all he really knows how to do, it's what Dumbledore taught him to do, to fight and keep fighting, until the fight is won."

Tonks spoke with conviction, her respect for both Harry and Dumbledore evident in her tone. Shacklebolt nodded his agreement with her comment, which was his view too, Harry would never allow any of his friends to be punished on his behalf, never back down in the face of such a threat.

"Am I right in assuming we are all agreed on what side of this fight that we find ourselves on?"

Tonks and Shacklebolt both nodded, and just as suddenly as that the three found themselves conspirators in a plot against the very Ministry they were sworn to serve. It provided an adrenaline rush all of its own as it slowly sunk in what they had just decided to do.

"Three days ago I had the strangest conversation, with Remus Lupin no less, he warned me that the situation could be desperate enough that it might become necessary to remove Scrimgeour from office. I thought he was wildly over exaggerating the problem."

Washburn waved the parchment containing the list of names.

"This shows Lupin knew exactly what he was talking about, he got it dead right. We now could have a possible civil war on our hands!"

Shacklebolt reached out and snatched the warrant list from his friend's gesticulating hands and turned and presented it back to Tonks, she looked at it as if it would bite her if she touched it. Backing away from him, she refused to take it.

Washburn stood and moved around the desk until he stood in front of her.

"You have to take it Tonks. You have to serve these warrants. We're not ready to take on the Minister, not yet. We need time to prepare and gather strength to our cause, but mostly we need good intelligence, someone on the inside feeding us information. I presently have fifty six Aurors who will stand with me against the Ministry, and as soon as i can contact them i will them to the burrow to join Harry. But in a straight fight that's a drop in the ocean to the ranks of the Aurors that would currently side against us, not to mention the Minister's new goons."

Tonks looked from Washburn to Shacklebolt, dismay and alarm all over her face.

"Marcus is right, even if we all threw in our lot with Harry and his band of teenage hooligans now we still wouldn't have enough manpower to win this fight. We need to play this as smart as we can, and that requires information from inside the Ministry. It won't be long before my position next to the Prime Minister will put me under suspicion, you are the only other candidate!"

Tonks slowly reached out her hand and took hold of the parchment, she was frightened and uncertain, and Shacklebolt hated himself for having to put her in this position, but everything they believed in, everything they had fought so long and hard for, was possibly on the verge of crashing down around their ears at any moment.

"Alright, I'll do it, if its what you both think is best, how will I go about contacting you?"

Shacklebolt thought carefully, owls could be intercepted and even tracked, Floo conversations overheard and traced. His gaze fell onto the photo that had been placed back onto his desk and an idea came to him.

"Address all the messages to William Bonnet, use a regular mail owl, not one of the Ministry owned birds."

Marcus grinned at the simplicity of the plan. The mail would be addressed to someone who no longer existed, their friend would still be fighting to uphold law and order from the grave. The mail owl would attempt to deliver the message, but would fail and in the end deliver it to the magical mail office in Diagon alley to await collection.

The mail offices existed because not everyone in the magical world owned an owl of their own or were connected to the Floo network, it provided a delivery service for a small price, having its own owls on the premises. It would be like a dead drop, allowing either Marcus or Kingsley to collect messages without anyone knowing their actual identity.

"If they even knew they had to track the bird, it would end up giving the tracker-mage an awful bloody headache as the bird flew around in circles trying to find a dead man, Shack that's simply genius."

"I do have my moments certainly."

Shacklebolt intoned dryly. Tonks nodded in understanding.

"I'd better go or I will be missed, good luck, to all of us."

With that the young Auror was gone, her retreating footsteps slowly fading into the distance. The two men faced each other over the desk, the bottles of alcohol abandoned and forgotten. Events were moving at a pace faster than either of the men could believe and both knew that things were only going to get worse before they got any better.

"I have Aurors to talk to and plans to make…"

"And I have to try and reach some of the people on that list, take care Marcus, watch your back."

"You too old friend, constant vigilance!"

OoOoO

**Various Locations**

Fred and George walked out of the main door of their shop and into Diagon alley, and while Fred turned to secure the shop, George smiled and stretched his aching shoulders. It had been a good day, they were making real progress on Harry's projects and hoped to have something experimental ready to show him in only a few more days.

Suddenly, with no warning, he had four wands pointed at his heart, as an Auror capture team stepped out from under their disillusionment charms, he didn't even have time to blink.

"Er…Fred"

"Yes George"

"Is there something you haven't told me?"

"No, dear brother, why do you ask?"

"Oh, just because."

Fred turned around to find his brother stood there with his hands in the air, faced with the grim and serious looking Aurors it was a gesture he quickly copied.

"I think it's a case of mistaken identity…"

"Yeah, you really want the other pair of identical red headed…"

"…Twins that owns a joke shop, and is called Weasley!"

OoOoO

Bill smiled warmly with genuine affection and bowed deeply to Rotgut, the Goblin night custodian, as he held the door of Gringotts open for Fleur, placing an arm loosely over her shoulders, he leaned in and kissed her ear. Fleur turned and smiled at him and he felt his heart miss a beat. God he loved this girl.

They walked together down the steps of Gringotts and moved off towards the twins shop, the four of them were going out together tonight for dinner to give Fleur a chance to get to know the twins better before the fast approaching wedding day, as scary a prospect as that was for all concerned.

The very moment their feet touched the cobbles of Diagon alley and they were officially off the property of Gringotts bank and the sovereign territory of the goblin nation, four undercover Aurors drew their wands from inside their cloaks.

Fleur spotted a flash of sudden movement out of the corner of her eye and turning, instantly drew her own wand in response. For a moment the evening air flashed red as multiple stunners flew through the growing dusk, and when the glow had faded there were two crumpled forms laid out on the street, one with red hair, the other blond.

The Goblin night custodian flexed his fingers into fists and seriously considered intervening, both humans were valued Gringotts members of staff, he was in charge of night security at the bank and had some pretty powerful magic at his disposal, and he knew that he could have easily subdued the four Aurors with little effort.

But Rotgut was not stupid, he was only too aware of the tenuous relationship the Goblins had with the Wizarding world, his actions could easily initiate another wizard/Goblin war, or at the very least start an escalating confrontation with the forces of the Ministry, and they had been careful enough not to do anything on Gringotts property.

It was difficult not to let his own personal feelings interfere with his decision, he genuinely liked the two humans, and he respected the male curse breaker for his extraordinary skills…for a human that was.

Instead of acting rashly, he went back inside, sealed the doors shut against further intruders and made urgent contact with the current chairman of the Wizarding bank and head of the goblin nation, director Ragnok, to inform him of this startling new development.

OoOoO

There was only a single Auror left standing from the two capture teams by the time the Creevey brothers and their mother had been subdued and placed into custody, the brothers had reacted amazingly quickly when the Aurors had burst into their home.

They had stood back to back in the devastated remains of their lounge and exchanged spell fire with the Aurors, using spells and skills of such an advanced level that they had taken the Aurors completely by surprise. The 16 and 14-year-old youths and the fight they put up would become the conversation of the Auror crew room for many years.

Even Mrs Creevey got in on the action, dropping and Auror with a frying pan before she was stunned. When Mr Creevey returned home from work that night he found a silent, deserted home that looked as if an explosion had torn through it and no explanation where his family were.

OoOoO

It took Cho Chang several seconds to work out what was happening when she saw her boyfriend Michael Corner draw his wand and push her into the mouth of the alley. He turned to face her and seemed about say something when his features went slack and his eyes rolled up, he collapsed unconscious into her arms.

Over his shoulder Cho saw four men advancing towards her, wands drawn. They looked familiar, and with a shock she realised they were among some of the Aurors that had been stationed at Hogwarts in the past.

Harry, he'd know what to do, he always did. Shutting her eyes, Cho concentrated on the Burrow, and how much she really needed to get her and the injured Michael the help that would be there.

She opened her eyes again in panic, she couldn't apparate, the Aurors had put up an anti-apparation ward. Pulling Michael back further into the alley, Cho fired random stunners out in an attempt to slow the advancing Aurors, and give her time to think, she needed to escape, get help.

Bending down she kissed the top of Michael's head, silent tears falling down her cheeks, she promised him she would get help. Cho gently laid him down and without a backward glance ran as fast as she could down the alley, her long black hair flying out behind her.

A spell caused a garbage can to explode as she ran past it, but she paid it no heed, all she concentrated on was pumping her arms and legs as fast as she could. Slamming into a doorway, Cho used a Reducto charm to blow the door off its hinges and raced into the dark interior, bouncing off crates and other packaging at a speed she was sure would leave horrific bruises.

The street ahead beckoned, a disused display window and a door, probably locked. Without a moment's hesitation and without slowing down at all, Cho covered her head with her arms and threw herself out of the plate glass window.

She landed hard on the pavement beyond the window amid the glass shards of the shattered window, behind her, from the disused shop she could hear shouts and the sound of pursuit.

She was up and running, completely unaware of the bloody smudges she had left on the pavement in her wake. Ahead, on the other side of the road was the symbol of a muggle underground station, she knew there would be people inside, and a chance to lose her pursuit. Without even a pause, Cho raced across the road, completely oblivious to the traffic.

She never felt the black Hackney carriage that hit her at fifty miles an hour from behind, throwing her up across the bonnet onto its windscreen and then when the startled driver slammed the brakes on, flinging her for twenty feet down the road.

She hit the road, and rolled over and over, her body as limp as a rag doll, thankfully by this time unconscious. Cho Chang came to rest in the gutter, and after a moment of stunned silence, her shattered body caused several of the female onlookers to scream as her blood began to run in a stream down the gutter towards a storm drain.

OoOoO

Susan Bones looked up and smiled when her best friend Terry Boot burst suddenly into her bedroom, her smile quickly died when she saw the wand in his hand and the frantic expression on his face.

"Susan, you have to come with me, right now!"

He charged across the room, throwing her homework carelessly aside and virtually threw her over his shoulder, he seemed to be almost in a state of panic and was breathing heavily. He turned and dragged her onto the landing and down the stairs, she had never seen him behave like this and had no idea what was the cause.

"Terry what's wrong? What's happened?"

He had quickly manhandled her to the front door and opened it, he was just about to drag her through it when he saw something outside that made his face pale. Pulling her back inside, he slammed the door shut, raised his wand and magically sealed it.

"Shit!"

Susan was frightened now, and she could see real fear on Terry's face too. She clutched at him wondering what was going on.

"Aurors came to my house Susan! Came to arrest me for what happened at the burrow, conspiring against the Ministry they said, now they're here, they want you too! We have to get out of here!"

Susan looked up into his face startled, her Aunt used to run the DMLE, she knew every single Auror at least by name and most better than that, she couldn't believe they would have a warrant out on her, it made no sense.

"You're wrong, why would they want us, I'm not even an adult yet?"

Terry took her by the hand and dragged her down the hall towards the kitchen. He knew the house well enough, he had been here many times in the past. They had been best friends by a strange twist of fate since before going to Hogwarts, since before he had even received his Hogwarts letter, and despite his muggle heritage he had always been welcome in the Bones' house and over the various summer holidays he would often have been in Susan's house more often than his own.

Terry threw the kitchen door open and walked straight into a tall man on the doorstep, Susan recognised him immediately as an Auror named Ayden Williamson. Terry didn't hesitate for an instant, he drew back his fist and punched Williamson in the face as hard as he could manage, and the Auror fell backwards off the step holding his nose. Terry slammed the door shut and locked it with his wand.

"Believe me now Susan!"

He grabbed her hand again and dragged her from the kitchen towards the living room, Susan knew he was headed for the fireplace, and the Floo network, but she also knew from past conversations with her Aunt that the house had already been disconnected, it was standard Auror policy to prevent fugitives escaping.

"Terry, stop. Terry, stop. Terry…Listen to me Goddamn It!"

Terry braked to halt and turned to stare at her in surprise, he had never heard her swear before in his entire life, not once.

"The Floo has already been disconnected, the same time as the anti-apparation ward was activated, standard Auror procedure"

Terry nodded, he trusted her and if anyone who was not actually an Auror knew their procedures it would be her. Frowning, he turned in a complete circle trying to think of a way out of their predicament.

"Well I'm open to suggestions, how do we get out of this?"

Susan smiled and grabbed his hand, this time she was the one dragging him, back into the entrance foyer, past the front door towards the cloak closet. Throwing the door open, Susan thrust Terry inside, and followed, closing the door.

"Susan, I don't want to burst your bubble or anything, but being the highly trained Aurors we know and love, I'm fairly sure they will think to look in here"

She gave him a glare to shut him up, then reached out and pulled a cloak hook mounted on the back wall. With a grinding sound a panel slid open revealing a dark passageway leading downwards.

"My aunt had this built during the first war, she made sure everyone in the family knew about it, come on!"

Taking his hand again, Susan dragged Terry into the darkness and escape.

OoOoO

The huge main doors slammed shut and from the bottom working up the thick wooden magically enhanced bars began to reinforce the already substantial barrier of the thick oaken double doors.

The powerful wards surrounding the Hogwarts castle, some as old as the building itself, sprang into existence the moment the doors had slammed shut, and although they had been first created by the four founders all those years ago, each new generation of professors had added to the complexity and power of the wards. Generations of teenagers, literally bleeding magic from hormonally charged pores had imbued the castle with power unlike any other building. Hogwarts castle was quite simply the best magically defended building in the country, if not the entire world.

Minerva McGonagall watched with satisfaction as she felt the ancient and powerful protective wards of the castle spring into effect, as the current head teacher the wards were under her control and could be raised by a single word. Although no ward was utterly impenetrable, the magical barriers surrounding Hogwarts were more than match for the average Auror capture team.

"Professor"

She turned to see the bloody baron hanging in the air before her, she nodded solemnly in respect to the most senior of the Hogwarts ghosts, and the only one that could control the poltergeist Peeves.

"We have finished searching the castle professor, there are no remaining Aurors free inside the grounds, but we will continue our patrolling until such a time as you inform me that trouble has passed."

"Thank you Baron, please pass on my sincere and heartfelt thanks to the other ghosts"

The baron inclined his head and floated away through a wall.

McGonagall turned her stern gaze on the six men sat looking miserable on the stone floor at Hagrid's feet, the large crossbow in the hands of the half giant seemed to gently move from man to man, reminding each of them what would happen should any of them misbehave.

The five teams of Aurors had entered the castle unannounced, the staff after all had no reason at that point to try and keep out government employees, and began to stun the unprepared staff. Indeed the surprise strike would have been entirely successful had not Kingsley Shacklebolt sent a timely warning via the Floo system about what was happening.

The remaining staff, with the unique aid of the ghosts acting as scouts extraordinaire, had quickly outmanoeuvred and surrounded the Aurors, driving all but a few from the castle with very few injuries to either side. One Auror had been savaged by fang, and another had a suit of armour tipped onto him by Peeves.

McGonagall could not believe the Ministry had taken this action, she had taken a list of the arrest warrants from one of the Aurors and had been shocked by the names upon it. The entire staff, a large number of students and former students, members of Potters defence club. Certain members of the Order of the Phoenix, the entire Weasley family and of course Harry Potter himself.

What was Scrimgeour thinking, he may as well just hand Britain over to Voldemort and be done with it, without the Ministry fighting, those on the warrant list were the only ones who had taken a stand against the dark lord. By taking this action, the Minister had crossed a line, he was no longer to be considered a neutral or a minor annoyance, he had sided with Voldemort, knowingly or not.

OoOoO

Percy Weasley reached over and gently ran his hand slowly down the bare back of the woman that lay beside him in the large and luxurious bed. She moaned softly and turned her head to face him. Smiling, he brushed the long curly brown hair away from her face and leaned in to kiss her.

Penelope Clearwater reached out and pulled Percy towards her, locking their bodies together in a tight embrace, in the last few days since Percy had resigned from the Ministry he had been happier and more relaxed than at any time since she had first started going out with him.

Penelope smiled, that had certainly been an interesting year, for many reasons, not the least of which because it had involved her getting petrified by a Basilisk.

Mending the bridges with his family had also repaired a large gaping wound in his soul that he had not admitted, even to himself, and he had once more become the man that she had fallen in love with. Yes, he could be officious and occasionally a bit of a geek, but he was caring and attentive geek and he made her feel very special.

His hand found its way to her bum, and pulled her tighter towards him, she could feel the heat spreading through his body, and saw the hunger she felt echoed in his eyes.

Without warning the door to the apartment blew inwards, smashing with considerable force into the hallway.

Percy reacted with a speed that more than a few of his brothers would have approved of, all those years of being the butt of the twins' numerous pranks had honed his instincts, reactions and skills to a fine edge, that and the fact that he hadn't exactly been a slouch in his defence against the dark arts classes.

He rolled off the bed scattering the sheets as he moved, snatching his wand off the bedside table as he rolled and without a moments hesitation stunned the first man that appeared in the doorway.

As the man hit the floor, Percy yanked on Penelope's arm and dragged her behind him, she aimed her own rapidly recovered wand at the doorway over his shoulder and dropped the second man.

"Get out of here Penny! Go, I'll hold them"

Penelope nodded, and made for the second bedroom and the apartments connection to the Floo network, but something struck her in the middle of her back, right between her shoulder blades, and with a sigh she sank to the floor.

"Penny!"

Percy turned and brought down a third man, before moving down the hallway and standing over the still and naked body of his girlfriend, she had a nasty red burn mark on her back caused by the stunner. He had to escape, but hesitated, trying to decide if he should try to carry her with him or not, the hesitation proved decisive, as another Auror stepped into the doorway and took careful aim.

OoOoO

Arthur had barely taken three paces outside the Grangers door before he found himself facing four wands pointing at him, slowly, he raised his hands into the air. He was roughly spun around and his wand was taken.

Looking up he saw that Dan was stood in the open doorway, his big black service automatic held down by his side.

Arthur knew Dan would just make the situation worse by firing the muggle weapon at the Aurors, he made eye contact with Hermione's father, and slowly shook his head from side to side. Dan frowned, and Arthur worried for a moment that the man would ignore his instructions and leap into precipitous and disastrous action, but Dan just nodded in understanding to him and went back inside and shut the door.

OoOoO

Hestia Jones, an ex-Auror, and now working as a private investigator, received the warning via owl from Kingsley Shacklebolt. But as with many of the issued warnings it simply came too late. She was hurriedly leaving her house with her pre-packed bag of emergency supplies and clothing when the Auror capture squad descended on her.

She floored one man with a well aimed punch to his solar plexis and stunned another with her wand, the third was placed in a full body bind before the fourth Auror drew aim at her back and knocked her unconscious with a stunner.

OoOoO

Mundungus Fletcher put up the least resistance of anyone on the warrant list, he had staggered out of the Leaky Cauldron, so drunk he could barely see. It only required one Auror to disarm him and place him in custody.

OoOoO

Emmeline Vance, unlike many of her friends and collegues, received Shacklebolt's warning in time to make her excape. She was several streets away from her London home by the time the Aurors blew in her door. With just the clothes on her back she slipped into Diagon alley and with caution that would have made 'Mad eye' proud, slipped unnoticed by those tasked to watch Gringotts and entered the Goblin bank.

Deep under the city, in the vault maintained by the order of the phoenix, whose very existence was known to only a few, was the emergency procedures laid down should the Order ever be compromised. Included in this package was a complete list of the membership of the order, even those overseas, and account details containing money to aid in escape and evasion, along with a list of places that had been set up outside the country as safe havens.

With the information she required, Emmeline Vance used Gringotts international Floo and fled to France, to carry out Shacklebolt's orders, to keep her head down and await his signal to return.

OoOoO

Emmeline Vance 's escape didn't go quite as unnoticed as she had planned, but it couldn't be helped, the bank did belong to them after all.

"Did she get away cleanly?"

"Yes director, I also made sure that our Floo log would accurately record her final destination...as Brazil."

"Excellent work Rotgut. Are the board assembled?"

"Yes director."

"You are troubled by my decision? Speak plainly Rotgut, i value your opinion."

"It is not your decision i am troubled by, it is the right one, but the board..."

"The board will do what i tell them to do, for now at least, later they might want my job...and my head, but those are worries for another day. Tell my kin to have his demi company of warriors ready to move in eight hours, the other company commanders should be prepared to move within a few days. We have let the Ministry cowards take too much of what is rightfully ours already, its time to remind the wizards that we are a proud race, and why they once feared us!"

"Yes director, it shall be as you say. And director...as unprecedented as what you are doing surely is, it is the right thing to do for the right reasons."

"For both of our sakes let us hope so, for tomorrow may find us at war."

* * *

**AN/ **So there you have it, The Minister of Magic finally picks a side, and the Goblin nation prepares for war.


	12. 12 With a Little Help from my Friends

**AN/ **Don't have a lot to say, except thanks for still being here and i hope you enjoy the continued and steady decline of Wizarding Britain into chaos and anarchy.

* * *

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

"Sometimes you pick your friends, sometimes they pick you."

Chapter Twelve: With a Little Help From My Friends

**The Burrow, 05:30 4 July**

Harry sat all alone in the darkness with his back pressed solidly against the outside wall of the burrow, his knees drawn tightly up to his chest, and watched the sun as it began to slowly rise above the trees at the far end of the meadow.

Despite the promise of a beautiful day, Harry felt nothing but terrible despair in his heart, there was a dull ache deep inside him that refused to go away.

Harry felt a deep personal sense of betrayal at what the Ministry had done, they were the ones supposed to be fighting this war, and instead of leading the fight, standing up for all that was good in the world, they had not only turned their backs on their responsibility, they had struck out hard at those few who were actively standing up to Voldemort

The current occupants of the Burrow had spent the entire night trying desperately to get word to their friends and family, to warn them of what they suspected the Ministry was going to try, but as the night wore on their suspicions were confirmed by the unbearable silence from all those they tried so hard to contact.

Of the missing members of the Weasley family, nothing had been heard either and Molly was beside herself with worry, four of her sons and her husband were now missing.

The news was not much better from the Order of the Phoenix. Only Sturgis Podmore, who had been on duty at headquarters all night, and Aberforth Dumbledore, who had held the Hogs Head against allcomers, had so far answered Molly Weasley's frantic attempts to make contact.

Harry looked up at the sound of someone cautiously approaching. Up until that point he thought he had made it quite clear that he wanted to be left alone, however he smiled up sadly and indicated Draco should sit down beside him. The tall blond youth eased himself to the floor and lent back against the wall. For a very long time neither said anything, both teens just sat watching the sunrise.

Draco stared down at his hands, not able to meet Harry's eyes, he too had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that would not go away, but for a different reason.

How could he have been so stupid, he could have got the word out sooner, he might have been able to spare some of the heartache that was so evident on everyone's faces. Nobody had actually come out and blamed him yet, but it could only be a matter of time.

"This wasn't your fault Draco, you have to know that!"

Draco looked over at Harry in surprise, it was the first time Harry Potter had used his Christian name in many years.

"Then why do I feel so bad?"

Draco replied softly, Harry gave a humourless chuckle and reached over and slapped the youth on the shoulder.

"Welcome to my world Draco."

Draco looked at Harry with concern, he sounded so bitter, angry and frustrated. The events of last night had been a terrible blow to Harry, it was as if any hope of the victory he had coveted had been destroyed completely, he had hardly spoken to anyone all night or this morning, not even Ginny could lift him from his depression, and he preferred to spend his time brooding alone.

The blond youth knew all about brooding, and there was nothing good that could come of it. He had come outside to find Harry, to put his own mind at rest as much as Harry's. Too much depended now on the state of mind of the Small dark haired youth with his famous scar, the whole war now hung in the balance.

"I can't do it anymore!"

"Do what Harry?"

"They all look at me as if I'm some sort of superhero and expect me to have all the answers, this time I have no idea what to do next. I'm just a teenager, I cannot fight Voldemort and Ministry with just those I have sat around that table, I just can't!"

Draco had noticed the fact that even the adults had started to defer to Harry when it came to decision making, a little too soon as far as Draco was concerned, Harry just wasn't ready to handle that kind of pressure, after all he wasn't even seventeen yet.

"All any of us can do Harry is fight the battles we are given and do the best we can. And regardless of what happens, those sat around that table care very much for you, and you can be assured that they will stand at your side, until the very end, as will I!"

Harry looked at Draco for a long moment, almost as if he was seeing the blond youth properly for the first time.

"Once, six years ago, you offered your hand to me in friendship and I rejected you, let me be the one to make the first move now."

Harry held out his hand to Draco.

"Hi, my name's Harry, Harry Potter"

Draco took his hand in a strong grip and shook it firmly.

"Hi there Harry, my name's Draco"

"How about we go back inside and start planning how we are going to win this war?"

"Sounds like a good move to make, after you my dear Gryffindor"

"Thank you my dear Slytherin."

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic, Auror Crew Room**

The anger seemed to radiate off Marcus Washburn in almost visible waves. As he stalked into the full Auror crew room, he slammed the door so hard that it rebounded off the doorframe and back into the wall. Every Auror in the room looked up startled at the off duty shift commander, as he stood glowering, almost smouldering in fact, in the doorway. One at a time he met each of their eyes, very few could actually hold his cold accusing stare for very long.

"They were children, just children, it must make you feel oh so proud!"

His soft, angry words carried to every Auror in the room, and not one was able to answer.

Marcus Washburn was like continental drift as he moved towards the shift commander's office at the rear of the room. Those Aurors in his path knew now was not the time to push thier luck, and stepped aside. Marcus pushed his way inside the office, interrupting a briefing that was being held.

The Aurors inside spun around, surprised by the intruder, Washburn scowled at the Aurors Tonks, Proudfoot, Savage and Dawlish, and such was his obvious anger that all four flinched back from him, a small, detached part of his mind noticed the fine performance that Tonks' was carrying off.

"What can I do for you Marcus? You are not due on shift until tomorrow."

Marcus snapped his attention to his friend Peter Deacon who was sat behind the desk, a man he thought he knew.

"When I heard, I didn't believe it, I wouldn't believe it. My friend, the man I went to the Academy with, the Auror Peter Deacon i knew would never have allowed the events of last night to happen. But it turns out that Peter Deacon isn't the man I thought he was! In fact i'd even go as far as saying Peter Deacon is no sort of **man** at all!"

Peter Deacon leant back in his chair stunned by his friend's outburst, the other four Aurors looked decidedly unhappy at being present at such a confrontation, and looked as if they wanted nothing more than to slope out of the office, unnoticed by the two senior Aurors who were at present attempting to out stare each other.

"The warrants that were issued and acted upon last night were all lawfully obtained, for valid crimes, and the arrests were carried out as per procedure, nothing untoward happened."

Marcus slammed both of his hands onto the desk making all the others in the room jump in surprise.

"Nothing untoward! They were children Peter! You and the Ministry went to war against a group of children, and from what I heard a few of them gave your bunch of thugs a run for their money."

Peter Deacon frowned at the words.

"My bunch of thugs? They were Ministry Aurors, just as you are Marcus…"

Marcus Washburn held up a hand to cut the man off mid flow.

"No Peter, not anymore, not as of five minutes ago when I handed my resignation personally to the Minister. I was once proud to be called Auror, I haven't been proud of that job title for a very long time."

Four Aurors stared at him in utter shock, and one pretended very well indeed. He was one of the most experienced Aurors in the department, a man held up as an example to the cadets at the Academy, now they were hearing he had resigned!

"Why Marcus? Why throw away your career like this?"

"Because unlike you Peter, I have principles I live my life by, and I have decided to stand by my principles, I once pledged my wand and my life to uphold magical law and order in this country, and that i shall still do. I think that this means that you and I are no longer working on the same side."

Marcus Washburn took a last long look at the five Aurors before him, then turned his back on them in disgust and left the office, leaving a profound silence in his wake. So skillfully was it done, that none of the male Aurors had noticed what had happened right under their noses.

As soon as Marcus had entered the office, Tonks had let the paperwork she had been holding fall to the desk, to everyone else it would have looked as if she was simply surprised by the unscheduled arrival.

None of them realised that Marcus in the confusion had been able to get a good long look at all the paperwork on the desk regarding the continued intensive search for the fugitives Terry Boot and Susan Bones.

"Right you four, this changes nothing, I want those two in custody by midday, go and get them"

The four Aurors left the office, swapping glances with each other, no longer quite so sure in the tasks they had been given.

OoOoO

**Regents Park, London**

Susan Bones was sobbing, unable to go any further, she stumbled to a halt leaning up against a tree, she was bent double and breathing heavily, her vision was swimming and she couldn't ever remember feeling so tired and cold.

Since leaving the escape tunnel, they had encountered Aurors on three different occasions, and Susan was sure only luck, Terry's inexhaustible supply of energy and his local knowledge of the area had kept them out of Auror custody. Her friend had been simply incredible, duelling with Aurors, dragging her repeatedly from trouble, somehow he always seemed to know what he was doing.

"Come on Susan, we can't stop"

Terry took up her hand again, ready to keep dragging her on, Susan just shook her head tiredly and pulled her hand from his grasp, she slowly let herself sink down the tree trunk until she was sat on the floor.

Pulling her knees up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around her knees and placed her head onto her arms. Seeing how near the edge of exhaustion she was, he knew she could go no further without a break, Terry took a good look around and sank down to the ground beside her.

"Ok, it looks clear, we'll take twenty minutes ok?"

Susan nodded without looking up, still taking long, deep breathes. A large area had been placed under an anti-apparation ward, and every time they attempted to apparate all that happened was the Aurors were alerted and summoned to their location.

"Susan, you've done brilliantly, no one could have asked for more."

She looked up and smiled weakly at the compliment.

"Where are we?"

Terry took a look about, he was a Londoner from birth and knew his city well, but this early in the morning the park was deserted and a dark, dank mist hung in the air making it hard to tie down their exact location.

"The north end of Regents Park, somewhere near London Zoo I think."

Susan shivered, her teeth clattering noisily, suddenly aware of the cold morning air, as the sweat on her body cooled. Neither of them was dressed to be outside during the night, Susan had been forced to flee her house wearing only a thin blouse.

Feeling her shiver so violently, Terry took off his old wool jumper and offered it to her and she gratefully accepted the garment. Once it was on, he put his arm around her shoulders. Susan smiled, glad of the extra warmth and lent her head tiredly onto his shoulder.

"I'd really like to cast a warming charm on you, but there is a chance they would detect that in a moment and be on us again in seconds."

Terry grinned in apology at her, Susan turned to face him and studied his face intently.

"Terry, now we have a moment I want to ask you something?"

"Hmmm, what?"

"Last night, you said you had already evaded the Aurors at your house, you could have made your escape, under the pre-arranged escape plan you would have been safely at the burrow by now, but instead you came to warn me, why?"

Terry turned his head to regard her for a long moment, he had a slight frown on his face, as if he was trying to find the words to express what he wanted to say. He seemed to be struggling to answer her question.

"Let's just say that I could not imagine a situation that would force me to ever leave you behind and leave it at that, ok"

Susan studied his face carefully, he couldn't bring himself to make eye contact with her and seemed to be blushing. Her heartbeat quickened and her pulse rate soared, she had discovered she held feelings for Terry that went beyond friendship during their last year at school, but they had been best friends for so long she had been afraid to do anything that might threaten that friendship, more than a little scared he didn't feel the same way as she did.

Taking every piece of courage she had, and hoping she had correctly read between the lines of what he had just said, Susan placed her hands on both sides of his head and gently lent in and kissed his lips. For a moment he just sat there in stunned silence, before he gently kissed back.

Breaking apart, they both sat there for a moment in silence, then they both started talking at once, laughing Terry indicated she should go first.

"I…didn't know you felt the same way, is that why you came back?"

"I would rather lose my arm than leave you behind, there wasn't an option, I never even thought about it."

Terry suddenly cocked his head to one side, something carried to him on the early morning air, a sound that seemed out of place and he scrambled to his feet. He stood there with his wand out, poised to fight or flee, without even looking he offered his hand to her and pulled her to her feet.

"I think its time to go, we can talk about this and what it means for us later, we need to get clear of this apparation ward, we need to find somewhere to hide while we try and think our way out of this."

Terry hadn't voiced the worst of his fears yet.

The Aurors had no reason to just come after him and Susan, as a pair they had done nothing wrong, but if this was a reaction to the pairs' participation in the confrontation with the Ministry forces at the Burrow, then an awful lot more people could have been targeted rather than just the two of them. The Burrow itself might no longer be the secure haven it had once seemed.

"My Auntie always said that often it would be better to hide in plain sight, in the last place they would expect you to be."

Susan replied trying to be helpful

"Where is the last place they would expect us to be?"

Terry asked, wracking his brains for a solution to the problem.

"Well the obvious place that they would never expect would be the Ministry of Magic itself, but we would have to give our names and have our wands checked on entry, not sure that would be in our best interests given the present situation."

Terry smiled to himself as an image of the pair of them hiding under the Minister's desk while the Aurors searched the whole of London popped unbidden into his mind.

"However" Susan continued. "Another Ministry building, one that had a large volume of visiters, a building with less stringent entry checks..."

They both looked at each and grinned.

"St. Mungos!"

They both said together. Terry grinned, pulled Susan into his arms and kissed her soundly, before taking her hand and heading south and east towards the park boundary and towards the wizarding hospital.

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic**

This time when Scrimgeour entered his office and found it in darkness he was ready for when that cold voice spoke from the shadows, or as ready as one can be when the darkest wizard currently alive was less than two metres from you.

"Take a seat Rufus, we have much to discuss"

This time Voldemort allowed him to pull up his own chair, Scrimgeour knew that if anyone should find the two of them sitting chatting like this, then should that person survive, it was likely he would be stripped of office and sent to Azkaban himself.

Raising his wand, he locked the door and raised a privacy ward to keep any snoopers ignorant of the conversation, he enjoyed his position of power too much to let anyone take it away.

Voldemort smiled slightly, by letting the Minister take a more active role in the proceedings he was ensuring the man became ever more deeply mired in his plans, soon he would be just another tool in Voldemort's arsenal, to be used at will, and if the situation demanded it, discarded.

"So how go the arrests?"

The Minister leaned forward and passed over a parchment, it was the latest custody list from the strikes carried out the previous night. Voldemort summoned it across the room with a clawed hand, and scanned it briefly, he was slightly disappointed that Potter himself wasn't in custody, but then that would have been just too easy.

"My my Rufus, your Aurors have been busy, i commend you and your men for your dedication to upholding the law. Potter must be feeling very alone right about now, the vast majority of his supporters and peer group are on this list. You have done your part Minister, you have baited the trap, now I shall do my part, I shall wait until Potter springs it and I shall provide the jaws that will finish this business once and for all."

Scrimgeour looked extremely puzzled, but Voldemort was feeling in an expansive mood and decided to go into further details.

"Think Rufus, going on Potter's past behaviour, what is he going to do when he finds out his friends and supporters are all being held in Azkaban?"

The Minister still looked baffled. Voldemort sighed, wishing that occasionally he had a higher calibre of underling to work with, he would have to spend less time explaining all his plans, allowing him to spend more time actually carrying them out.

"Why, he will stage a daring rescue of course, leading his brave little band of remaining friends to Azkaban to spring the detainees, and then I shall have him. What I need from you so i can carry this plan to fruitition is to do is pull the Auror guards from Azkaban and replace them with your loyal men from the Department of justice and security, we both know Harry has had many dealings with Ministry Aurors over the years, so let's take away any possible conflict of interest that might compromise your men."

What the Minister didn't know of course was that the men of the department of Justice and Security answered firstly to Voldemort, or that nearly half of them had already taken the Dark Mark.

Scrimgeour found himself readily agreeing to Voldemort's request, after all it was a partnership, and partners offered suggestions to each other all the time.

"The only problem I can foresee in all this, is the imprisonment Fleur Delacour, she is a French citizen after all, and more importantly from a pureblood family of no small amount of power and influence. Her father is of particular concern given his position in the French Ministry, he could cause real trouble!"

Voldemort smiled to himself, it was strange how things just seemed to be falling into place with little actual input from him, it had never been his plan to get involved with the French this early in his plans, but with the chaos and disruption a potential international incident could cause, his plans would go that more smoothly.

"Never worry Rufus, I shall deal with Director Delacour when the moment presents itself, just you concentrate on our plans."

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Harry and Draco re-entered the kitchen to find a very sombre and quiet group sat around the kitchen table. Molly was fussing around the kitchen, busy preparing breakfast for them all and Harry was certain that she was doing everything she could to keep busy in order to keep her mind off of her missing family.

Remus, Charlie and Thomas were sat in a corner deep in conversation, Remus looked up as Harry entered, perhaps thinking it was one of those missing returning home, their eyes met, and all Harry could see was sadness and an anger that he also felt.

Neville was comforting Luna, word had come from the offices of _the Quibbler_ that her father had been taken from the offices during the night by Ministry Aurors. The list of the missing continued to grow, another piece of good news in a morning severely lacking it had been the reply to their Floo call from Professor McGonagall telling them that Hogwarts was still secure, although an attempt to arrest the staff had been made by Ministry Aurors and had been defeated.

Of the missing Weasley's, only Arthur's fate was known for sure, the Grangers had made contact to say that he had been snatched on their doorstep and that he hadn't wanted Dan to get involved.

"So now what?"

Draco asked tiredly, running a hand through his hair.

"Now we make plans to evacuate the burrow!"

Everybody turned to stare at Harry like he had sprouted a second head after his comment and once he was satisfied he had everyone's attention he continued.

"I would imagine that everybody here, with perhaps the exception of Helen, is on the Auror hit list, do you really think that the burrow is secure anymore? Half of its normal defenders are already missing! It's only a matter of time before they turn up in force to arrest the rest of us."

Harry saw a mixture of emotions displayed on faces, Molly was in tears at the thought of leaving what had for generations been her family home, and Ron was nodding in reluctant agreement at his words, although running away still left a bitter taste in his mouth. Ginny appeared shocked beyond words that he could suggest such a thing, the night had been hardest on her as one of the youngest.

"I would suggest we all transfer to Hogwarts at the earliest possible moment, it is the most securely warded location available to us, and we already know that it is still in friendly hands. We could move first to Grimmauld place, at least then we would be staying somewhere messages can easily reach us"

Nobody said a word to contradict him as it sank in that the Burrow was now wide open to a determined attack.

"Dobby! Winky!"

The two house elves appeared with the smallest of pops.

"Harry Potter calls and Dobby is here. What does Harry Potter wish?"

Harry laid a hand on both of the house elves shoulders.

"I need you both to go to 12 Grimmauld place and start making it habitable for a large number of people, get provisions for an extended period, clean it. If you need help, borrow some of the Hogwarts elves, just not Kreacher, you must keep what we are doing a secret from him. Do you both understand?"

Dobby and Winky looked at him and both smiled and nodded their heads.

"Thanks guys, also when everyone here has packed what they need, can you ensure their trunks get to Grimmauld place as well. Thank you, right off you go"

The two house elves disappeared with a small pop.

"Right you lot, start packing, only essentials, one trunk per person, when you're done bring them to the kitchen and we'll get them moved."

Those in the kitchen suddenly burst into a flurry of activity, all apart from Harry. who slumped into a chair at the kitchen table and starred off into space with a blank expression on his face. Draco, watching him intently slipped into another chair, also joining them were Remus, Thomas and Charlie. The four of them swapped worried looks, and Remus cleared his throat and leaned forward.

"Alright cub, I recognise that look, the last time I saw it on your face you nearly got yourself killed going after Ginny, what are you planning now?"

Remus starred hard at Harry with a concerned look on his face, Harry looked around grimly at the four men with him at the table, all of the others were now upstairs packing.

"I was just thinking if anyone had thought to inform Fleur's family of her arrest yet? She is after all a French citizen. Her father is supposed to be some sort of big shot in the French Ministry isn't he? Maybe we could enlist their help and bring some political pressure to bear?"

From the silence around the table it was fairly obvious that this thought had not occurred to anyone. Remus sat back with a strange look on his face as if he was quickly working through all possible moves and counter moves in his mind. Harry knew one day he would have to get Remus and Ron sat down with a Wizarding chess set.

"It's certainly an idea worth pursuing, if nothing else the Delacour family should be informed about their missing daughter, they will be extremely worried when she fails to contact them."

Harry nodded, knowing he could leave that matter with his godfather, the former professor was much better suited to the stage of international politics, because it seemed as if he had the mind for it.

"I don't know about you, but I'm just about fed up to my back teeth of getting pushed around by the Ministry, what I'm planning is to do a little pushing back of my own!"

There was a knock at the kitchen door and four wands and a large black pistol were suddenly pointed at the door. The apparation ward hadn't gone off, nor the warning for portkeys, Harry slipped out of his seat and made his way to the door and slowly opened it.

He was most surprised by the sight that greeted him. Four goblins stood on the doorstep, only one of which he recognised.

"Griphook! It's been such a very long time, what is it I can do for you?"

The small goblin coughed nervously and deferred to the biggest and best-dressed goblin in the group.

"Lord Harry Potter, it gives me great honour to present to you Director Ragnok, chairman of Gringotts bank and…"

"Head of the Goblin nation"

Harry finished Griphook's introduction in a tiny voice, Harry was so surprised by events that he let the title lord slip by him completely. Ragnok was the nearest thing to Royalty that the Goblin's had, and he was the undisputed ruler of the entire Goblin nation, and he was stood on the doorstep of the Burrow!

With a small cough of embarrassment, Harry lowered his wand that had been raised ready for action and pocketed it, looking slightly sheepish as he swept into a low bow.

"Ragnok, you do my home and tribe great honour with your visit, how may I be of service?"

Ragnok blinked at him in utter surprise, the young wizard had greeted him with the respect normally only another Goblin would have accorded him. Even the wizards that wanted to give him the respect he was due normally didn't know how to, young Griphook had been right, this Harry Potter was different from the current breed of wizards.

"Harry Potter, before I speak to you, I must speak to Molly Weasley first, I have news of her family, is she home?"

"She is, please enter our house, all grievances shall be left at the door and the law of hospitality is hereby invoked."

The four Goblins were stunned, this human had certainly done his homework on their rites and customs, and he was displaying an unprecedented level of respect and courtesy. The ritual phrase insured that any attack or insult applied to the visitors while inside would be taken as an attack on the host and in a Goblin dwelling a lethal response would be forthcoming in order to save face.

Harry led the four Goblins into the kitchen, and Thomas jumped up from his seat and beamed at one of the two Goblins in the party that Harry still didn't already know.

"Rotgut! How are you?"

"I am well Thomas Bell, although I wish I could visit during happier times."

Molly was summoned from upstairs, and she sat down heavily when she was informed who her visitors were, she hadn't even had chance to tidy the kitchen, and the head of the Goblin nation stood amid the clutter and hadn't even raised an eyebrow.

"Molly Weasley may I present Rotgut, he holds the title of night custodian at Gringotts bank."

The indicated goblin came forward and bowed low.

"Molly Weasley, last night I witnessed the Aurors attack on your oldest son William and his betrothed Miss Delacour, they were both hit with multiple stunners before either could react, neither was given a challenge or a chance to surrender."

Molly had raised a hand to her mouth, she knew that multiple stuns could cause severe mental problems and in extreme cases even death.

"We also received word through our sources that your twin sons were also captured outside their place of business in Diagon alley."

Molly rapidly blinked back the tears, she had already known they had been captured, but to actually hear about it was something else. Mustering all the dignity she could she nodded her head to the Goblins.

"I thank you for bringing me news of my children, I shall be in your debt"

She slowly got to her feet, and returned upstairs to continue the packing that would see them abandon her family home.

"Thank you Ragnok, any news I suppose is better than no news, now you wanted to speak with me?"

Harry sat in the chair vacated by Molly and studied the chief goblin.

"William Weasley has been employed for sometime now by Gringotts as a curse breaker, are you aware of his other duties Harry Potter?"

Harry nodded in confusion.

"He belongs to a group called the Order of the Phoenix, who are opposed to the dark wizard Voldemort, while i was never informed of the spefics, I believe he was under the orders of Albus Dumbledore trying to get your support for that cause"

Harry was puzzled, Bill had absolutely no luck in getting the Goblins to commit to fighting Voldemort, they had repeatedly insisted the affairs of wizards were of little or no concern of theirs, and after nearly a year of trying Bill had scaled down his efforts.

"This is Indeed so, and he was largely unsuccessful in his attempts to win us over, however the recent actions of your Ministry have left us deeply concerned, we believe the group you call Death Eaters are now at work behind the scenes, pushing harsh laws through the Wizengamot and clamping down on the general population. It is only a matter of time before they have the power base they require, at that time they will shed the polite and civil front the Ministry provides them, at this time we feel they will then turn their attention to us and the other magical races."

Harry indicated the Goblin should continue.

"We...that is I, feel that the Goblin nation at this point has very little to gain, and everything to lose, from maintaining its neutral status in this conflict. We therefore believe the time is now right for us to take some form of action, or to pick a side as it were while we still can, in fact we have decided to take your side."

Harry sat there for a moment his mouth just opening and closing randomly, out of the corner of his eye he could see Remus grinning widely at him. The Goblins had been neutral in the conflicts between wizards since the last Goblin uprising had been so brutally put down. Now it seemed they had made a decision not just to join the fight, but to back him personally in his quest!

"The Goblin nation currently lacks the numbers of trained soldiers under arms to effectively challenge Voldemort directly, although believe me, we are taking steps to remedy that situation, but perhaps for now we can aid you by allowing you and your followers to focus your efforts where they are most required."

Ragnok pointed to the last unidentified Goblin in the party who had up until that point remained silent and still, he was small even by Goblin measure, nearly as tiny as Griphook. But where Griphook was slender, this Goblin was broad shouldered and compact, he also had an aura of 'readiness' about him, almost as if he expected to have to burst into action at a moments notice. He wore a jet black cloak and there were two short swords strapped across his back. Harry had up until that point assumed he was just Ragnok's bodyguard.

"This is Gutripper, he commands a half company of our finest Goblin warriors, and whi is coincidentally my nephew, I have placed him under your command for the defence of your headquarters for the duration of the current emergency, here or wherever you decide to stay. Let me know where you decide to stay and Goblin engineers will erect suitable accommodation for the company"

Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing, a half company of warriors! He knew from Professor Binns' history of magic lessons that Goblin warriors fought with bladed weapons as well as magic, utterly ferocious and highly skilled. But they were always only few in number, never more than a couple of companies strong, to give him half a company was a major and unprecedented contribution to the war effort.

"Ragnok, I don't know what to say, your offer is unbelievable…"

Harry knew he had made a terrible mistake as soon as the words had left his mouth, telling a Goblin something he had told you was unbelievable was like saying you were calling him a liar.

"…I mean…I'm sorry I didn't…"

"Harry Potter, while you are well versed in many of our ways, you are however still Human, and as such we of the Goblin Nation make certain Ahh…allowances, you have proved yourself in both word and deed to be a friend of the Goblin Nation, and fear not, for a slip of the tongue will not alter that fact."

Harry swallowed nervously and nodded acceptance of the words, one misspoken word could have brought ruin to the protection the Goblins offered.

"When will your company be ready to start?"

"Your company Harry Potter, is already awaiting you outside!"

Harry blinked at him in shock, and rose slowly from his seat. The four Goblins preceded him, the other occupants in the kitchen filed outside in Harry's wake.

There in the meadow, stood under the early morning sun in straight, orderly ranks were some hundred Goblins dressed in the same black cloak worn by thier leader, all them carrying an assortment of lethal looking bladed weaponry. They waited silently, still as statues, only their eyes moved, all watching Harry with a sense of expectancy.

"Ragnok, this is a gift beyond measure, I'm not sure how I will ever be able to repay the Nation."

"I only ask one thing from you as repayment, just continue treating with us as you have done, showing the same respect as you have in the past, maybe some of that will rub off one day on your fellow wizards, do you agree to these terms?"

Harry nodded numbly, the burrow was as safe as he could possibly make it, a half company of Goblins would keep everything apart from an all out Death Eater attack at bay.

"My Lord, Is this the property you wish defended?"

Gutripper had finally spoken, he had a slight accent, as if he was less used to speaking English than the others.

"Why do you call me that? I'm not a lord!"

"Harry Potter, you are the sole remaining heir to two of the oldest Wizarding families, therefore you are a Lord, even though you are not yet in your majority you shall be shown the respect you are due. Now about the property?"

Harry gave the question some thought, the burrow was very open and not the most ideal location to defend, he could pick Hogwarts, or some other location, but it was the look on Molly's face after hearing about having to abandon the burrow that made his decision for him, the burrow to her was like another family member, and she already had enough of those missing.

"Yes Gutripper this is home, and here we'll stay."

Gutripper turned to the assembled Goblin troops and bellowed something in Goblinesse, Harry nearly jumped out of his skin, how did a creature that small have the lung capacity to scream that loud?

The Goblins troops snapped to attention, as one bowed to Harry then quickly split into groups, spreading out towards the perimeter, some were making notes on parchment as they went.

"My Goblin ward specialists will plot the outline of the property and come to a plan how best to protect it, the engineers will immediately begin the growth of suitable accommodation for the company."

Harry looked over at Ragnok and raised his eyebrows.

"Growth? Do you not mean build?"

Ragnok laughed and shook his head.

"No, our construction methods differ somewhat from yours young wizard, in truth our buildings, even the bank, were grown from the earth itself, shaped and manipulated by magic."

Harry dropped his voice so that only the Goblin head of state could hear him.

"Ragnok, I wanted to come to Gringotts and speak to your staff about my assets, since my godfather left me his estate on his death I would like to see a list of my holdings and assets"

Ragnok grinned up at him, he held out a hand and snapped his fingers. Griphook handed him a folder from inside a bag he was carrying.

"Harry Potter, heir to the Potter and Black families, your personal vault, and the only one you currently have access to contains 50,000 galleons constantly renewed, your parents set this up so you can access it at any time. The Potter family assets amount to 3.5 million galleons plus change, although much of this is tied up in various commercial ventures. There is also an heirloom vault but we cannot put a value on the items contained in this vault. The Black family assets amount to 3.8 million galleons and a small number of the less 'dark' heirlooms, there is another more secure vault holding objects of a much darker nature. The four family vaults cannot be accessed until you have reached your majority. I shall see a more complete list is sent to you."

Harry just stared at the Goblin in complete shock, he had missed half of what Ragnok had said due to a loud buzzing sound in his ears, he had never dreamed he had so much money at his disposal, he was rich beyond his wildest dreams, and he could afford to do nearly anything.

An idea sprang into being in his mind, an extension of something he and Thomas had once talked about, a facility fit for an army, to conduct training, to plan a campaign, all that was now possible, and he could afford it without even making a dent in his sizable fortune.

"Ragnok, what would it cost to double the size of this property and put some more buildings up?"

"What are you considering Harry Potter?"

"I want an accommodation block for one hundred and fifty humans set back in the trees, with a conference room, offices and a meeting hall. I want a building suitable as a small hospital, I want another building to be used as an operations and security area, where all apparations and portkeys can arrive and can be screened. I also want an obstacle course and an area for duelling training, and I want the entire area covered by charms to prevent muggle or magical discovery."

Ragnok laughed again, it was a deep throaty but not unpleasant sound.

"You do not ask for much, do you Harry Potter? I knew from the moment I met you that I would like you, there is much Goblin in you. You will have to pass the details of exactly what you require to Gutripper, but I think we can accommodate your request, for no extra charge other than that for buying the property, what are you planning to do?"

"Nothing less than to raise and train an army that will send the Death Eaters running in fear at their very name."

OoOoO

**St. Mungos Hospital**

"Damn it!"

Terry for the first time let his frustrations show, up until that point he had tried to keep his fears and worries hidded from Susan.

Just as the staff entrance had been, the public entrance to St.Mungos hospital was being closely guarded by four Aurors. There was no way they could get through the Purge and Dowse department store window that disguised the entrance with those four stood there.

"It's not your fault Terry, we both agreed that this was a good idea."

Susan reached up and placed a hand on Terry's shoulder, he was trembling slightly and it troubled her to know he wasn't coping as well as he had been pretending up until that point.

"I don't understand it, they cannot be here for us, last time they spotted us we were headed in the opposite direction."

Terry had led three Aurors a merry chase up and down escalators and lifts in the Trocadero shopping centre, he had wanted those chasing them to think they were trying to flee in the opposite direction to the one they actually wanted. It had been frightening and exciting. Terry in the end had enlisted the unwitting aid of the shopping centre security guards to detain the Aurors while he escaped.

"So what do we do? If we loiter outside for too long then they will spot us for sure."

Susan was right, eventually they would be spotted. Terry looked up and down the street trying to figure out what to do. While he was watching a couple approached the entrance way and passed the Aurors without them paying the slightest attention.

"Did you see that?"

"What?"

"They arn't here to keep people out, they are here to keep someone in!"

Terry smiled and pulled Susan with him towards the entrance, a family was just arriving from the other direction, and the two teenagers just blended into the family group. They passed the Aurors without even raising a glance.

Then they were inside the lobby, ahead of them was the reception desk, a witch was sat behind the desk, but she seemed more concerned with changing the colour of her finger nails with her wand than examing the new arrivals.

"You do realise that its all well and good being inside, but we will eventually have to leave, and i'm sure the Aurors will pay more attention on the way out."

Susan whispered, but Terry just grinned.

"We cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now i'm more interested in why this place is so heavily guarded. It could be useful information."

Susan rolled her eyes, Terry had been sorted into the wrong house she was convinced of it, he and Harry Potter could have been seperated at birth.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW**

"So, we are going to stay?"

Molly asked for the seventh time.

"Yes, with a company of Goblin defenders the burrow is nearly as safe as Gringotts and Hogwarts, there is no need to leave."

Molly threw her arms around his shoulders squeezing Harry so hard that his face turned beetroot red, she only released him when Ginny intervened, complaining that her mother was murdering her boyfriend.

The news of the Goblin defenders had lightened the mood considerably among the burrows occupants, despite everything, all the obstacles that had been put in their path, they no longer felt as if they were facing an uncertain future all alone.

When Harry had made the announcement about the training centre he was having built with Goblin help, he had been swamped by requests to make additions to his plans.

Hermione and Remus had of course wanted a library built, Thomas wanted to include a shooting range, to as he put it 'keep his shit sharp'. Ron had wanted to build an international standard Quidditch pitch, Harry thought that was probably a non-starter, as it didn't really aid the war effort in any way, Ron argued it helped to promote team building. To which everyone laughed

But it was Ginny's quiet personal request that had thrown Harry the most.

"I want a cottage, just a small place for the two of us, somewhere set back in the woods, somewhere we can go if we want to be alone."

Harry was moved by the plea evident in her eyes, they were finding it ever more difficult to snatch moments alone together, as the demands on their time increased. He nodded and squeezed her hand, adding the small cottage unofficially to the official plans.

Thomas drew up his plans for an effective assault course with Neville's help, using muggle and magical elements to really test recruits. Charlie, Remus and Ron drew up plans for the accommodation block and the operations and security building. Draco, Ginny and Katie worked on what would be needed in a purpose built duelling area, while Molly, Luna and Hermione got involved by planning the hospital.

Harry, left at a bit of a loose end, had wondered outside while the project teams worked on their designs. They still all looked upon him for leadership, and he felt anything but a leader at that moment. He was putting into place plans to train an Army, without actually having an Army to train, too many of his friends and supporters had been snatched by the Ministry and he still felt powerless to do anything about it.

Harry found himself watching a pair of Goblin warriors train, one carried a large axe, while the other had two swords, and it was like watching a ballet, a formal dance where the partners spun around each other lunging, thrusting and parrying. That such normally awkward looking creatures could move so gracefully with apparently no effort was astounding.

"Impressive, are they not, Lord Potter?"

Harry looked down startled, Gutripper was stood watching the pair with a critical eye, and he glanced up slyly at the young wizard and grinned the normal Goblin toothless grin.

"Very, how long does it take to be that skilful?"

The Goblin captain regarded the two combatants, he pointed with a talon to the axe wielder who ducked under the slash of his opponents sword, span and swept the legs of the second Goblin.

"That is Bodrod, he is currently our oldest warrior, he is ancient even by our standards, he has served the Goblin Nation in the line of battle for over three hundred years and until recently he had retired and accepted an instructor's post."

Harry frowned, that made no sense, he had retired, and yet here he was.

"Why then is he now back in a frontline unit?"

Gutripper chuckled.

"Because retirement did not sit well with him Lord Potter, he wants nothing more than to die with a weapon in his hand, at the throats of his Nation's enemies, not in bed of old age. If only he wasn't so damn hard to kill he might actually get his wish."

Harry smiled, he could understand that sentiment, it was better to die fighting for what you believed in than, spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, waiting for the footsteps that would signal your doom.

"And his opponent?"

"That is Wendel, our company's youngest warrior"

Harry smiled, that was a particularly un-goblin-like name.

"Wendel?"

"His mother had many, many strange ideas, some quite foreign to us."

"Had? Is she…?"

"Dead. Yes, Wendel's family lived in a tribal compound just outside Nottingham, they were all killed during Voldemort's first rising seventeen years ago. He was a Gringotts clerk back during those terrible dark days and had never even handled a blade before that day, he requested this mission especially. He is quite driven, worryingly so at times."

"Thank you Gutripper for your time, I shall have the plans to you as soon as I can"

The Goblin captain bowed to him and returned to watching the two whirling combatants, occasionally shouting loud encouragement to one or the other.

OoOoO

**St Mungos**

"This is **so** not a good idea."

Susan hissed into Terry ear, he looked over his shoulder and grinned at her. They had gone up to the tea room on the top floor of the hospital, mainly because there would be more people there allowing the two fugitives to blend in more easily than anywhere in the building.

What they hadn't expected to find were the two Aurors stood on the landing of the fourth floor discussing the injuries of the person they were guarding. From the sound of it they sounded extremely serious, if not life threatening.

Terry and Susan had slipped past, with Susan being careful to keep her head down in case she was recognised.

"Whoever is in that room needs ten Aurors to guard, which means they are either a Death Eater, or one of us who supports Harry, who else warrants that sort of attention?"

Susan shrugged, she couldn't fault that kind of logic.

"And if its a Death Eater?"

Terry grinned.

"From the sound of it they won't even know we are there, drugged up to the eyeballs. Ready?"

"No, but lets go anyway."

They had slipped into a locker room and now both wore green scrubs of medical staff over thier own clothes. While the Aurors had been distracted the two teens had crept up to the door of the room and waited until both the Aurors had thier backs turned.

Terry pushed open the door and held it open while Susan slipped inside, he eased the door closed and turned as he heard Susan gasp loudly.

"Its Cho!"

Susan whispered urgently.

Terry studied the figure in the bed, but the person's face was so badly injured he couldn't even tell which sex they were, let alone identify who it was.

"Are you sure, with a face messed up that badly it could be anyone?"

Susan sighed loudly and passed him the patient chart she had taken from the end of the bed. Sure enough it listed the patient as Chang. Cho.

Terry approached the bed and looked down at the person lying there, Cho was covered in bandages and tubes feeding various potions into her body. Now he was close enough he recognised the long raven hair that streamed down the pillow, the girl's pretty oriental features were still obscured by the swelling.

"There is nothing we can do, if we try and move her we could end up killing her."

Susan said softly, placing a hand on Terry's arm. He nodded, but still remained looking down at the girl. She had been a DA. member, a trusted friend and seeing her now like this suddenly reinforced the high stakes they were all playing for.

"We need to go, right now!"

"But where, how do we know the Burrow is still safe?"

"We have to take a chance on that Susan, i don't think we have many options."

Susan shrugged and glanced at the floor.

"Now, as to how we get there? Maybe the Knightbus is still running?"

Susan shook her head.

"No, they would have that guarded by now, however...there is a floo at King Cross, if we can get there, then maybe we could get to the burrow."

"Good thing i let you come along."

"You let me! Ha!"

"Lets go"

OoOoO

**Directorate of Magical Intervention, French Ministry of Magic**

Senior Auror Pierre DuPont paused in the outer office belonging to his boss and frowned, startled momentarily by the sound of muted curses, shouted in a variety of different languages, carrying through the ornate double doors leading to the inner sanctum.

"How long has that been going on for?"

DuPont addressed his question to the harassed looking young woman sat at the desk in the outer office, despite her secretarial appearance, she was not in fact a secretary, but a fully qualified Auror who had been injured on active duty. It was a way to keep valuable personnel on full pay while they recovered from their injuries, it was a scheme DuPont whole heartedly supported.

"Quite some time sir, the Director received a Floo call from Britain about an hour ago, and since that time he has made numerous calls to the British Ministry of magic. His temper has not improved! You had better go in, he has been calling for you on average once every five minutes."

Nodding in casual acceptance of his predicament, DuPont shrugged in a typical French manner and moved to the double doors and pushed down on the golden handles and pushed the doors open and entered the office, closing the doors softly behind him.

The office of the Deputy Director for Operations of the French Directorate of Magical Intervention occupied an entire corner of the top floor of the French Ministry building, and as such it afforded the occupant an unrivalled view of the Parisian skyline.

It was this skyline that the current occupant of the corner office was stood at the window studying so intently that he appeared to not notice the approach of the senior Auror. DuPont knew better however, the man who now occupied this office had not been a political appointee with no street time under his belt like so many of his predecessors.

"Pierre, I want four strike teams assembled and fully kitted out ready for deployment in an hour."

DuPont had known the man in front of him for nearly twenty years, and in all that time he could never remember seeing the man quite so angry. It was very disconcerting, the man was normally so calm, calculating and in control, he had the well deserved reputation of being able to calmly handle just about everything thrown at him.

Four full strike teams, when you included attached personnel such as medics and ward specialists, amounted to nearly ninety men and women, it was a sizable and formidable force, one you took with you when you wanted to start a war.

The Ministry strike teams had been first formed a decade before in direct response to the aftermath of the first Wizarding war against Voldemort.

Like the British Wizarding community, the French had suffered very badly during the first war with the dark wizard, France had a long and troubled history of blood bigotry and it had come as no surprise that large numbers of pureblood wizards had flocked to Voldemort's banner. The Ministry itself had been heavily tainted by those with a pureblood agenda, with the Minister of the time was himself suspected of being a death eater.

Unlike the British however, the French had been utterly horrified by what their countrymen had down in the name of blood purity, and had taken great steps to clean house against the corruption and blood prejudice.

They had been ruthless and dedicated in pursuing those that had engaged in foul deeds on Voldemort's orders, there had been no escape for suspects in French courts by claiming they had been acting under the Imperius curse, as had happened so often in Britain. No Death Eater ever saw the inside of a French magical prison, once a conviction had been proven beyond doubt there was only one punishment.

The Directorate of Magical Intervention, the French equivalent of the DMLE, had received wide ranging powers to combat the dark wizards, being able to act without the permission of or fear of sanction from the Minister of magic and was only answerable to an independent committee.

The French were determined they would never be caught napping again, and the rise of any dark wizard would be violently contested, never again would that particular shadow be allowed to fall over the country without a fight.

This was how the Special Magical Operations Group had come into being, created to face the unique threat presented by dark wizards and their followers, a threat beyond that what the average street Auror was equipped to face. The British had their, so far utterly ineffective, hit wizards, the French on the other hand had formed S.M.O.G.

While S.M.O.G contained several separate divisions, such as Research and Development and Close Protection Details, without doubt its teeth and claws were the tactical strike teams. Formed from experienced Aurors that were all hand picked volunteers, the teams were the elite of the French Ministry. More soldiers than policemen, part of their training was serving a term of no less than a year in training at the brutal and unforgiving hands of the French Foreign Legion.

DuPont, the current head of S.M.O.G and his boss, the former head, were both graduates of the tactical strike team program, and this was how DuPont knew there were very few situations that would require the use of more than a single team of twenty. In fact, short of invading a country, he couldn't possibly imagine what his boss intended to do with four whole teams.

"Yes sir, four strike teams, in an hour. And whose country should I inform the Minister for Magic we are invading, you know…just in case he asks?"

DuPont tried to inject a little humour into the conversation, something his boss normally appreciated, but apparently not today.

"I'm not laughing Pierre."

"This I can see Henri, may I ask what has happened?"

Deputy Director for Operations, Henri Delacour turned away from the window and slumped heavily into his padded chair behind the large desk, he looked older and more worn than DuPont could ever remember seeing him.

"They are holding my daughter Pierre, my daughter!"

DuPont was stunned, of course as a high ranking official in the Ministry and an Auror to boot, Delacour had made numerous enemies over the years, and was always a prime target for blackmail and assasination. But he had always taken great pains to provide security for his family, his daughters especially were his treasures.

"Not little Gabrielle…"

All the Aurors in the operations side of the directorate were quite familiar with his youngest daughter, especially those assigned to the strike teams, they were frequently picked for high risk protection duties for senior officials. Gabrielle regarded the entirety of SMOG as if it was some form of large extended family, she called each of the Aurors 'uncle or aunty', and somehow her never ending stream of questions always won over even the most cold hearted and stern faced Auror.

"No, Gaby is safe at home with her mother, its Fleur."

DuPont frowned in confusion.

"I thought Fleur was in London with her Englishman, working for the Goblins?"

"She is, the British Ministry has arrested her on a series of trumped up charges and refuse to let me speak to her, or let me speak to someone in authority. Scrimgeour is apparently in a meeting and cannot be disturbed, for an indefinite period of time."

DuPont didn't understand what the British were playing at, they had a serious situation on their hands with Voldemort's return, and instead of trying to deal with it in a professional fashion the British Ministry had cracked down on its own people. Voldemort was rampaging across the countryside apparently unchecked by those whose job it was to stop him.

Normally the French Ministry would not have given a damn about what the British Ministry did inside its own borders, but as had happened all those years before, Voldemort was unlikely to remain on his side of the channel for very much longer, he had wider ranging plans.

Then as before, it would once again become a French problem, but the difference was that this time they were ready, they had been preparing for this day for sixteen years. Voldemort would not be allowed to bring his reign of terror upon the French people again, not without the fight of his life.

"What other information do we have?"

Information was everything, the more information the better the chance of a successful operation. Although the strike teams were not primarily tasked with hostage rescue, they did occasionally train for such eventualities.

"According to the Englishman that I spoke to, Lupin I think he said his name was, they have sent Fleur to Azkaban prison, there has been no trial, no sentencing, just imprisonment. A large number of children and adults have been rounded up and detained, Fleur's Englishman just one amongst them"

DuPont now understood everything about his boss's reaction, Azkaban was not just a prison, it was hell on earth. Even without the Dementors guarding the place it had the reputation for savagery that angered most French Aurors. The four strike teams were to be used to storm Azkaban prison, a difficult feat for sure, the prison had a fearsome reputation, but not one beyond their abilities.

However the very act of a French strike team stepping foot inside the prison during such a raid would without doubt be considered an act of war by the British Ministry, any such conflict would only weaken both sides and further Voldemort's conquests.

"Then we have no choice. The Four teams shall be ready as you request Henri, they shall bring Fleur home, because she is a member of our family."

The worst crime one could commit against a Frenchman was to strike out at a child, not even necessarily his own child, but any child, it was the one thing that would galvanise the entire Ministry into action. Despite Fleur's age, she was the child of a Ministry employee, she belonged to all of them equally.

Someone in the British Ministry had made a very big mistake, and the Directorate of Magical Intervention was about to teach them the error of their ways.

OoOoO

**Kings Cross Station**

Terry eyed the busy front entrance to the station from the window of a café on the other side of the Euston Road, at this time of the morning the dual carriageway was just starting to fill with early morning commuter traffic, all those muggles going about their business, without a clue of the war being fought all around them.

Satisfied for the moment, Terry returned to the table where Susan was sitting, and slid into the moulded plastic seat beside her, she lent her head on his shoulder and waited as he took a sip of the steaming cup of tea and a bite from the bacon sandwich.

They had been running now for hours, and twice since leaving the park they had managed to lose Auror pursuit because of his knowledge of the area. But now they were both cold, tired, dirty and hungry, Terry had only enough muggle money on him for one tea and the sandwich so they were sharing.

"Anything?"

Terry set the cup down and shook his head.

"No, but just because I can't see them doesn't mean they're not there, Harry's Auror friend Tonks is a metamorph, she could literally look like anyone!"

Susan was exhausted and was starting to feel ill, she didn't think she had much running left in her, Terry had been virtually carrying her for the last hour since they had left the hospital, she didn't know how he was doing it, he had escaped from his own house, rescued her from hers, and had been dragging her around all night, yet he hardly seemed to need a rest.

"Are you ready?"

"No, but that's not going to change Terry, just tell me what you want me to do"

Terry took her hand and smiled, he knew she was absolutely exhausted, but she was still unwilling to give in, and was doing her best to keep up with him, that was all he could ask.

Whenever he smiled at her one side of his mouth lifted more than the other giving his smile a crooked appearance, it had endearing quality about it that Susan found hard to explain.

"Just stay close to me Susan, and if something happens…keep going, don't stop or wait for me."

Standing, he moved to the entrance to the café, and took a careful look at the people moving along the pavement in both directions, and without taking his eyes from the flow of humanity outside, he held out his hand to her, knowing she would be there, and in an instant Susan was at his side.

"Right, stay at my side, we are going to cross the road using the muggle crossing system…"

He must have felt the sudden tension in her body, she had no idea how to use such a device, or even what it did. He grinned at her in reassurance.

"Don't worry, its one of the advantages of being muggle born, just walk at the same speed I do, we are going to move at the same pace as the crowd around us, ok"

Susan gave a sharp nod. Stepping out into the flow on the pavement, she felt so clumsy, getting in the way of people and bumping into others. Terry, she noticed seemed to somehow slip between people almost like they weren't there.

Terry came to a stop, and for a moment she wanted to ask why, around her a small crowd had gathered, all ignoring her and each other completely. All their attention seemed focused on a pole set between the lanes of traffic, in this pole was set the figure of a red man. Suddenly the man changed position and turned green and there was a strident tone, the crowd on the pavement surged forward and Terry, keeping a tight hold of her hand pulled her along with him.

There were an equal number of people crossing in the opposite direction, and if it hadn't been for the vicelike grip Terry kept on her hand Susan was sure they would have become separated.

They had reached the midpoint in the road, with two lanes behind and two in front. The crowd around her had come to a halt and the traffic started to pass around her, in front and behind, so many cars, buses and taxis. But this time she was ready when the little man moved and turned green, and stepped off the pavement more confidently.

Suddenly they were inside the station, this part was familiar somewhat, although she normally arrived on the platform by magical means, on occasion she had entered by the barrier between platforms nine and ten from the muggle part of the station.

There were muggles everywhere, some standing talking, others running to catch trains, or heading downstairs to the underground station. It was a busy place, so much the better for them to go unnoticed in the crowd.

Above their heads giant boards hung, giving information on train times, arrivals and departures, further down the concourse was a WHSmith selling books and other things. Built into the station wall was a Burger King and a Starbucks coffee shop.

"Ok, here we go, stick close, remember walk as though we belong here"

They wandered down past the end of the platforms, Susan could see the sign for platforms nine and ten high on a wall only twenty feet away, and they were nearly there.

"Damn"

Terry had pushed her up against a notice board and kissed her hard and passionately on the lips, one of his hands was in her hair, the other in the small of her back pulling her body in tight to him. Her arms automatically came up and wrapped themselves around his shoulders, her brain just lost all ability to form coherent thought as coloured lights and fireworks seemed to explode in her head, and from somewhere nearby a trumpet seemed to be playing.

Releasing her slowly Terry peered down at her, he was smiling that crooked smile again.

"Sorry, the Auror I punched at your house is stood at the end of the platform and was looking this way."

"Do not, ever apologise for kissing me like that again, it was fantastic"

Terry chuckled and shook his head.

"Only you could make a comment like that when we stand here in danger of getting arrested."

Pulling Susan behind a pillar, Terry took a careful look around, he could pick out at least two other Aurors waiting at the platforms entrance, the Auror, Williamson, the man that he had punched, sported two black eyes and a red nose, Terry felt a slight sense of pride that he had got such a good punch in.

The three Aurors were effectively covering the end of the platform, the space was not big enough to pass unseen between them.

"Ok, Susan do you trust me?"

"To the ends of the Earth!"

"Good because you going to need to"

Terry dragged her to the entrance to platform seven and slipped inside, keeping pillars and crowds of commuters between them and the Aurors on platform nine.

Across the platform an intercity high-speed train sat at platform eight loading passengers. Terry led Susan aboard, but instead of entering the seated area of the carriage, he moved to the other side of the train where there was a closed door, and peered out of the window. There was platform Nine, just a train track away. There was no train waiting at the empty platform.

"Alohomora!"

The door clicked open, pushing it open Terry jumped down beside the track, he turned and beckoned Susan to follow him, she jumped down into his arms, and he caught her with little effort. Taking her hand, he led her carefully across the track in a crouch to the platform that was now at the same level as their heads.

Terry slowly eased his head up until he could see up and down the platform, it appeared clear, but that didn't mean anything. Grabbing hold of the edge of the platform with both hands, he boosted himself up and rolled until he was laid face down, sideways along the edge of the platform facing on to Susan.

Leaning over the edge, he offered her his hand and as soon as she had a good solid grip he rolled away from the edge of the platform, pulling her up and over on top of him.

For a second they lay there atop one another both panting slightly from the exertion, Susan looked into his eyes and saw a twinkle of humour and a longing that they had no time for now.

Susan moved over and Terry rolled back up to his feet and pulled her up too. He hugged a pillar and peered around the corner. The barrier to platform 9 ¾ was only twenty metres away, on the other side of the next pillar along. They were nearly there.

Motioning a finger on his lips, Terry slipped around the pillar, and Susan followed.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Harry was walking back to the front of the burrow when the apparation alarm began to scream, his wand appeared in his hand in an instant, several Goblins appeared seemingly out of thin air and took up positions around him. Harry, as well as the burrow, it seemed were under Goblin protection.

With a series of pops that occurred so close together it sounded as if it was one sound, a large number of people arrived in the meadow.

"Harry! Get down! Aurors!"

Remus shouted as he raced out of the kitchen, his wand coming up to the aim, behind him Draco, Neville and Ginny were spreading out and pulling out their own wands. The goblins had also drawn blades and looked about to charge into combat.

"Stop!"

Harry's sharp command cut through the air like a knife and stalled any offensive action.

Fifty men and women in Auror uniforms were stood in loose ranks in the meadow, most were carrying large bags, others had broomsticks over their shoulders, but the one thing they all had in common, the thing that Harry alone had seen, was not one had a wand in their hand.

An Auror stepped forward out of the group, he was tall with blond hair, a man that had visited the burrow before, Harry thought his name was Marcus. He held his hands up to show they were empty.

"Remus, Harry"

"What do you want here Marcus?"

Remus sounded as angry as Harry could ever remember him sounding, for an instant Harry could hear the wolf in him trying to get out.

"My colleagues and I have come to offer our services to Harry and your cause, we and the Ministry had a slight difference of opinion, the Ministry wanted to declare war on children rather than Voldemort, we didn't."

Harry stood there with his mouth hanging open, fifty Aurors, there were only approximately 500 active Aurors in Ministry employ not counting the cadets from the Academy, this was a substantial portion the Ministries trained manpower.

"I don't know what to say…"

"Say yes Harry, we have trained all of our adult lives to do battle with those that would commit the foulest deeds, such as Voldemort, and if the Ministry is unwilling to face its responsibility to the magical community and fight him, then we shall do what we have been trained to do without Ministry backing."

Harry frowned, staring at Marcus, he so wanted to believe the man. With the Hogwarts staff sealed inside the castle, the Order of the Phoenix crippled and in hiding, and the D.A. arrested or gathered here, he was running very short of allies.

If only he had a sure fire way to look into the mind of this man and his companions, of seeing the truth of what they offered. Harry grinned and spun around, searching for a particular blond haired Ravenclaw. Luna turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

_**Yes Harry?**_

Harry nearly fell over in surprise, he had not been expecting to hear her voice in his head, was this something new, or was she just showing off another of her abilities.

_**It's new, I've always had to touch the person I was talking to.**_

Smiling at the girl, Harry concentrated hard on what he wanted to say.

_**LUNA CAN YOU HEAR ME?**_

Luna winced and rubbed her temples at the sudden onslaught.

_**No need to think so hard Harry! That hurt!**_

_**Sorry, is this any better?**_

_**Much**_

Luna was smiling at him now, pleased at his progress.

_**What did you want Harry?**_

_**Can you get a reading off the Aurors? Are they telling the truth?**_

_**Give me a moment Harry.**_

The pretty blond haired girl closed her eyes and she frowned as she concentrated, after only a few seconds she opened her eyes and grinned at Harry. He cocked his eyebrow at her and she nodded at him.

Harry felt a wave of relief sweep through him, he closed his eyes for a moment before turning to face the Auror.

"You and your people are welcome at the burrow, I'm afraid we cannot accommodate you yet, but plans for that are already in motion."

Marcus smiled and waved a hand over his shoulder, he made some sort of quick gesture and the Aurors broke ranks and began pulling large shapes from a collection of bags, Harry realised with surprise that they were quickly assembling tents on the meadow.

"As you can see, we came prepared"

"Come into the kitchen Marcus, Neville will you fetch Gutripper, it seems we all have much to discuss."

Marcus looked from Harry to Remus in astonishment, he was surprised at the amount of authority that this youth commanded, he had expected Remus Lupin to be in charge of this resistance movement. Instead it appeared Potter was the power here despite only being a teenager, it seemed he had a lot to learn.

"Sarah!"

Marcus called. A young female Auror with short blond hair turned and jogged over, she came sharply to attention in front of him.

"Yes boss"

"Sarah, get the group settled, and liaise with the Goblins, assign a perimeter guard if they will allow it, we don't want to be stepping on any toes, after all we are the newcomers."

"Yes sir."

Harry led the way into the kitchen, and indicated that everyone take a seat at the table, it was tight and required the conjuring of several extra chairs, including a special chair for the Goblin officer.

"Your arrival here is unexpected, but very welcome Auror Washburn…"

Marcus Washburn had held up a hand to halt Harry in mid flow.

"I have to interrupt you Harry, none of my group are Aurors, not anymore, we have all handed in our resignations. We are now just a group of concerned citizens, a highly trained group for sure, but we all feel that in order to stop Voldemort our best chance lies with you and not the Ministry."

"Do you have any news of my family, of our friends?"

Molly asked in a concerned voice.

"Molly, I'm sorry to say that the Ministry moved with unusual speed last night, my former colleagues had a great number of people in custody by this morning, I have a list of who was in custody when I left, here is the warrant list"

Marcus passed a piece of paper to Molly, who read and raised a hand to her mouth, Ginny quickly put her arms around her mother in order to comfort her.

Ginny looked at Harry her eyes wide in concern, over half her family had been arrested, and all of them that remained were on the warrant list.

"Of those on that list, only the Hogwarts staff, those gathered here, and four others remain free, they had no warning, and the Ministry personnel were taking no chances, many relatives that tried to intervene were taken into custody as well."

Molly passed the list to Harry and he starred at it, the list was longer than even he had realised. His mouth became a thin tight line, and those sitting close could see his hands trembling slightly as he struggled to control his temper.

"Which four are still free?"

Marcus smiled at Remus's question.

"My old instructor and team leader, Alastor Moody is the first, knowing him he'll be complaining because they only sent eight Aurors after him, they tried to lay an ambush for him at his house, but his magical eye spotted them and he ambushed the ambushers."

Most of those around the table smiled, remembering with fondness the old ex-Auror, for once his constant use of the words constant vigilance made sense.

"Sturgis Podmore is also free, nobody has seen hide nor hair of him."

"Yes, him we know about"

Remus still sounded hostile, it was obvious he didn't trust this man.

"Who are the last two?"

Hermione enquired. She didn't really want to know, she knew everyone on the warrant list, some better than others, and they were all her friends.

"Members of your D.A. I believe Harry, Terry Boot and Susan Bones, Amelia's niece. He evaded his Aurors by conjuring an impressive sand storm and slipping away in the confusion, and then rather than making his escape he went to rescue Susan Bones. Last we heard they were being pursued into Regents Park in London. My best guess is they are still trying to get here, and the only unguarded Floo is at Kings Cross, but if i know that, then my former co-workers also know it. I have ten of my people trying to pick them up before the Ministry gets wind of them, so far no luck."

"How many are in your group?"

Gutripper had been content to let the conversation pass him by until this moment, but ever the professional he was making plans to incorporate the ex-Aurors into his defence force.

"I have the fifty two here including me, I have another ten out looking for the two runners, and I have five who are sticking at their jobs for the moment to provide me with intelligence about what the Ministry is doing. So sixty seven all told"

Hermione and Neville looked stunned at the identities of the two fugitives, Susan had shared many of the same classes over the years, and they all liked the blond Hufflepuff, she was easy going and friendly.

It came as no surprise she would end up on the run with her best friend Terry, he was a tall trustworthy Ravenclaw that had backed Harry up in a confrontation against Draco, Crabbe and Goyle on the Hogwarts express.

"I have to say one thing Harry, from all reports some of your kids gave the arresting Aurors a big shock, and especially the two Creevey brothers, they took on eight Aurors and nearly won!"

Marcus's announcement was of small comfort to Harry, he needed to do something only he had no idea what.

"Where are the others being held?"

"They were all shipped straight to Azkaban, after your little adventure at the Ministry they thought the holding cells there were no longer secure enough. Apart from Chang of course"

Harry's head snapped up at the mention of Cho's name, his only girlfriend before Ginny, she was still his friend.

"Why is Cho different?"

"She tried to escape, and she was seriously injured in the process, she's currently under guard at St. Mungo's, last I heard it was touch and go whether she made it."

Just for a moment, before he got it under control, Marcus was treated to a front row seat to Harry's anger, his green eyes seemed to glow and a magical wind seemed to blow his hair. It made him sit back slightly in his seat, even though it wasn't aimed at him.

Harry couldn't help Cho, he had no medical training or experience with healing magic, truth be told she was probably far better off at St Mungo's than any of the alternatives. For the moment Harry knew he had to force his injured friend out of his mind, he had other friends that needed his help.

Harry looked around at those gathered around the table, his friends knew the expression on his face only too well. Ron, Ginny and Hermione had seen it many times during and since that first year at Hogwarts, Harry was busy putting together a plan in his head. Whether it be using an invisibility cloak to research Flamel in the library restricted section, or putting together the D.A. under the nose of Delores Umbridge, the expression over the years had remained the same.

"Marcus I need you to supply me with two teams of your best people, Draco, Neville and I are going to take a trip to Kings Cross. Two of my friends are still out there, on the run and afraid, they need our help."

"I'm coming too!"

The utter determination in Ginny's tone made Harry laugh out loud, he leant over and kissed the top of her head.

"Of course you are honey, I couldn't stop you if I wanted too. The rest of you I want the plans for the training centre finished as soon as possible, Remus, Molly, can you supervise that. Ron, I need you to sit down with Marcus, Hermione and Thomas and pick apart Azkaban prison, I need to know every weakness, every blind spot, and a floor plan of the place might be helpful."

"What do you intend to do cub?"

Harry looked at his friend, determination burning in his eyes.

"Remus, after I've got Terry and Susan back here safely, I'm going to storm Azkaban prison, and if I have to, I will tear it down a stone at a time until I have rescued my friends and family. After that I thought I might come back here for a spot of lunch."

The group laughed.

"Marcus, I want to thank you and Gutripper, the both of you have restored the hope that I thought this morning I would never get back again. Now let's get moving."

Harry stood, and Marcus suddenly understood, the raven-haired youth had a presence, he led without any conscious thought, and people just followed, dragged along by his personal charisma. Some of the greatest leaders in history could never put their finger on why people followed them, and Harry was the same, he exuded such trust and charisma, and others just got carried along in his wake.

Molly gathered Harry and Ginny into a hug, she was shaking slightly, Harry knew she was afraid she could be about to lose another two family members, for her it must nearly be as bad as seeing her Boggart all over again.

"I promise you mum, Ginny and I will come back, and set two more places for tea, because I'll bring back Terry and Susan with me."

Neville leaned over and gently kissed Luna on the lips, she reached up and caressed his cheek and smiled. Then Neville stood and moved over to stand with Harry, nodding to show he was ready. Katie had embraced Draco in a tight hug and was doing her best to kiss every part of his face.

"Draco!"

More kissing followed, with Draco leaning forward, his arms tightly around Katie.

"Draco!"

"Alright already, coming Harry"

Katie released him, and in a sudden embarrassed movement, held out her wand to the stunned Blond haired youth, she looked him carefully in the eye.

"You said you fought better with two, just make sure you bring it back, it means a lot to me, almost as much as you do!"

Draco took the wand and reached out and touched Katie's cheek, his eyes conveyed a wealth of feelings that they didn't have time to express in words. Katie shared the moment of non-verbal communication, and then nodded.

"Well at least you don't have to use my wand this time Malfoy"

Ginny grinned up at the tall youth as they stepped outside.

"This time Weasley you are conscious, do try and stay that way. All Potter did last time was whine about how much weight you had put on when he had to carry you."

Ginny swung around to Harry, fixing him with an accusing glare, but Harry was laughing so hard by this point that he couldn't speak, he held up his hands indicating his willingness to surrender. Ginny was about to retaliate when Marcus turned to speak to Harry.

"I didn't want to say anything in front of everyone, but are you sure that you four should be doing this, let me send several teams of my people, as I understand it only Mr Malfoy here is classed as an adult, and as for Miss Weasley…"

Marcus made an offhand gesture indicating Ginny's small size.

Harry just laughed.

"Marcus my friend, you have many things to learn about those in my group, one of those things is that size really is no indication of power. I'm assuming you have no doubts in your mind about my duelling skill?"

Marcus shook his head. Of course he hadn't, the boy had faced Voldemort at least five times that he knew about and lived, his legend was growing in the telling.

"At Hogwarts, in the duelling club, Draco was the only student that could ever hold me to a draw! Neville here, has faced Death Eaters twice, outnumbered at least two to one, and he has stood his ground against a crowd of Dementors. And Ginny…well Ginny is the most powerful witch I have ever met, and I'm not saying that because she is my girlfriend. Trust me when I tell you, I have picked the best team."

Marcus shrugged eyeing the four teens, he could see nothing but confidence in their faces, no evidence of nerves or fear.

"Have it your way. Sarah, Matthew!"

Marcus shouted. Two Aurors immediately stopped what they were doing and came jogging over, halting at attention in front of Marcus. One of them was the woman he had spoken to before, the other was slightly older, around Bill's age, and he had a friendly open face that had been hit a few too many times judging from the man's nose and he had an untidy mop of brown hair.

"Sarah, Matthew, I have a little job for you and your teams, I need you to extract two teenagers from under the noses of the Ministry, Mr Potter here and his friends will be accompanying you because they all are known to the two subjects. They would probably not willingly come with you without the friendly faces."

"Who has mission command sir?"

This was from the female, Sarah. Marcus frowned for a moment, that was tough decision, in rank Sarah was the senior of the two, but he had come here to back Harry, and to do that he had to be seen to trust the youth, he was looking at Harry as if measuring him in some way.

"Mr Potter has mission command"

The two ex-Aurors both stood there blinking in surprise at this statement. Yes they knew who he was, but he was a civilian, and not even an adult yet!

In short time the eight Aurors were gathered along with the four teenagers.

Harry stepped forward.

"I'm not going looking for a fire fight with the Ministry, all I want are my friends returned here safely, however since the Ministry are unlikely to just let us walk away with them I think a shoot out is likely. I want to make this clear, I want no deaths, anything else goes, we are at war so shoot first, arrest them later, are we clear?"

The three other teens nodded, the two Aurors seemed surprised at the youth's commanding tone, he obviously expected to be obeyed.

"Right, we are going to apparate directly onto platform 9 ¾, I want to clear the platform of opposition first, our two friends have been on the run all night and we don't know what condition they will be in. We work as three teams, Sarah, you guys are team two, Mathew, you're team one. The teens will form team three. Each team will work its way down one side of the platform, one team moves, the other provides cover fire, team three is the reserve in case one of the other teams gets bogged down, ok?"

Harry was drawing on every conversation he had ever had with Thomas Bell about small unit tactics, the one thing the soldier had stressed over all others was the need to work together.

They all drew wands, Draco drew two, to the amusement of the eight Aurors who knew there was no way he could have the power to use them both, Harry just nodded to Draco, who smiled back. Neville reached out and took hold of Ginny's shoulder ready to Apparate, Harry took one last look around.

"See you on the other side, Go!"

Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on the platform, willing himself there. With a loud pop, all twelve disappeared, leaving Marcus staring at the spot where they had been stood, this was the part he hated, the waiting, he would much rather have gone with them than have to sit and wait for their return. Sighing, the ex-Auror turned and headed back to the kitchen.

OoOoO

**Platform 9 3/4, Kings Cross Station**

"Team three, Prepare to Move…Move!"

Harry was up and running before the echo had died away, he only moved ten metres, to the next piece of cover, a bench on the platform, before diving down behind it, Draco threw himself down beside him, Ginny slammed into the doorway of the conductors office, Neville slid into the cover of a pillar.

"Team Two, Prepare to move…Move!"

Matthew's voice carried easily to Harry's ears. The two teams of Aurors had taken up positions on either side of the platform and were advancing down it, in what Thomas had called tactical bounds. The third team of teenagers were moving up, trying occupy positions that would allow them to support both moving teams. So far the Ministry Aurors were falling back in the light of this unusual and unexpected tactic.

Auror capture teams worked as a foursome, but they didn't practise two or more teams working together, which was what Harry was hoping would be their undoing.

Draco leaned out from his cover and stunned an Auror that had taken aim at the moving team, he spared a glance at Harry and grinned, the blond youth was enjoying himself, and Harry had to admit, so was he.

"Team One, Prepare to Move…Move!"

Sarah and her team sprinted forward throwing wild curses as they went in an effort to keep heads down until they could get into cover. Once Team One had reached cover it was the turn of Harry's team.

"Team three, lets go!"

Harry and Draco were both up in an instant, Ginny and Neville only a second behind. An Auror appeared, taking steady aim, but someone from team two had seen him, and he fell silently from the unseen stunner.

The Ministry forces were still reeling from an attack from an unexpected direction, as far as they had been concerned they were after two exhausted teenagers, they were not expecting anyone to arrive on the platform behind them. Thomas had told him this was the ideal situation, the difficulty came in keeping them reeling. Speed, Aggression and surprise, were the key.

Four Aurors had taken cover behind an over turned luggage trolley and were blasting spell after spell down at Matthew and his team. After the last move, Harry had realised the other advantage of using tactical bounds, when one team became pinned down, the second and third teams were free to deal with the threat.

"Draco, Ginny, Neville, get ready, I'm about to leave those four in the open without any cover."

Harry leaned out from behind the pillar he was currently behind, and aimed carefully.

"Aquamenti!"

With his water jet, Harry blasted the trolley aside, exposing the two Aurors, without missing a beat Draco stood up, levelled both his and Katie's wands and stunned both men. The remaining two Aurors shifted aim at Draco and Harry, but before they could even get a spell in the air the were both felled by Ginny and Neville's stunners.

"Nice shot"

"You too"

Harry and Draco grinned at each other.

"Stupefy!"

An Auror had appeared, wand trained on a distracted Harry, but before the man could begin an incantation Matthew had dropped him neatly without any apparent hesitation about firing on his own ex-colleagues.

"Let's have some focus shall we gents."

Matthew said dryly, as he engaged a second Auror. Both Harry and Draco had the good grace to blush and look a little ashamed.

OOooOO

Something was going on. Terry was sure of it, the Aurors seemed to be milling about in confusion, and they were talking amongst themselves and paying less attention to their surroundings.

"If we're going to go, it's going to have to be now, while they're distracted, are you ready?"

Susan just nodded without looking up, she did not look well at all, she was pale and cold to the touch and she was constantly shivering. But there was determination in her eyes, she wasn't going to give up now.

"Just one last push, ok, one last bit of effort and we'll be home free"

Terry leaned in and hugged her, she was very cold to the touch, and he tried not to let how concerned he was show on his face.

"Ok, here we go, Now Run Susan Run!"

Terry stepped out from behind the pillar and stunned the nearest Auror as Susan moved past him in a shambling run. Two more Aurors span to face him and raised their wands. Terry knew he had to buy Susan time to pass through the magical barrier onto platform 9 ¾ before he followed.

"Protego!"

His shield charm sprang up just in the nick of time, deflecting the two incoming spells, one of which had appeared to be a cutting hex. It seemed the Aurors had decided to stop playing fair. Terry, walking backwards towards the barrier could see more Aurors running down the platform towards him, things were not looking good.

"Expelliarmus!"

An Auror was blown backwards and disarmed, leaving just his companion, who now had an open shot.

"Serpensortia!"

A large snake flew out of the man's wand at Terry, but the youth's reactions were quicker than that.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Terry tossed the snake back at its owner, and in the ensuing confusion turned and made a break for it. He could no longer see Susan, she must have passed through the barrier. Terry put his head down and pumped his arms, sprinting for all he was worth.

At the exact moment Terry crossed the barrier, an Auror drew a bead on him and fired. He never knew what he was hit with, just the fact that suddenly he flying through the air with an intense burning sensation in his back. He tried to tuck and roll, to let his shoulder absorb the impact, but it all happened too quickly.

Terry's head struck the dripping wet luggage trolley with a sickening thud, the force was enough to send the trolley wheeling off up the platform on its own. Terry rolled over onto his back and groaned, his entire world was spinning, and he felt extremely nauseas.

He tried to roll back over and climb to his feet, but his mind and his body didn't seem to be on the best of terms at that moment. As he lay there he gradually became more aware of his surrounding, nearby someone was shouting his name, there were shouts and the sound of impacts from spells.

"Terry"

Susan. She was very close, he looked up and saw her face appear above him, silhouetted in a halo of light, she looked beautiful, angelic even, but she was frightened and was crying, why was she crying?

"I need you to get up Terry."

But he was so comfortable lying here, why does she want me to move?

"Please get up, do it for me!"

"Oh if you insist"

Terry rolled onto his side, and saw his discarded wand lying just outside arms reach, he rolled over again and picked it up. Kneeling up, and doing his best to ignore the way the whole world was tilting backwards and forwards, he looked around.

It was confusing, there appeared to be two groups of Aurors exchanging fire up and down the platform, the criss cross of spell fire was vivid and intense. Even as he watched, a young female Auror with blond haired fired a spell that shot passed him and he heard someone cry out as the spell struck someone coming through the barrier behind him. At her side was… Neville Longbottom, when did he qualify as an Auror?

"Terry, come to me!"

There was Harry potter, waving him forward, and beside him was Draco Malfoy, now there was a pair he had never expected to see together.

Rising shakily to his feet Terry threw an arm around Susan's shoulder in order to steady himself, and set off towards Harry and Draco, they had overturned some sort of equipment locker and had taken cover behind it.

"Teams one and two! Provide covering fire!"

Harry shouted. Terry and Susan were now staggering towards him, Terry had an open gash in his forehead, which was bleeding freely down the side of his face, and he appeared disorientated. Ginny, being the closest had run out and supported Terry on the other side, dragging him towards safety

"Reducto!"

Harry blasted a wall in order to force an Auror back into cover.

The plan had been working well, until Ministry reinforcements had started arriving, the three teams had been in danger of being overrun, so Harry had halted the advance and the teams had dug in as best they could.

Harry had been considering a withdrawal when Susan had burst onto the platform, and Terry had appeared moments later, Harry hadn't seen the spell, but he had seen Terry's back smoking from the strike. They were still five metres away, and in the open, and neither looked able to apparate in their present condition.

There was that feeling that something wasn't right, the hair on the back of his neck was standing up, and someone was creeping up behind him! Harry dropped to one knee, rolled sideways and sprung up wand arm extended straight out, pointed at…Ginny!

Harry did a quick double take, Ginny was still dragging Terry Boot to safety, and yet here she was right in front of him.

Reaching out with his senses he could detect Draco and Katie's wands nearby, but not Ginny's, another familiar wand was close by though, belonging to someone he had once thought of as a family member.

"Wotcha Tonks"

"Wotcha Harry"

"Change back now Tonks, Ginny deserves more respect than this"

Ginny's features flowed and reshaped themselves into those of Nymphadora Tonks, the red hair shrinking and turning bubblegum pink, her hands had remained down at her sides, but she still held her wand. His was still pointing straight at her heart.

Her appearance had changed since the last time Harry had seen her, which when you considered what she was wasn't that big a surprise, but she appeared to have aged, and she was a lot thinner with big black bags under her eyes.

"This isn't what it looks like Harry, I needed to talk to you!"

Tonks asked, almond eyes pleading with him not to judge her too harshly for her actions.

"Make it quick then Nymphadora, I'm right in the middle of a dramatic rescue here"

Harry had little he wanted to talk to her about, he felt she had betrayed him terribly, him and everything he cared about. She was now the enemy although it had cost him something deep inside to think of her that way.

He should just stun her on the spot and make his getaway. But just as something had stopped him lowering his wand, it was also making him continue listening to her.

"I need you to pass on an urgent message to Marcus Washburn, tell him that all the Aurors on guard detail are being withdrawn from Azkaban prison, and being replaced with the Minister's private thugs. He'll know what actions to take."

Harry looked at her wide eyed in astonishment, a bulb suddenly flicking on in his head, everything suddenly made sense, in as much anything in Harry's life ever made sense.

"You never really abandoned the Order did you? You're one of Washburn's agents?"

Tonks nodded and bit her lip, looking at him with uncertainty. And suddenly a scared young woman in a position completely out of her depth replaced the confident and accomplished Auror Harry had known for two years. Harry knew her well enough to know by now she was telling the truth.

"Now you have to stun me! It has to look real, I will raise my wand and you have to stun me!"

She gave Harry no time to argue, she raised her arm, her eyes locked onto his, pleading with him to do as she asked.

"Stupefy!"

Tonks let out a small sigh and folded slowly to the ground unconscious. Harry stood looking at her for a moment, wishing he could take back all the nasty things he had thought about her recently, he couldn't wait to tell Remus that she wasn't the evil woman he thought she was.

"Draco, how are we doing?"

Harry shouted without taking his eyes from Tonks' unconscious body.

"Matthew has Terry, I've got Susan, they both need medical attention, and we need to go, we have a lot more friends trying to crash our party!"

"We're all going, right now. Team one, Team two, mission accomplished time to go home, let's get out of here. Go!"

With a loud popping sound fourteen figures vanished from the platform leaving behind twenty stunned or bound Ministry Aurors. The platform's caretaker wizard who had been cowering in a corner, had witnessed the entire battle, and that evening a new chapter was added to the legend of the-boy-who-lived. It would take a few days, but once the information leaked out the Daily Prophet published an entirely fictional account of the battle.

OoOoO


	13. 13 The Invitation

**AN/** Thank you for all the reviews, for what has been said and the points raised it seems this offering of mine has garnered a quite intelligent audience...so well done all of you for being the top 10 percent, the best of the best.

**AN/** There are two scenes involving mild torture, neked peeps, and abuse of prisoners. Sorry, but in case you were not paying attention...Death Eaters are not nice people!

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

"A good plan violently executed today is  
better than a perfect plan executed tomorrow."  
Gen. George S. Patton

Chapter Thirteen: The Invitation

**The Burrow, 11:00 4 July**

Harry opened his eyes and took a quick glance around him, he felt a wave of relief wash through him as he realised he and all those from Kings Cross were home again safely. Nodding in acknowledgement of the bows from the six Goblin guards, Harry knew he'd have to try and train them out of bowing to him, and the whole lord business, he didn't feel comfortable with it, but right now he had other things that needed to be dealt with.

"Harry!"

Marcus Washburn had come running as soon as the apparation ward had started to scream, he had a worried expression on his face, an expression that eased considerably once he had carried out a head count of the number of people Harry had with him.

"Marcus! I have wounded, please tell me you have someone with medical training in your group?"

Marcus grinned at him, and nodded.

"I can do better than that Harry. Healer Coombs! You have customers!"

A familiar head emerged from one of the newly erected tents and turned their way, Amanda Coombs was very young to be a fully qualified healer, being only a few years older than Fred and George, however Harry had already seen evidence of her skills at first hand, Hermione owed the woman her life.

Amanda's eyes widened when she saw Terry and Susan. Both of whom required assistance to stand up.

"Take them into the kitchen, I'll get my bag and be right in."

Nodding, Harry turned to his group,

"You heard the lady, get Terry and Susan inside. Marcus, you and I need to talk."

Harry indicated with his hand a direction away from the crowd that had gathered to welcome home the mission team. Marcus frowned, but followed the youth, noticing that now he was safely home Harry had started limping.

"Leg playing you up?"

Harry grimaced and nodded, he shot his injured leg a harsh look, it was almost like a close friend that had betrayed him.

"The strange part of it is, I didn't feel a thing while I was throwing myself all over the platform, now I'm back though…I guess the adrenaline is wearing off, by tonight I'm going to be paying for today's activities."

Marcus looked down at the youth, he didn't seem even slightly fatigued from his exertions, he had apparated into combat with a numerically superior, superbly trained force, then emerged victorious and apparated home. This would have exhausted just about every adult wizard Marcus knew, including himself.

"Harry, its normal practise for an Auror mission team to hold a debrief upon its return, to pick up on what went right, and what, if anything went wrong, with your permission I would like to continue that practise here?"

Harry frowned, why was this experienced Auror asking his permission to do something he had always done, it was a good idea, and Harry had no problem taking part in such a debrief.

"Sounds like a good idea, I'm up for it. Marcus why didn't you tell me that Tonks was one of your agents?"

Marcus nearly flinched from Harry's hard tone and accusing stare, real anger flashed behind those green eyes, the teenager had a kind of intensity about him not found in any youth that Marcus had ever met.

"Because part of her protection is how she has turned her back on the Order of the Phoenix, I cannot risk her safety by telling anyone. We're at war Harry, there is a phrase you might not have heard yet, it's called operational security, and it means that sometimes you keep secrets even from your friends, to ensure your enemies can never know."

Harry considered this, it made sense, the less that people knew, the less they could be forced to reveal should they be captured.

"Harry, I know you want to tell Remus about Tonks, but there is no need, she has already told him where her loyalties lie. Now it must remain a secret between the three of us, more to protect Tonks than anything else."

With a look on his face as if he had swallowed something extremely unpleasant and might throw up at any moment, Harry just gave one tight jerk of his head in agreement.

"She gave me a message to pass to you. She said the Aurors were being withdrawn from Azkaban, and being replaced with those security and justice thugs, she said you knew what that meant."

Marcus nodded, his expression one of utter contempt.

"We suspect the Department of security and Justice is nothing more than a club for Death Eater wannabes, there may even be a few fully fledged card carrying members in the ranks, one thing is for sure, they obey Voldemort, not the Ministry, having them guarding the prison does not increase the life expectancy of your friends."

"Well then we should maybe get started on a rescue plan then!"

Marcus smiled at the determination in the youths voice, there would have been a time when Marcus would have said that Azkaban prison was completely secure, but having witnessed what Harry had done already when he set his mind to it, he wasn't willing to bet against the dark haired youth being capable of anything.

They turned and started walking back towards the group of Aurors, in the middle were Sarah and Matthew, waving their arms about and talking animatedly, obviously discussing the mission with their fellows. As Harry and Marcus approached the group grew quiet, and parted to let them through, Harry could see respect mixed with awe on their faces, which made Harry feel quite uncomfortable.

"When do you want to do this debrief?"

Harry asked the tall ex-Auror.

"Lets get a drink first, and check on the wounded"

Harry nodded and the both entered the kitchen.

Susan was laid out on the couch, covered in a variety of multicoloured Weasley blankets, she appeared to be asleep, she had regained some of her colour but was still looking very pale. At her side, reading a book from the Auror academy on following a suspect unseen sat Katie. She looked up when Harry entered and gave him a brilliant smile, Harry grinned back at her and turned to the table.

Terry was sat at the table his chest bare, he was scowling at Amanda Coombs as she ran her wand over the deep laceration in his scalp, Harry suspected from its depth that it would leave a scar. Ginny was rubbing a foul smelling salve into a nasty looking burn in his back. For a moment Harry felt jealousy flare inside him, but he quickly suppressed it by telling himself that he was being stupid.

"Healer Coombs, report!"

Harry had waited until she had finished knitting the flesh back together. She looked up startled that this teenager had adopted such a commanding tone, she looked quickly between Marcus and Harry, a look of confusion on her face, she didn't yet understand the dynamic at work here.

Marcus, as the senior Auror should have held command, but for some reason he had taken a step back and allowed Harry Potter to assume his position, and if he was happy with this, who was she to argue.

"Miss Bones was suffering from a severe case of exposure, if it had been left untreated it would have resulted in hypothermia and even death. She is sleeping now but will make a full recovery."

Harry was possibly the only one that noticed the anguish in the eyes of Terry Boot as the healer had discussed Susan's condition, he had looked over at the sleeping form and Harry had correctly identified the longing in the youth's eyes. Well that was an interesting new development.

"Mr Boot here received a deep laceration to the scalp and a spell burn to the back, despite the blood loss the spell burn was the more severe injury. He will be stiff and sore for a few days, and be left with a small scar, otherwise he will make a full recovery."

"Thank you Healer Coombs"

Harry turned back to Marcus and grinned at him, he held out his hands and two steaming cups of tea appeared, he offered one to the ex-Auror.

"Time to hold this debrief then do you think?"

Marcus just stood there blinking at him, the youth had just summoned two cups from the table, without a wand or any form of incantation, and taking the offered cup Marcus just stared at it in shock.

"Er…yeah sure Harry, whatever you want"

Harry was laughing as he led the way outside, he raised his wand, a wand Marcus was fairly sure had not been in his hand an instant before, and conjured a circle of comfortable chairs.

"Mission team! Debrief! Take your seats!"

Marcus had the voice of a drill sergeant when he wanted to use it.

Harry smiled when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist, Ginny sank into the chair beside him, it was a tight squeeze, but that just meant that Ginny was pressed up against him, and Harry had no complaints about that.

It took only a few moments before the twelve members of the mission team with the addition of Luna and Katie had taken a seat along with Marcus. A small crowd had gathered behind the chairs consisting mainly of Aurors, but Remus and Thomas had arrived to offer Harry their support.

"Harry it's customary for the mission leader to start by describing the aims of the mission, general outline, personnel involved and how the mission was carried out, but since this was your first time out we can skip your part if you'd prefer?"

Harry shook his head, he glanced around at the Aurors in the crowd, he knew they weren't here to listen to the mission debrief, they were here to listen to him.

They had all heard the rumours and the speculation about the-boy-who-lived and now they had tied their own fates to him and his quest, they wanted to know if they had made the right decision.

One day soon, perhaps even that very day, Harry knew he would be taking these men and women into combat with Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and he needed them to be confident in his leadership, to have faith in him, and now was the perfect time to begin to build that faith.

Ginny gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, he smiled at her in gratitude before standing and addressing his audience. He described the aims of the mission, who he had picked to go and why.

Then he described finding the ward in place over the platform, and how he had disabled it, there were gasps of shock from the Aurors in the audience, for no one should have been able to disable such a ward that easily. Harry looked up and made eye contact with Remus, obvious pride in his godson shone out of every pore of the former professor.

Harry then described the battle on the platform, how the three-team system had worked, and how the Ministry Aurors had been thrown into confusion by the tactics. Harry smiled at his friend Thomas and bowed his head to the man, acknowledging their victory was down to his input.

Then he described the rescue of Susan and Terry and the successful return home, he left out any mention of the encounter with Tonks. When he had finished there was a moment of complete silence before Marcus spoke.

"Thank you Harry, that was brilliant, concise and to the point, well done, now we open the floor to the other team members for feed back, lets start with Mr Longbottom"

Harry sat back down and lent back in the chair, Ginny laid her head on his shoulder and kissed his cheek. He placed and arm around her and listened to the rest of the debrief.

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

"This is another fine mess you've got us into!"

"Me! I was locking up the shop, how is any of this my fault?"

"Because I say so, it can't be mine, I'm too good looking!"

"We're identical twins you idiot!"

"ENOUGH!"

Fred and George spun around, their faces frozen in shock. Their mild mannered father had hardly ever raised his voice to them, during their upbringing it had always been their mother that was the disciplinarian.

Arthur regarded the twins angrily from the bench where he sat. Only ten minutes before another of his sons had sat beside him, Bill had been dragged struggling from the cell by the guards, and Arthur Weasley was sick with worry for his oldest son.

Bill, although conscious, was suffering badly from multiple castings of the stunning curse. Normally lucid, he went through periods when he didn't know where he was or what had happened to him, he was in a lot of pain from his head and seemed unusually uncoordinated when he had moved.

"Sorry dad!"

The twins chorused.

Arthur smiled sadly, he loved all of his children, but sometimes even his patience could be overwhelmed, he regretted shouting almost the second it had left his mouth.

There was a sound from the corridor, and the locking spell on the door was disengaged, the door opened, momentarily blinding the cells occupants.

"Here's another one of your's Weasley"

A cruel voice sneered from the doorway, and Percy was flung bodily into the cell like a rag doll, he was unconscious and very naked. To Arthur it seemed as if his entire body was covered in bruises, some were identifiable as hand and boot prints.

The twins, shoulders trembling in anger, immediately started taking off items of their own clothing and dressing Percy, the cell was freezing cold. Without any windows there was nothing to stop the frigid north atlantic winds from entering the cell.

Arthur looked at his three sons and he felt despair, if they had captured Percy now as well then what if they had Molly or Ginny, Bill said he hadn't seen Fleur since their arrest, the females seemed to have been put in a different wing. Merlin knew what abuses they were being made to suffer.

OOooOO

Voldemort stepped serenely off of the apparation pad and calmly regarded his surrounding, he had never stepped foot in Azkaban prison before, and he was intrigued by what he saw.

Azkaban was built on a tiny island in the North sea, really nothing more than an outcrop of rock that projected out of the water, it was desolate, isolated and inhospitable, the perfect prison. It was protected by a series of powerful wards that stretched ten miles out to sea in every direction.

Any apparation or portkey use trying to enter that area was forced by a cleverly crafted ward system to arrive in this heavily guarded reception room that was constantly manned by a force of ten guards. The door to the room itself could not be opened from the inside, only the guards on the other side of the door could let someone out in to the prison proper.

And these were the least of the security measures in place to guard the Wizarding maximum-security prison, a prison that Voldemort felt some small satisfaction that he now controlled.

"My lord, welcome to Azkaban"

Voldemort smiled and indicated that Bellatrix Lestrange should rise from her knees.

"Tell me Bella, is everything ready?"

"As you commanded my lord, there are two hundred Death Eaters hidden on the island now, Wormtail and Dolohov have command of those elements. On top of that are the fifty guards all loyal to you, Macnair has command of those"

"And the prisoners?"

"I have been letting the guards…enjoy themselves somewhat, each to thier own tastes, none of the prisoners have been killed…yet. The individuals you specified have been readied for your arrival."

Voldemort reached forward and caressed the woman's cheek, he really was rather fond of the twisted and evil witch, and while he didn't have a favourite from among his inner circle, he did trust her to carry out any instruction she was given. She had only failed him once, in the department of Mysteries.

"Well then let us send dear Harry an invitation to join us he cannot ignore"

With an evil laugh enough to freeze the soul, Voldemort swept from the room.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

The debrief was drawing to a close, all the team members had spoken, mostly in glowing terms of the tactics used and the leadership displayed. Harry was not good at taking compliments, and in front of this many strangers it was even worse, he sat there blushing as red as Ginny's hair.

Marcus was just winding up, thanking everyone for their attendance and their input when he was interrupted by a shrill scream. His head snapped around searching for the source.

Ginny had a look of terror on her face and she was staring at Harry. The youth's body had tensed until he was absolutely rigid, sat bolt upright in the chair. His eyes had rolled up into his head until only the whites were showing and he was violently shaking.

Blood was flowing freely from his scar on his forehead, which almost seemed to glow an angry red. He had balled his hands into fists and held them clenched so tightly that his nails were digging into his palms and causing them to bleed also.

"Healer Coombs, someone fetch the healer!"

Marcus snapped out of his shock as Remus pushed his way through to Harry and tried to help him. With a scream, Harry suddenly fell off the chair and landed in the arms of his godfather, the youth was now having violent convulsions, and his teeth were clamped so tightly together they were grinding on each other.

"Harry, can you hear me, I'm here Harry."

Remus was talking softly and holding the boy tightly, Ginny had summoned a jug of water and had poured some onto a cloth, which she was holding against Harry's scar. It was obvious to Marcus that this wasn't a new occurrence, both of them had seen this before. Kneeling by Remus, Marcus tried to get Harry to unclench his hands.

"Remus what's happening?"

The former professor looked over at him, pain in his eyes.

"When Voldemort used the killing curse on him as a baby, and incidentally gave Harry his scar, he created a connection between the two of them. Whenever Voldemort is feeling a strong emotion or doing something truly evil Harry gets feedback through the scar, but I've never seen it this bad before. Ginny?"

The scared look on the red headed witches face was all the answer that Remus needed. Something particularly nasty was occurring at Voldemort's end of the connection

"Harry!"

Molly screamed his name as she came running up followed by Amanda Coombs, Molly pushed Marcus aside to get to her son.

"Lay him flat and hold him down, I need to get this potion into him, it will cause him pain, but it will snap him out of this!"

Amanda Coombs, unflappable, was the eye in the crazy storm than hovered over Harry, her calm yet strict voice allowed no dissention from her instructions.

Almost as soon as she got the potion into Harry he jerked savagely, tearing free of those that held him, and screamed so loud it was almost deafening, and then it was over. The youth collapsed, panting with exertion his eyes closed, he looked very pale and his scar still burned bright red.

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

"Did he get the invitation my lord?"

Voldemort looked away from the three broken and twisted bodies on the floor at his feet and smiled at his trusted lieutenant.

"Oh yes Bella, he got the invitation alright, you can stop the guards playtime with the prisoners now, pass the word for our forces to take their positions, it should not be long now before our trap is sprung."

Bellatrix bowed and hurried from the interrogation chamber, Voldemort returned to studying the three bodies, two of them hadn't yet passed on yet and whimpered piteously for the help that would not be coming. He could have healed them, he had the power, but what would be the point, they would die soon enough anyway.

Voldemort bent down and took hold of Lavender Brown's chin and gently turned and lifted her head until he could look straight into her pain filled eyes. One side of her once beautiful face seemed to sag, frozen into Paralysis from the stroke she had suffered from the repeated castings of the torture curse she had endured.

"Don't worry my dear, your champion will be here shortly in an attempt to rescue you, of course he knows he will be walking straight into a trap, but he'll come anyway, he cannot help himself."

From somewhere deep inside her, from reserves even she didn't know existed, Lavender Brown found the spark of courage that had made her a Gryffindor in the first place.

"Don't get too comfortable in this life you bastard! Harry Potter is going to end you, maybe not today, but one day in the not too distant future he will stand over you as you are standing over me. He will end you!"

Voldemort laughed at the sound of the girls weakening voice, but he didn't hear the words. He let the dying girls head fall limply back to the floor. He had planned everything to perfection, even should Harry wriggle his way free of the trap that had been set for him, and even more remarkably manage to rescue those detained in the cells, then Voldemort had already prepared a few surprises for him, a new round of traps and pitfalls the youth would have to dodge, eventually the youth would stumble, his attention falter, then Voldemort would have him.

"Harry Potter's time on this earth is now numbered in hours, and once he is dead nothing shall stand in my way."

With a chuckle of pure evil Voldemort turned strode from the chamber, leaving the two students on the floor to die.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Harry's eyes snapped open and he sat bolt upright, a movement that he immediately wished he hadn't made as his head began to promise him that it was about to explode.

He groaned in pain and flopped back flat again, his sudden movement causing Ginny to emit a small squeak of surprise, he was on a couch in the kitchen and she had been sat beside him, gently bathing his scar. Molly was sat at the table and was being consoled by Hermione and Ron, she appeared utterly distraught at the pain her family was being forced to suffer.

Remus was sat opposite her speaking softly, and Charlie was agreeing with whatever he was saying, from the distasteful expression on his face it appeared that Charlie didn't like the fact he was agreeing with Remus.

"Harry, how do you feel?"

Ginny was asking in a quiet voice filled with concern.

Harry smiled weakly and reached up pulled her face down to his so that he could kiss her.

"I'm guessing that you're feeling better then Potter!"

Draco's cold condescending tone, so long practised no longer did anything to hide the real concern he was feeling, Harry ignored him for a moment, enjoying the moist tender lips of his girlfriend. When he released her, Ginny sat back with a dreamy look on her face, and her cheeks flushed.

"Help me up guys, we don't have much time"

With Ginny on one side and Draco on the other, Harry made his way to the table, he felt weak and his thigh throbbed painfully. Slipping into one of the seats, he reached out and squeezed one of Molly's hands to reassure her that he was all right.

"You had me really worried there cub, while you were off with the fairies something has happened that I need to talk to you about."

Harry indicated Remus should continue.

"I spoke to Henri Delacour, Fleur's father. He is indeed, what was the expression you used earlier, ah yes, he is indeed a 'big shot' in the French Ministry, and I have to say he was less than pleased with the news of his daughters' arrest. His attempts to contact our Minister and demand an explanation have met with little in the way of success, Scrimgeour has made himself incommunicado to the outside world."

Harry shook his head, nothing that man did surprised him anymore.

"The last time I spoke to him, Henri Delacour was preparing to personally storm Azkaban prison at the head of a large group of French magical commandos in order to recover Fleur."

Harry grinned at this news, maybe he could offer assistance to the French effort, and together they would have a much greater chance of success.

"You just have to love the French, no messing about, straight in there."

Remus sat there slowly shaking his head.

"You don't seem to understand the problem Harry. Whatever else happens we must not let any French Aurors take part in the assault, the consequences would be disastrous!"

"That really doesn't make any sense Remus, how could having more allies be a bad thing?"

"International politics rarely makes sense Harry, as long as it's just us gathered here attacking the prison it's a purely internal British matter, like a civil war or an uprising. Should the French become involved then it's a completely different matter, it would be an act of war and the British Ministry, insane as it sounds, would probably not hesitate in declaring war upon the French. That result would only weaken both sides, which can only help Voldemort."

Harry just stared at his godfather, trying to come to terms with actions and consequences far above the level he was used to dealing with. If what Remus was saying was true, then they were now dabbling in the futures of nations, not just the futures of individuals, which was daunting enough a prospect on its own.

"What will it take to get the French to hold off from attacking the prison?"

Remus frowned carefully considering his answer, he was sure that Harry wouldn't like it.

"I think the personal assurance of the boy-who-lived that his daughter would be returned to him would go a long way to making sure Henri Delacour not jump into any precipitous actions."

From the look of distaste that crossed Harry's face, Remus knew that his guess had been right, Harry didn't like it. Harry had always been careful to not take advantage of his fame, to not cash in on something that he had not had any choice in.

"After all Harry, of all of us here at least Henri Delacour already knows of you, you have already saved one of his daughters, and he was there to see you do it."

Harry smiled as he remembered the second task of the triwizard tournament when he had pulled Fleur's younger sister Gabrielle from the clutches of the merpeople.

"Alright Remus, I will do what you ask, can you arrange it for me to travel and speak to the man, I will do my best to convince him that a war is in no-one other than Voldemort's best interests."

Harry smiled sadly and allowed his godfather to hug him gently.

"Draco can you fetch Marcus, Gutripper, Thomas and Neville. Ginny can you get Luna and Katie."

The two people quickly left to complete the task.

It only took a few moments before everyone he had requested was sat around the table, Harry took a few seconds to centre himself and glanced around at all of them, meeting each of their eyes, trying to pass on to each of them how much he loved and respected them.

"I assume that for those of you that didn't know about the scar, that you've had it explained to you?"

Everybody at the table nodded confirmation, they all knew the story behind the scar now.

"Most of you know me well enough by now to know I was going to plan an attack on Azkaban to get our people back, well I'm sorry to say that we have just run out of time. The planning phase is now officially over, and we're moving straight to the attack phase"

There were gasps from those sat around the table, although Azkaban had been breached very recently, it was still an incredibly secure site, and you couldn't just walk in and expect to succeed.

Harry held up his hand for quiet.

"It's even worse than you think. Voldemort himself is now at Azkaban, in my vision I saw him torturing and killing prisoners."

Ginny grabbed hold of his hand and gripped it tightly, she knew that he must have known everyone he saw in his vision, he took every death caused by the war as a personal failing on his part because he had been unable to save them.

Hermione had hugged Ron, not wanting to hear anymore, but feeling she had to out of respect. Molly especially had gone pale as a ghost, she had five member of her family at Azkaban, six if she counted Fleur, and she could not imagine losing any of them.

"Who…who did you see cub?"

Remus asked hesitantly, praying that he would not mention a certain French female, if Voldemort had harmed Fleur the French would certainly go to war with the British Ministry.

"Mundungus Fletcher was…was…was tortured and killed, but I saw two others who, although they had suffered terribly were still alive when last I saw them. Lavender Brown, and Dean Thomas"

There was shock around the table, the Order members bowed their heads at the memory of the thief that despite his light fingered approach to life had been a valued member of the Order of the Phoenix. Hermione, Ron, Katie and Ginny were in shock when hearing about members of their house being in such pain.

Harry, Ron and Neville swapped determined looks, Dean had been their dorm mate for six years, he was their friend and they would either get him back, or the Death Eaters would pay a high price in retribution.

"Trap?"

Neville asked in a soft voice.

"Trap"

Ron confirmed.

Hermione was in tears, Lavender had been in her dorm for six years also, and although they were not best friends, they had been through a lot.

"Strange that he selected two Gryffindor's…"

Charlie commented quietly.

"There was nothing strange about it, he knew exactly what he was doing, he has offered me an invitation to join him, and I think it would be incredibly rude to just ignore that invitation."

Harry made to stand, but Marcus leaned across and put hand on Harry's arm.

"You do know it's a trap, right? Voldemort is just going to be sat there waiting for us!"

Harry just smiled sadly.

"Yes Marcus, I know it's a trap, and there lies our advantage, we know they know we know it's a trap, over confidence will be their undoing. And don't worry about Voldemort…that will be my job."

Everybody at the table just stared at him as he stood, almost as if he had suddenly grown an extra pair of arms. He had casually dismissed the most feared wizard on the planet as if he was a minor inconvenience.

"So what are your plans then cub?"

Harry turned to Remus, and grinned, revealing a spark of his usual, humorous self.

"Why, spring the trap of course, Voldemort wants me there, then I think I should oblige him."

Everybody at the table was frowning at him in concern. Seeing all their expressions, Harry laughed.

"Don't worry, I have no intention of committing suicide, and every intention of rescuing my friends. Voldemort and I have fought each other before and it was nothing more than a stalemate because of our wands."

Harry held up his holly wand.

"They are brother wands, united by having a single phoenix feather from the same phoenix as thier cores. Last time our wands reacted in such a way that despite our best efforts we couldn't actually harm each other, this time will be the same except i am stronger, all I have to do is keep him occupied while you lot do the hard work."

Harry glanced over at Marcus.

"I'm going to need every hand on deck for this Marcus, a full turn out."

"And you shall have it!"

"I need Amanda Coombs to have set up a field hospital, I think we're going to need it, mum will you help her with that?"

Molly, much to Harry's surprise was shaking her head.

"My whole family is being held in there, I'm coming with you!"

Harry recognised that tone of voice, finally he knew where Ginny got it from, and he also knew there was no arguing with it.

"I'll help her set it up"

Harry looked around at the quiet voice from the couch, Susan Bones was sat up, looking at those around the table, she was still very pale but looked much better than she had earlier that morning. Her eyes were filled with a silent appeal directed at Harry, he narrowed his eyes and finally nodded.

"I'm going with you too!"

Terry was stood at Susan's shoulder, there was a look of angry determination on his face, the same feelings that Harry himself felt, he could not turn down Terry, he would need every wand he could get.

"You are more than welcome Terry. Marcus I want every one of your people to be carrying multiple portkeys that will bring people right back here, as soon as they find someone then hand them a portkey, just get them back here as fast as you can. I'm assuming all of your group can apparate directly to Azkaban?"

Marcus nodded, it was part of the training Aurors received at the academy.

"Great then I shall just need portkeys for those of us here to get us there. If you have any spare sets of body armour, that might come in useful. From what you have told me already, there is a reception room, into which all apparation and portkeys arrive, and a magically shielded security door that can only be opened by guards from the other side?"

Again Marcus nodded, looking concerned about this apparently insurmountable problem.

"Not only that but the guards in the outer security room can remove the air from the room, or insert other gases in order to subdue unauthorised personnel, even bubblehead charms run out eventually."

Harry smiled, and looked meaningfully at Thomas and raised his eyebrows. Thomas cocked his head to one side as if considering an unspoken request, then nodded just once.

"I know the ward stops people getting in, but what about portkeys and people apparating out of the prison?"

"The ward blocks all Apparation on the island other than the arrivals room, but official Auror created portkeys with the correct magical signature leaving are not blocked, however there are detectors in every building to pick up unauthorized portkeys. My only concern is what if the Death Eaters get hold of the portkeys, they will be arriving right at the burrow's front door?"

"That is where some of Gutripper's Goblins come in Marcus, Gutripper, if a Death Eater arrives here unexpectedly I want his last few seconds on this Earth to be filled with pain."

The small Goblin grinned, and for the first time that any of them had seen he showed his teeth, which for a Goblin warrior was an indication he would die rather than fail his mission.

"It shall be as you command my lord"

"Each of my men have body armour, i don't have any spare sets, but leave it with me, i'll see what i can do."

"Thank you Marcus. Alright, then this is my plan."

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

Bill Weasley cried out in desperate pain as the glowing red wand tip was savagely applied to his bare back again. He had lost count some time ago of the number of times that the wand tip had touched him, inflicting such terrible pain all over his body. The wand left blistered oozing wounds that were red and inflamed.

At first he had been determined that he would keep his jaw clenched together and not utter a sound, he would not give them the satisfaction of knowing they were causing him such pain. But that determination had fled under the terrible burden his body was being forced to endure, and now he screamed so loud each time that his throat burned from the strain it was being placed under.

He had no idea how long he had been chained and manacled naked to the chair in the darkly lit room, time had ceased to have any real meaning for him, and there was nothing now but the never-ending pain.

It was not an interrogation, as he had not been asked a single question, and the savage torture seemed to be just so those causing the pain could enjoy themselves while watching another suffer. Bill, although not naïve to the ways of the world, had not known until now that such evil could exist in the hearts of men.

The oldest of the three men, the ringleader, Bill had recognised him immediately, he had worked for the Ministry at one time, his name was Miles Avery, and his was one of the names that Harry had returned with the night of Cedric Diggory's death, from the graveyard at Little Hangleton.

"You are probably wondering why i don't just use the torture curse on you, are you not?"

Bill wasn't wondering anything of the sort, he was actually wondering when his body would do him a favour and let him pass into blissful unconsciousness.

"The truth of the matter is that the torture curse is imprecise, a tool for those without the knowledge or skill i possess. After a while the torture curse would leave you broken in mind and soul, such as the Longbottoms, however doing things my way prolongs your pain indefinately until i decide to end it. for example..."

The wand tip touch his genitals and Bill screamed so loudly he thought his vocal cords would tear. The pain washed over him, driving every other thought out of his mind. He had latched onto an image of Fleur in his mind and tried to go to a happt place, but the pain was too great.

"Does it hurt Weasley? Would you like it to stop, because I can do that you know, I can just stop, all I need from you is for you to say the magic words."

Bill Weasley screwed his eyes shut and tried desperately hard to ignore the voice of Avery, when in truth all he wanted to so was scream for them to stop, to beg for mercy when he knew there was none to be had. He bit down on his lip, hard, in order to prevent himself from crying out, from showing more weakness to these men than he already had.

"No? Oh well, have it your own way then."

Bill saw the wand tip appear the corner of his vision, approaching in almost slow motion and the only thing that entered his mind was 'please dear Merlin let me die', he didn't think he could hold out much longer.

"Please, please stop."

Bill looked around in surprise, he hadn't even recognised his own voice, had he said those words out loud, or just in his head.

"See, that was all I needed, was that really so hard."

The door was suddenly thrown open, spilling bright painful light into the room. As Bill tried to squint into the brightness, to see what was happening, another figure was led stumbling into the room, and the door closed.

"Of course if we stop having our fun with you, well you do understand that I have to keep my men entertained somehow, but don't worry, we'll let you watch…"

Avery's voice trailed off as he began to laugh. Bill eyes widened in horror as the stumbling figure was led in front of him, Avery grabbed a handful of silvery blond hair and pulled the figure's head back so that Bill could clearly see the bruised and dirty face of the woman he was engaged to marry.

"No! Please anything but this, please!"

Bill screamed at the men, struggling against his bindings so violently his wrists and ankles bled freely, but despite his best efforts there was nothing he could do but watch as Avery tore Fleur's robes from her and began running his filthy hands over the young woman's body.

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic, Auror Armoury**

Kingsley Shacklebolt edged his head around the corner and took a look. As he had expected there was only a single Auror guarding the Armoury. However that Auror was stood in such a position that she could dominate the corridor.

Normally this wasn't a problem, since as a senior Auror he could draw any supplies he wanted from inside. However this situation was nowhere near normal, and there would definately be questions asked if he withdrew forty sets of body armour, especially since he was about to hand them over to someone who right now was in top spot on the Ministries most wanted list.

Any magic used on this level would bring Aurors running faster than he like to think about, and if he just walked up to the female Auror and disabled her in hand to hand then his cover was blown.

It was with some surprise that Shacklebolt saw a familiar house elf appear silently behind the troublesome Auror and place a pot on the ground, the house elf took the lid off the pot and vanished as silently as he had arrived.

For a moment nothing happened, then the female Auror took a sniff, as if she could smell smoke, she turned her head from side to side still sniffing. Without warning her knees gave way beneath her and she collapsed to the floor unconscious.

Shacklebolt watched as the house elf reappeared, looking in amazement at the elf, who seemed to be wearing some sort of black mask that covered his face. The Elf placed the lid back on the pot and picking it up he vanished once more.

Walking gingerly up the corridor, expecting to pass out at any moment, Shacklebolt reached the female Auror and not sure what he would find, felt for a pulse. Her pulse was strong and steady, with a sigh of relief he bent down and picking the female up as carefully as possible, placed her hand on the door of the armoury.

The door creaked open.

Shacklebolt placed the female carefully back on the floor. The armoury log would show that she had opened it, there would be no evidence that he had taken the supplies.

Moving inside Shacklebolt began to remove sets of the Wyvern hide armour from pegs on the wall, piling them in the corridor.

"Dobby is here to take supplies to the burrow!"

Shacklebolt nearly jumped out of his skin as the little elf stood in the doorway, it was the same elf he had seen in the Prime Minister's office what seemed a lifetime ago.

"Why couldn't you just enter the armoury and take it yourself?"

The house Elf looked a little sheepish and grinned at the tall black skinnws Auror.

"Room warded to not allow Dobby to enter, only Auror allowed inside."

"Well tell Potter the next time he wants to go shopping i would like a bit more notice alright!"

Dobby grinned at the Auror and disappeared taking the body armour with him.

OoOoO

**Gringotts Wizarding Bank**

Director Ragnok looked up in surprise when Remus Lupin suddenly appeared in a flash of green and stepped out of the fireplace brushing ash from his coat. Ragnok waved at the alarmed Goblin guard, who had drawn a weapon, to stand at ease.

"Remus Lupin, this is a most…Unexpected surprise, what can I do for you?"

Remus nodded in solemn respect to the head of the Goblin nation. He had already given so much to aid Harry that Remus felt especially ill at ease coming in front of the creature to ask for more, but it had to be done.

"I am sorry to burst in on you like this Director, but time is short. I have come on behalf of Lord Potter, he wishes to enter into negotiations with you"

Ragnok leaned back in the chair and regarded the wizard with puzzlement.

"Negotiations for what?"

"He wishes to change the terms of the contract regarding the Goblin Company currently serving under his command!"

OoOoO

**Directorate of Magical Intervention**

Harry had wanted to make a big dramatic entrance, to make a favourable impression on those he was meeting, but unfortunately he arrived at the French Ministry in the usual manner he arrived anywhere when he travelled by portkey or Floo, disorientated by the spinning, and off balance.

He immediately stumbled and fell heavily to his knees. It was bad enough when he did it in front of those that knew him intimately, it was much worse when he did in front of complete strangers.

Picking himself up of the carpet, Harry found himself under the intense scrutiny of two men, one was rake thin with dark hair cut short in a severe military style, the second man was slightly taller with blond hair that looked as if it had very recently been as short as that belonging to the other man.

Both men were surprisingly dressed in muggle clothes consisting of black boots, dark blue, almost black, trousers and shirts that featured the French flag on the left shoulder and a patch featuring a wand and a bugle crossed on the right shoulder. Both wore wand holsters strapped to their wrists.

The Blond man stepped forward and held out his hand.

"Harry Potter? I am Henri Delacour, I am honoured to make your acquaintance, finally. My daughters have both been most complimentary regarding your conduct in the past."

Harry took the proffered hand and returned the strong grip. Henri Delacour spoke English with only a slight French inflection, unlike his eldest daughter whose accent was very strong.

Harry studied the man for a long moment, while other than her blond hair, Fleur looked nothing at all like her father and must have drawn on her mothers Veela ethereal looks, Gabrielle on the other hand it seemed had inherited her fathers strong Parisian good looks.

"The honour is all mine Director, however I think both of your daughters have exaggerated the importance of my past actions I am sure, thank you for seeing me at such short notice."

Delacour smiled and inclined his head, Harry had been given very brief instructions on how to address the man and what to say during negotiations by Remus. But he was still expected to be able to carry the main weight of the topic on his own, and if he was honest with himself International politics terrified him.

"Mr Potter, allow me to introduce you to my trusted friend and right hand man, Senior Auror Pierre DuPont."

Delacour indicated the second man in the room, he appeared to study Harry down the length of his long aristocratic nose and his lips pressed tightly together in what Harry took as an expression of disapproval. Harry nodded politely to the man and got a slight nod in return.

"Director Delacour I hope you will forgive me if I cut directly to the point of my visit, we both know that time is short, and I'm sure that we both have preparations to carry out."

Delacour nodded and indicated Harry should continue.

"I think we both know what the consequences will be should a French assault be launched upon Azkaban prison, the British Ministry is presently badly led by an incompetent coward, but believe me when I say that they would not hesitate in going to war over what they would see as such an affront to their national pride."

"And what are you suggesting I do Mr Potter, sit back and do nothing in response to this act of aggression against a French citizen, against my own daughter?"

Henri Delacour sounded sad, yet determined at the same time, and Harry realised the man knew full well what the consequences of his actions would be, but just didn't see a way out of the downward spiral of events.

Harry now knew he was dealing with an honourable man that was being forced into a situation that would escalate beyond anyone's ability to control. It was up to him to offer the man a way out, that would also give him what he wanted, namely his daughter back safely.

"No sir, I'm not suggesting that you standby and do nothing, I'm asking for you to place your trust in me. My group and I stand ready to assault the prison, and I give you my word we will free all those held there, including your daughter. We also have the added advantage that our actions won't set two countries on a path to war."

"But it is not your daughter being held in that terrible place Mr Potter is it, you do not know how much you are asking of me when you say 'trust me'."

Harry shook his head.

"I think I do sir, truly I do. I know every single one of those people arrested, many of them are my friends and classmates from Hogwarts. They were arrested because they were not afraid to stand up and do what was right, they were arrested because of me, because I refuse to let Voldemort have free reign across the length and breadth of the British Isles, while the British Ministry sits back and does nothing. They are in Azkaban because of me, and I will get them out or I will die trying!"

There was a moments silence following Harry's passionate plea while Delacour seemed to think about the words he had just heard, when he finally spoke his voice was almost a whisper.

"Yes, it's that second option I am the most concerned about."

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

"So are the French going to cooperate?"

Remus asked Harry the moment he had picked himself up from the floor of the burrow from where he had fallen after stepping from the Floo.

"I think so Remus, at least for the moment, but I get the distinct feeling they are not very confident of the chances of our success. Delacour and his team commander were dressed in assault clothing and I think that should we fail the French will not be very far behind us in storming the place."

Remus shrugged and gave him a grim smile.

"If that happened to be the case I don't think it will matter much to any of us will it?"

Harry just had to laugh at such a display of pessimism from his godfather, he couldn't afford to think in terms of failure, everyone he knew, everyone he cared about was either already locked up, or about at storm the prison, it was an all or nothing effort.

OoOoO

**Directorate of Magical Intervention**

"So do you think he can actually pull it off?"

DuPont tried to keep his personal feelings on the matter out of his tone, but from the sharp glance his boss shot him he had failed to do so. He was leant casually against the desk as his boss paced up and down with his hands clasped behind his back.

"I take it from your tone Pierre, that you were not impressed by our young Mr Potter?"

"He was not exactly what I was expecting, he is still just a child himself, and he has taken a lot of responsibility upon such young shoulders, young shoulders that I might add cannot even correctly use the Floo network."

Henri Delacour smiled slightly, while he valued the opinion of the experienced and immensely capable Pierre DuPont, the man he had hand picked to take over command of S.M.O.G after his promotion, he knew the man could be very close minded at times.

In truth Delacour had seen something rare in the dark haired youth, a potential to be able to do extraordinary things that he looked for in all his personnel, it wasn't something you could have trained into you, you either had it or you didn't, Harry had it by the bucket load. He was inclined to trust the lad…at least up to a certain point.

"Young or not, you cannot deny the lad has a certain something about him, a certain presence. I do not know if he can do what he says, but I think I will trust him enough to at least let him attempt it."

Delacour held up a hand to forestall the protests he knew would be coming from his long time friend.

"However, he is not a Frenchman and is a somewhat unknown quantity, I see no obstacle to our being in a position to pick up the pieces should Potter fail in his attempt. I still want all four teams loaded and ready in half an hour."

DuPont had began to smile, he nodded sharply in understanding and hurried from the room to carry on the preparations of the strike teams, he had just reached the doors to the office when Delacour called out again.

"And Pierre, speak to our liaison to the air force, have them put a recon bird in the air over the prison, I want to know the moment Potter's attack succeeds or fails."

OoOoO

**12 Grimmauld Place**

The fireplace flashed and Charlie Weasley stepped out into the large living room and almost found himself swallowing three wands pointed at his face.

"Moonlight Marauder!"

Alastor Moody relaxed, at least a little bit, the others lowered their wands in relief. Sturgis Podmore sat down heavily in a chair despair written all over his face, while Aberforth Dumbledore resumed pacing the room.

"What is it you want Mr Weasley?"

"Harry Potter requests your presence at the burrow as a matter of urgency, he's about to launch an attack on Azkaban to get our people back and he needs all the wands he can call upon."

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

He wasn't entirely sure when Fleur started, since, due to his training in curse breaking he had a certain resistance to Fleur's Veela mind powers, which was something she actually liked very much. It took a great deal of concetration to hold her powers in check when she was feeling particularly passionate, and it pleased her greatly to know she could actually let her control slip and be herself around him.

But it gradually dawned on Bill what was happening as he became aware that Fleur had started using her Veela power of attraction, it was at a very low level compared to what she could produce, he had been exposed to her full power only once, when they were courting, it had been a very memorable experience.

There were only two Death Eaters in the room now, Avery had been summoned away a few minutes before, and even with Fleur broadcasting at such a low level, Bill could see the growing effect it was having on the men.

The two men, that had moments before been physically abusing Fleur, were now gazing at her in an absurdly adoringly fashion, if the situation had not been so serious it would have been comical to watch. One of the men licked his lips, while the other reached forward and gently touched Fleur's cheek.

Fleur, rather than flinch away from the touch like she must have wanted to actually leaned into it, and in response to the men's attention, increased the strength of her broadcast. She was naked and stood pressed with her back against the cell wall, and now with a slight movement of her feet she angled her body as if inviting the men to get to know her a lot more intimately than Bill was comfortable with.

She had a plan in mind, of that Bill was sure, Fleur was highly intelligent and could be extremely cunning when she put her mind to it, Bill had no idea what her plan was yet, but he knew he had to be alert and focused so he could take advantage of the opportune moment when it arrived.

Fleur boosted her power level again, and Bill realised with a shock that it was now starting to affect him, it must have been nearly overpowering for the Death Eaters. Maybe her plan was to make them fight each other and for her to release him while they were distracted.

Even as he thought about it, Bill realised the plan had a good chance of working, after all who wouldn't want to get their hands on the beautiful body of his fiancée, her long blond hair falling down over her shoulder, just long enough to cover her perfectly shaped breasts, her hands placed delicately on her finely sculpted, suggestive hips.

Bill licked his lips, he realised it was now taking every bit of concentration he had to remain focused on the Death Eaters and not start staring adoringly at Fleur. Merlin she was beautiful, what he wouldn't do to possess her, to touch her, to take her to his bed.

Bill shook his head angrily, trying to regain his concentration. The multiple stunners he had endured had taken a lot out of him and now he was paying the price, his powers of concentration was all over the place.

One of the Death Eaters finally snapped as the Veela power overrode his logical mind. He pushed his fellow out of the way and excitedly tore his robe off and chucked the abandoned garment over his shoulder, unseen by the two men it landed directly on Bill's head. The second Death Eater wasn't going to let his friend have all the fun and tackled his comrade around the waist, and the two men fell to the floor in a pile of flailing limbs.

Bill froze as the garment hit him, in one of the robes pockets was a wand, he could feel it poking through the material and jabbing him in the cheek. With his hands chained behind him there was no way he could reach up and grasp the robes, he had to rely on gravity to aid him.

Very slowly and carefully Bill tipped his head backwards, trying to let the robes slide down his back, to his waiting hands. If the robes fell to the floor before he could grab them then it would all for nothing.

Slowly, then with gathering momentum the robes slid off his head, they were moving too fast! He wouldn't be able to grab them with his numb hands before the robes hit the floor! In desperation Bill opened his mouth and bit down on a mouthful of robe, allowing his hands to catch hold of the material as it cascaded down his back.

With numb, painful fingers, Bill carefully explored the robe, a task made much more difficult by the fact that it was all occurring behind his back. Finding a pocket, Bill felt his hopes rise, only to discover the pocket was empty.

Finally, trying to ignore the sounds coming from across the room as the Death Eaters struggle became ever more violent, he touched the smooth wood of the wand, and carefully worked it free from the pocket it had been hidden in. The now useless robe fell unwanted to the floor under his chair.

No sooner did he have a firm grip on the wand when the door to the cell slammed opened and Avery stood silhouetted in the doorway. With timing born of desperation Fleur immediately cut her power, causing all three men, Bill now included, to groan as their hormones suddenly struggled to deal without the stimulation they had been receiving from Fleur.

"Right you two stop making utter fools of yourselves, new orders, we need the bitch, so leave her alone, take her to the administration building and guard her, the boss has something special planned for her."

"What about him?"

One of the Death Eaters inclined his head at Bill still chained to the chair.

"Ah just leave him, there are more than enough Weasley's to go around, and according to the boss we might even be getting a few more of them arriving shortly. Come on let's snap to it then!"

Fleur smiled sadly at him as she was led from the room, she had seen him take the wand and knew he at least now had a chance of escape, not that he was even considering going anywhere without her.

More Weasley's arriving? He knew his dad and the twins were here, any new arrivals would undoubtedly be part of a rescue team involving Harry. That meant Ron and Ginny, probably Charlie as well if he was still free, and if Voldemort knew they were coming it also meant they were walking into a trap.

Awkwardly pointing the captured wand at his manacles behind his back, Bill knew he had to do all he could to help the rescuers, or it was more than possible he would never see any of his family again.

"Alohomora!"

OoOoO

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry **

"Very well Mr Potter, strange though it is I shall comply to your request, as soon as I have gathered the staff we shall make our way to the burrow"

If she was puzzled as to why he had asked her to bring the entire staff to the burrow, she didn't let it show, she was also a little unnerved by the commanding tone Harry had started using.

"Thank you professor, could you also have Madam Pomfrey bring as much medical supplies as she can carry?"

From the fireplace, Harry's disembodied head regarded her with a sombre expression.

"I can do better than that, we'll bring as much as Hagrid can carry, we'll be there shortly Mr Potter"

Harry's head smiled, knowing Hagrid he'd just pick up the medical cabinets with all the contents still inside, and place one under each arm. With a last nod and a smile at her, Harry's head withdrew from the fire.

Minerva McGonagall sat lost in thought for a moment, what was the boy getting himself into this time? Reaching up she summoned a speaking tube from where it hung from a hook on the wall and waved her wand at it.

"Would all members of staff please make their way to the infirmary immediately, dress for inclement weather!"

Setting down the speaking tube, she pocketed her wand and pulled a tartan coat from a hook by the door and slipped it on. Time to go and find out exactly what Mr Potter was planning.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

The portkey deposited her and the other staff in the meadow behind the burrow, and once she had managed to identify herself to some very excitable and heavily armed Goblins, Professor McGonagall looked about herself in amazement. The exterior of the Burrow had changed considerably since her last visit.

The meadow had taken on the appearance of an armed camp, there were four long neat rows of large white tents, at the end of each row was a tidy stack of broomsticks, off to one side was an even larger tent with a large red cross on the side, into which the house elves Dobby and Winky were levitating a series of beds.

The Hogwarts staff had arrived slap bang in the midst of a frantic whirlwind of activity, everywhere they looked there were creatures, Humans, Goblins and house elves, all rushing purposefully about. There was no panic, just a sense of urgency. The number of Goblins took her by surprise, she had never seen so many of the creatures gathered together, and they were all wearing armour and weapons.

The humans in sight were on no less a war footing. Aurors, males and females, in long grey combat robes, most of them wearing body armour over the top of their robes. They all had serious and pre-occupied expressions on their faces.

"Professor McGonagall!"

McGonagall's head snapped around as she heard her name called, pushing his way purposefully through the crowd towards her was one of her young lions, Neville Longbottom.

He wore his black school robes, but as he moved towards her she caught a glimse of body armour underneath, students wearing body armour? What was happening here? There was nothing remaining of the clumsy first year she remembered with exasperation, he had a confidence about himself now, and wore it like a comfortable set of robes.

"Mr Longbottom, may I ask what exactly is going on here?"

McGonagall used her stern voice, one that was guaranteed to turn pupils to jelly in front of her, and was surprised when Longbottom just smiled at her and shook his head.

"I wouldn't want to steal Harry's thunder, he asked if he could speak to you alone, I'm to take you to him. If the staff would be good enough to take the supplies to the field hospital, Healer Coombs is already in there setting up."

Neville indicated the large white tent with the Red Cross behind her. McGonagall nodded to the staff and they moved off towards the tent. Neville turned and made his way back into the press of bodies, towards the front of the burrow.

As they rounded the front of the building, McGonagall saw that a large table had been set up and was covered in a large parchment. Around the table was stood a very diverse group.

There were two heavily armed Goblins wearing armour that seemed to shimmer as they moved. One carrying a large axe, the other two swords in sheathes on his back. Two men and a woman dressed in the dark grey combat robes of Ministry Aurors, Alastor Moody, Remus Lupin and Molly Weasley all dressed in dark blue robes also wearing body armour. Also present was Thomas Bell, dressed head to toe in black muggle clothing, with his strange vest that seemed to have more pockets that anyone would have need for, he had a black weapon hanging from a sling over his shoulder.

Then there were the students. Harry, with his arm around the waist of Ginny, Ron stood behind Hermione, with his chin resting on her head, Luna Lovegood playing dreamily with her hair. Draco Malfoy arm in arm with Katie Bell, and Terry Boot holding hands with Susan Bones. They were all dressed in their black Hogwarts school robes and everyone of them was wearing Auror issue body armour.

Harry looked up as she approached and smiled in welcome, motioning she should come around the table. She was stunned when she realised the parchment on the table contained the floor plans of Azkaban prison.

"Welcome professor, glad you could join us"

McGonagall fixed him with a stern glare, which seemed to leave him completely unaffected, maybe she thought I'm losing my touch.

"Mr Longbottom refused to answer this question, but exactly is happening here?"

Harry grinned at Neville, who just shrugged.

"What you are about to see is the first combat outing of a new Multi organisation strike force whose sole aim is to rid the world of Voldemort and his followers."

McGonagall stared at the pupil in shock and surprise.

"What do you intend to do?"

"We are about to stage an attack on Azkaban prison to free our friends, and hopefully take out a few Death Eaters while we are at it."

She could not believe her ears, what she had just heard had to be the craziest thing she had heard since she had first taken up the career of teaching. Azkaban was one of the most secure facilities anywhere in the Wizarding world, it was not the kind of place you could just stroll into.

"You cannot be serious, the majority of these pupils are not even adults yet, including you Mr Potter, I forbid you to take part in such an undertaking!"

For a moment Harry's eyes flashed angrily, but a squeeze on the arm from Ginny quickly allowed him to regain control. He stared at his Headmistress and took a deep breath.

"Professor, you know I hold you in the utmost regard, but in all honesty I have to tell you that in this matter you have absolutely no say. I am going and all those here have made up their own minds to join me, we are going to take the first step in ridding our world of Voldemort, because if we don't, who will? The ministry?

McGonagall studied the youth she had known for six years carefully, due to his upbringing he had always been mature, but now it seemed he had grown into the role of leader. The boy…no she corrected herself, the man stood before her was about to fulfil his potential. Sighing, she decided to make the best of a bad situation.

"What do you require of the staff and myself?"

Harry waved his hand around encompassing the burrow and the meadow.

"We will be using portkeys to move the prisoners and any wounded directly here, and while I am leaving a squad of Goblins here as protection, I would like the staff to bolster that guard. Also I am short of trained healers, so Madam Pomfrey's healing skills will probably be gratefully received."

McGonagall nodded her acceptance of these requests.

"Alright, are there any more questions before we get started?"

All those at the table shook their heads, some of those stood there looking worried, more for others than for themselves, but they all looked equally determined.

Harry slowly looked around those at the table, he met each of their eyes in turn, he wanted to remember this moment, and those sharing it with him.

"Ok then, assemble your groups"

The command was said quietly, but it carried an emphasis and a tone of command that few had heard Harry use before. It seemed to be a persona he could put on when he needed it like a set of robes. They knew it was likely that at least some of them would not be coming back alive, but they were all willing to go anyway.

The group at the table broke apart, each heading to form up their individual groups. The Goblins were already screaming in Goblinesse at the top of their lungs, and the senior Auror added his voice to cacophony of sound.

"Fall in, form ranks, fall in, form ranks"

McGonagall turned to say something to Harry, she saw him holding a vial of liquid and watched as he downed it quickly, pulling a face at the bitter taste.

She wasn't sure, but it looked very much like a banned extremely powerful and dangerous strengthening potion, the effects of which masked injuries and pushed back weariness, at least in the short term. In the long term the potion could cause severe muscle damage as the body pushed itself beyond its normal limits.

She was about to say something when she caught sight of someone out of the corner of her eye, she knew the look on the petite redhead's face and decided to leave Potter to face the music alone.

Turning back, she hurried to rejoin the staff.

Harry vanished the empty vial, hoping no one had seen him take its contents, the after affects of the potion would be extremely severe, his entire body would pay for his neglect, but he couldn't take part in combat hobbling around on a dodgy leg, he needed his body to obey every command he gave it.

Turning around, he nearly bumped into Ginny, she was stood there glaring at him with her hands on her hips, her anger made him flinch back for a moment.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER! DON'T THINK I DIDN'T JUST SEE WHAT YOU JUST TOOK. THAT WAS VERY IRRESPONSIBLE, WHAT IF THE POTION WEARS OFF IN COMBAT?"

Harry moved forward and placed a hand on either side of her face and leaned down and kissed her passionately.

"I love you oh girlfriend of mine, and I want to give myself every chance I can to come back to you, the chances of that happening if I was hobbling about is very slim, yes I will suffer later from after affects, but to suffer I have to be alive first. So be as angry as you like, I can take it"

He kissed her again and then moved away from her, walking much easier already. Scowling at his retreating back Ginny went to join her own group

The amount of noise and shouting was starting to die down as the large numbers finally worked themselves into some form of order. The groups had formed up on the meadow. Harry walked slowly down the front of the groups, stopping occasionally to speak to the odd person.

Starting from Harry's left, the Order of the Phoenix had formed up into a small gaggle, all wearing dark blue robes and small packs on their backs, he could see Molly, Mad-eye and Charlie carrying his broomstick, in the ranks. Stood out in front was Remus Lupin, he smiled at his godson.

Next stood the Hogwarts staff including healer Coombs and Susan Bones, they also were in a gaggle, but it was hard to form neat ranks when Hagrid made an entire rank on his own. Professor McGonagall was stood in front and regarded Harry with a worried expression.

The next group knew only too well how to form neat orderly ranks, they had their own academy that taught them how to do it amongst other things. The Aurors stood in ruler straight ranks, their dark grey combat robes blowing gently in the wind made them resemble ghosts from a distance, they also wore packs and several were carrying broomsticks. Stood in front of them was Marcus and two paces behind him and on his left was Sarah.

The Goblins were also in straight ranks, stood rigid and still with only their eyes moving. A mass of Weapons gleamed wickedly sharp in the sun, each Goblin seemed to be carrying extra weapons, and they all wore some kind of form fitting scale armour that appeared to shimmer as if it was alive. Over the armour, but clipped back to allow for ease of movement each Goblin wore a cloak as black as night. Gutripper stood in front, his swords slung on his back, and two small throwing axes hanging from his belt.

The last group was also the smallest, and the group he knew the best. It was made up of the current Hogwarts students, Thomas and Katie. They were all beaming at him. They were all dressed in their black school robes, Thomas in his black assault clothing, the ever present weapon slung across his chest. Ron was carrying his broomstick.

Harry stood in front of the assembled groups and for the first time feeling the flutter of fear inside, not the fear of the coming battle, nor the fear of having to face Voldemort. Harry for the first time felt the fear that he might not be up to leading the two hundred beings stood in front of him, they were depending upon him, how many of those stood before him was he about to lead to their deaths?

They trusted him not to risk their lives needlessly and recklessly, it was a large responsibility and Harry felt it pressing down on him, smothering him. Looking up, he searched for one particular face in the crowd and felt suddenly gratified when he made eye contact with Ginny.

Ginny frowned slightly, almost as if she was reading his mind, she cocked her head to one side and gave him a questioning look. Keeping her hand movements small so as not to be noticed by those on parade, she pointed to him, made a grabbing motion with her small hand and placed her fist over her heart.

Harry knew what she was telling him, it was something that had been said two nights before.

_**Flashback**_

The door to Harry's room opened silently, and a small figure lithe slipped inside, closing the door carefully the figure turned and padded quietly across the room.

Before she had reached the bed, Ginny felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as some invisible force flowed around her, it was a warm comfortable sensation, like someone placing their hands gently on her shoulders.

Harry's magic often felt like that to her. She knew somehow that he had just warded the room to protect their privacy, he had done it completely silently and probably without the aid of his wand.

This suspicion of hers was confirmed when she heard a quiet voice from the darkness.

"Lumos Minima"

Harry's wand tip started to glow softly, casting a soft pale light across the room from where it lay on the windowsill well outside his reach.

Although he had been very careful to keep it hidden from the others, there was little he could hide from her, his magic was growing stronger, more powerful. He had already been the most powerful student at Hogwarts at the end of the school year, but skill wise he and Draco were probably on much of a par.

But his magic level was still growing, and that was extremely unusual, she knew that her own magic level had already started to level out, her power level would remain the same for the rest of her life, this didn't concern her because she knew already that she was the strongest Weasley apart perhaps from Bill.

If he didn't want to discuss it with her she was willing to respect his wishes…for now, there would come a time when she would have to force the issue, but that time wasn't now.

As she approached, Harry gave her a cheeky grin and threw the covers open, she could see he was only wearing a pair of boxer shorts. Undoing the belt of her dressing gown, Ginny let it slip to the floor revealing the grey T-shirt with the dragon motif he had given to her.

Harry admired her beautiful form, the t-shirt finished at the mid-point of her thigh, which only served to emphasise what a great set of legs she had. Moving aside slightly, Harry held the cover up as she slipped into the bed next to him, allowing the cover to fall over them both, he gathered her up in his arms and just held her.

"Hi there."

Harry murmured into her ear, she wriggled tighter into his embrace as a means of replying, his fingertips gently traced the line of her back, just the barest touch, yet he knew it was enough to drive her wild. It was like that wherever he touched her, even through the material of the t-shirt she wore, there was some form of energy transfer that increased her arousal.

His hand gently traced the curve of her rump, and Ginny sighed happily and rolled slightly to let him reach further. Harry's hand continued down the back of her thigh, finally crossing over the t-shirt-flesh boundary.

He continued slowly down her leg to the back of her knee, and then he placed the palm of his hand flat against her leg and slowly the hand came back up the leg. Closing her eyes Ginny moaned softly, as Harry gently blew warm air into her ear, then his lips were pressing against hers, his tongue slowly, playfully probing across her teeth. One of her hands slid across his chest gently teasing one of his nipples.

His hand had reached her rump again, but this time his hand was under the t-shirt, and the action of moving his hand higher was causing the t-shirt to ride up. As his hand lovingly caressed her rump his excitement grew as it became clear Ginny wore no knickers.

Ginny moaned again as his hand reached her waist, and she pressed her body against him more insistently, slipping a leg in between his. His kisses had travelled away from her mouth, and he gently nibbled on her earlobe before kissing her neck. She shivered with pleasure when she felt his warm breath on her neck, and her hand was in his hair, then running down the back of his neck, urging him on.

Harry felt the blood rush, felt the swell of his member, and if he could feel it, then Ginny's body was pressed against his so tightly now that she certainly could. Her response was to gently slide her hand down his chest, slipping under the elasticised band of his boxers, very gently she ran her fingertips over his member, causing his penis to swell more and a moan to escape Harry's lips.

Rolling onto his back, Harry allowed Ginny to move until she was astride him, she lay upon his chest, her head resting on her crossed arms facing him. She looked into his beautiful green eyes and saw only the deepest love for her shining back from those emerald windows to his soul.

With both of his hands he pulled the T-shirt up higher until it was under her armpits, playfully she refused to move her arms to allow him to remove the shirt, just smiling sweetly at him. He moved his head and gently kissed the tip of her nose, and she relented.

Sitting up straight she slowly raised her arms above her head, fully aware of what her bare chest and breasts were doing to her boyfriend. She looked down to see the hunger and longing in his eyes, he sat up and gently raised the shirt up over her head, stopping once her mouth was uncovered. And here he paused, with the shirt covering the rest of her head and trapping her arms.

"Got you now"

Harry whispered.

"There was never any doubt in my mind"

Ginny whispered back, before his lips pressed against hers ending any further comment she might have made, with a final jerk of his hands the shirt flew off and was unceremoniously dumped to the floor. Ginny's arms now free instinctively wrapped around Harry's shoulders.

Laying back down, he pulled her down with him, then gently rolled until they were lying side by side. With a soft touch of his fingertips he gently explored her breasts, this sensation caused Ginny to bite her bottom lip and close her eyes. He was certainly feeling amorous tonight, not that she was complaining in the slightest.

Harry's fingertips were followed in close order by his lips, Ginny arched her back as Harry gently bit down on one of her nipples, she had never experienced feelings like this before, the rush of emotions that swept through her, it was…addictive.

She felt hot almost as if her body was on fire, she knew her nipples had become erect under Harry's loving touch. She moaned softly, some part of her wondering where this was leading to, most of her not caring in the slightest.

One of Harry's hands slipped down to her waist, and beyond. His fingers gently running through her tightly cropped pubic hair, a ragged gasp escaped her lips as his fingers gently probed her opening, and after a moment's hesitation thrust gently inside her. Ginny cried out in pleasure and angled her body to allow him easier access, her arms wrapped around him, holding him tightly, unwilling to ever let him go.

"I don't want to wait anymore…"

What! What had he just said? He had spoken so softly that maybe she had misunderstood him, yes that was it, she had misheard, or maybe she had heard exactly what she had wanted to hear not what he had actually said.

"I love you, and I don't want to wait anymore!"

Ok, so much for that theory. The excitement in Ginny reached fever pitch, she felt as if she had been ready for some time now, and it was Harry that had been insisting on waiting, but why now?

"Why the change of heart?"

"The moment in time when I must confront Voldemort, it gets closer everyday, and I don't want to wake up that day and not have made love to you, you are all that matters to me. If you asked i would take you and run, far away from here."

Ginny reached out and gently caressed his cheek.

"What you really mean is that you don't want to have died before we have made love, isn't it?"

Her voice was soft, and all the answer she needed was the look of pain and sadness that crossed his face.

"One day not very long from now, I will face Voldemort and only one of us will walk away, but at the moment I cannot possibly see how I can beat him, he is immensely more powerful than I am, and he has years more experience"

"But Harry, you will have me at your side, and the others here, and all the others that will flock to you once you raise your banner high, they are out there right now, soldiers of the light, just waiting for you to call them together, they are waiting for they're champion."

Harry squinted at her, studying her really hard.

"Have you been taking smart lessons with Hermione again, that almost made sense?"

Ginny laughed and playfully swatted at him, pleased his good humour had been restored.

"Listen to me Harry, I love you, and I want you so much, but I also don't want you to do anything that you are not ready for, we have an entire lifetime to explore each other, why rush it."

Harry looked less than convinced, he had spent a lot of hours recently seeing himself die at Voldemort's hands in a variety of painful and messy ways and was starting to doubt himself dreadfully.

Ginny looked into his eyes and reached out to brush his hair, she could see his doubts plainly displayed in his emerald windows.

"You are going to live a long and full live with me, we are going to have our own Quidditch team of children, and I am going to make you happy every day of your life you spend with me."

"You already make me happy. Even when you're not there Ginny, I know you are not far away, I feel like I've captured a part of you and I carry it everywhere in my heart"

Ginny was surprised, that was one of the most beautiful things anyone had ever said to her and she felt tears filling her eyes, she threw her arms around the neck of her boyfriend and hugged him tightly. He held her and gently kissed her neck.

Laying his head back on to the pillow, Ginny pressed against him, Harry stared at the ceiling with a smile on his face for a long time after Ginny had fallen asleep in his arms.

_**Flashback Ends**_

Harry smiled at the memory, and nodded to Ginny to show he had understood and appreciated her message of support, turning back to face the assembled groups he took a deep breath before placing his wand against the side of his neck.

"Sonorous!"

Harry closed his eyes briefly and tried to sort the jumbled words in his head into some form of order.

"When the students of Hogwarts a hundred years from now look back at this, the darkest period of our recent history, many of them will wonder at what point in this struggle did the tide change for the better. Let me tell you that point is now! This moment right now is the turn of the tide, Voldemort's time is ending, and he just doesn't know it yet."

Harry started to pace.

"You may well be wondering how I can be so confident in this outlook when we are out-numbered and betrayed, my answer is stood next to all of you! Just take a moment now to look at who is standing on either side of you. Gathered here in this meadow are the very best of the Wizarding world, muggle-born, half-bloods, pure bloods and Goblins, all united together here and now in a cause bigger than any of us, Freedom and justice."

He was on a roll now, and any nerves he had were being whipped away as he spoke.

"The force that should have led this fight has fallen to the darkness, perhaps irredeemably so, and therefore it falls to us to defend our way of life, it's a battle we must fight, but more than that, it's a battle we need to fight! Today is only the first step not the last, for too long now Voldemort has had things all his own way, well today we're going to change that, we're going to give him cause to spend many sleepless nights worried about us for a change!"

Harry could see fiery determination displayed on all the faces turned towards him.

"What we need is a name, one that will strike fear into the Death Eaters every time they hear it, I wondered for a long time what we should call ourselves, and then I thought about someone I love and it came to me…We shall be known as the Marauders!"

Harry grinned at the look of disbelief that crossed the face of Remus Lupin.

"And with a name comes a symbol for our group."

Harry raised his wand to the sky and closed his eyes. With a crack of thunder a badge appeared on each sleeve of Harry's robes level with his upper arms. And with a growing swell of noise all those assembled found they also wore the badge on each arm.

On the left shoulder each person wore the same badge. The badge was circular with a red background and a black border. In the centre of the badge in black and white were the images of a sword and a wand crossed, around the outside were the words;

_MARAUDERS : UNTIL THE DEED IS DONE_

On the right shoulder each subgroup had a different badge with a green background, the Aurors badge carried a set of golden scales, the Order members, a red fiery Phoenix, the Hogwarts staff had an open book, the D.A. had the letters in gold, and the Goblins had an image of a double headed axe.

The swell of conversation grew as people examined their new symbols, but Harry hadn't finished.

"As a group our primary aim is the protection of our way of life, and the downfall of Voldemort, I swear this oath before you now, I will fight and I will keep fighting until the war is won, and until the deed is done. UNTIL THE DEED IS DONE!"

Harry held his wand aloft and screamed the oath, and two hundred voices, and two hundred wands and weapons joined him. The tip of Harry's wand began to glow with a white light of blinding intensity, so bright in fact he couldn't even look at it. All the wands and weapons held in the air glowed as well, as the army of the light finally came to be.

"UNTIL THE DEED IS DONE!"

The burrow rocked at the sound, and on the island of Azkaban, Harry hoped Voldemort could hear it too, because as sure as the sun rose and set it was the sound of his coming doom.

"You have your instructions you know the plan, good luck to you all, first group leaves in five minutes."

Harry cancelled the amplification spell and walked down towards the small group of the D.A. as he approached, Ginny rushed up to him and threw her arms around him and held him tightly, she was channelling Molly so tight was her hug, the others soon crowded round as well.

"Nice speech"

Draco teased at him in a deadpan voice.

"I thought so anyway"

Harry replied in the same tone.

Neville just chuckled and clapped Draco on the back grinning at him, the two of them were developing a strange relationship, Harry wasn't sure, but it was not exactly friendship, there was a lot of water under the bridge, comradeship maybe.

Several small knots of people had gathered together as the newly named Marauders used the time to wish friends and family well. Harry, with Ginny holding tightly onto his hand moved down the line, speaking intimately to those he knew, making small talk with those he didn't.

Ginny was amazed, his leadership skills were growing daily, and without even trying he had formed this group into a force that were willing to follow him into the complete unknown.

He spoke to all the group leaders, wishing them success. And finally he found himself surrounded by the Order of the Phoenix. He was hugged and kissed by Molly, pounded on the back by Charlie, given a stern warning to be vigilant by Mad-eye and hugged again by Remus.

"Marauders, Harry?"

Remus' eyes were twinkling merrily, although he tried to sound stern using his best professor voice, he just couldn't pull it off.

"Yeah, sorry about that, it just sort of came to me, do you think dad and Sirius would mind?"

Remus laughed and shook his head.

"No cub, I don't think they'd mind at all, in fact today you would have made them very proud, as you have me."

Harry hugged Remus again, then stepped back and looked around him. It was time, the five minutes had gone by very quickly, too quickly. The Marauders were now waiting with an air of expectancy, waiting for him.

Looking around at his family and friends, Harry smiled and bowed his head, he was truly blessed by those that chose to stand beside him. Looking back up he made eye contact with the small group.

"Its time, until the deed is done"

"Until the deed is done"

They said it softly, but it hit Harry with more power than when it had been shouted by two hundred, these were the people closest to him, their support mattered more to him than having two thousand wizards at his disposal. With these people behind him, anything was possible.

Harry stepped back and turned to the waiting mass of expectant faces.

"Form teams, first team form on me"

Harry bent down and kissed Ginny on the lips, she moved away reluctantly, not letting go of his hand until both their arms were at maximum extension, maintaining contact until the last possible second.

Harry turned to his team and smiled, they would be the first to make the trip to Azkaban, the trailblazers. Draco stood there looking cold and aloof, yet the corner of his mouth twitched up in humour. Neville met Harry's gaze and just nodded his readiness. Thomas just grinned at him like an idiot.

"This is going to be a lot of fun"

The three youths just groaned at the soldier's assessment, their idea of fun and his were not completely compatible.

"Harry!"

Harry turned and grinned at Marcus, the tall Auror looked even more imposing in the dark grey combat robes and well fitted body armour. His face was serious and Harry could tell he was not comfortable sending teenagers into the fight first, and had argued repeatedly to send several squads of Aurors in first.

But Voldemort didn't know about the Aurors or the Goblins, all he was expecting was the tattered and dispirited remains of the D.A. and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry wanted to keep Voldemort thinking his plan was on track for as long as possible.

"All set Marcus?"

"Well it's too damn late now if we're not, here is your portkeys, good luck Mr Potter, see you on the other side, good speech by the way."

"Yes, Draco thought so too, until the deed is done."

"Until the deed is done."

Marcus shook his hand and moved off, gathering his own team around him in preparation of the attack.

"Ready?"

Thomas reached into his black vest and pulled out the green cylindrical object that Harry recognised.

"Of course, let's go do this crazy thing, once I pull the pin and release the spade we have four seconds"

Harry looked at Ginny and smiled at her.

"See you soon girlfriend of mine!"

"Keep your head down boyfriend of mine."

Harry nodded and placed one of the portkeys down at his feet, Draco reached out and grabbed his arm, Neville grabbed his other side, Harry reached out and grabbed the black webbing belt around the waist of Thomas.

"Ok Tom, pull the pin"

Thomas nodded, smiled reassuringly at his sister, and pulled the pin out of the object in his hand, and keeping the spade depressed carefully placed the object onto the portkey. With a nod to Harry he released his hold and the metal spade twanged off under pressure as Harry touched the portkey with his wand. The object and the portkey instantly vanished in a flash of light.

"One…Two…Three"

Thomas counted softly as he readied his weapon and slipped the safety catch off.

"Four"

Harry then reached out with his wand and tapped the portkey that remained in his hand.

"Azkaban!"

And they were gone in a blaze of light. Sighing Ginny shoved the fear that was tying a knot in her belly out of her mind and turned to the group.

"Second team, form on me!"

Katie Bell moved towards her, smiling, and Terry Boot slipped to her side, completing the team was Ron with his broomstick, Ginny looked about her at her friends and smiled.

"Now we wait"

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

The alarm ward tolled twice letting the guards know someone was arriving by portkey, they drew their wands and took positions spread out around the edge of the room.

They were confident that whoever was coming would be stunned within moments of their arrival, with ten of them, the arrivals would not even have time to draw breath before the first spell hit.

In an instant there was a piece of parchment and a small green tube in front of them. Relaxing slightly one of the guards bent down to investigate the object.

The flash-bang detonated right on the four second mark.

In the tight confines of the small room the flash-bang performed to its full potential. Those that could still function barely had time to draw their wands before another flash of light heralded the arrival of Harry's group.

No warning was expected, nor was any such warning given. Thomas already had his weapon pulled in tight to his shoulder and it took only the barest movement to correct his aim. With a smooth pull of the trigger, he fired three rounds into the chest of the first Guard at the distance of five feet.

The kinetic energy of the three bullets striking his body was enough to throw the mortally injured man back against the wall, which he then slid down slowly, leaving three bloody streaks on the white surface, until he came to a halt in a crumpled heap on the floor.

Harry felt rather than heard Thomas fire his first rounds, but rather than turn and watch the professional soldier at work like he wanted to, he focused on his own target, aware that every second wasted would allow the guards time to recover and bring their numerical superiority into play.

"Stupefy!"

"Petrificus Totalus"

"Incarcerous!"

Multi-coloured beams of light sped across the short space and three of the guards dropped to the floor as the three teenagers all found their targets. Thomas fired a further three, despatching another guard, with most of the guards still suffering from the effects of the flashbang, the fight was over very quickly.

"Expelliarmus!"

The last guard crashed into the wall from Harry's spell, and lay still, leaving the four of them breathing heavily in the centre of the room.

It had only been thirty seconds since their arrival, and silence descended once more on the arrival room. Harry looked around, none of his team had been injured in the initial skirmish, Draco and Neville were grinning at him, and Thomas, gave him big thumbs up. But this was only the easy part, actually breaking into the prison and rescuing the captives still lay ahead of them.

"Alright Tom, knock on the door!"

Thomas, grinning, reached around and pulled his pack off of his back, kneeling on the ground, he rummaged inside it for a second before pulling out a series of objects joined together in some fashion. He rose to his feet and walked to the door and stood there studying it for a brief moment. There were no visible hinges and no handle showing on this side of the door, but that was ok, he wasn't getting marked for neatness.

Quickly and expertly, Thomas placed the series of plastic explosive charges around the edge of the door, linking each charge in turn with a command wire and a detonator, finally satisfied he walked backwards uncoiling the wire behind him and attached it to his arming switch he pulled from his vest.

"Everybody, get behind Harry, open your mouths, stick your fingers in your ears and shut your eyes. Harry I need you to throw a shield up to try and keep the worst of the blast off us, while I press this red button, the explosive charge is shaped to channel the force into the door, but at this range there is bound to be some backlash from the explosion.

Thomas took hold of the arming switch and moved behind Harry, he indicated the other two should back away from the door and also take cover. Looking back over his shoulder he grinned.

"This is where the fun part starts, god I love blowing stuff up. Do it Harry!"

Several things happened at once. Harry threw up the strongest shield he could manage all around the group. Thomas pushed the remote switch, and on cue the charges went off.

In the confined space the charges were deafening, the sound rolling around the room repeatedly with nowhere to go, the pressure wave would have ruptured their eardrums if their mouths had not been open. As it was they would hear ringing for several hours afterwards.

The shield barely held for long enough, but it did hold. Dropping the shield, Harry looked at the door, or more precisely, the lack of a door. It just wasn't there anymore, nor for that matter was much left of the wall, just a large irregular, ragged edged door shaped hole in the wall with scorch marks burnt along the edge. Thick acrid smoke curled up to the ceiling.

"Knock, knock! Anyone home!"

Only deathly silence greeted Thomas as he unslung his weapon from behind his back. He moved to the hole in a strange crouched over run, weapon up at his shoulder, leaning out from the wall he ensured the room beyond was clear, checking every corner.

Stepping to the other side of the still smoking hole, Harry raised his wand, he needn't have worried, no one in the room beyond would be giving him any further resistance, the five bodies were bent in ways the human body was simply not designed to bend, and several of the bodies had very essential parts missing, trying not to look too closely at the mess he knew would turn his stomach, Harry turned back to survey the devastation he had helped create from the moment he had arrived in the arrivals room. Draco was going from Guard to Guard, those still alive were getting repeatedly stunned. They had no time to be guarding prisoners, but Harry had yet to reach the point where he could order them killed out of hand, and he hoped he never would.

"You were only supposed to blow the bloody door off!"

Draco dead panned to Thomas. The soldier just shrugged.

"Everyone's a damn critic, the door is open isn't it?"

The outer security room had only one other door, and Neville had crossed to it, he carefully opened it and peered out into the corridor beyond. Neville nodded to Harry indicating the way was clear.

Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on a certain blond haired Ravenclaw.

_**Luna?**_

_**I can hear you Harry, but you are very faint!**_

_**That's because Azkaban is a very long way away Luna.**_

_**Is everything all right?**_

Harry smiled, he could sense the note of concern in her voice, and he knew what she was really asking.

_**Neville's fine Luna, send Ginny's group, the door is open.**_

Draco and Thomas stepped out into the ruin of the security room and looked about themselves. If the sight of the dismembered bodies effected Draco at all it didn't show on his face.

"I think you used too much explosives!"

Thomas clapped Draco tiredly on the shoulder.

"One of the first things you learn in my job Draco, there is no such thing as too much explosives!"

Somewhere a bell tolled twice and suddenly Ginny's second team had arrived in the room behind them, Ginny looked at the mess they had created in the short time they had been there and shook her head. She had paled slightly at the signs of Thomas' handiwork, there were bloody smears on the walls, but there was a determined look on her face, she knew the day was going get a lot messier than it had already.

"I just can't let you go out alone can I. Look at the mess you've made, well you made it young man, you clear it up!"

Harry bowed his head and looked down at his feet.

"Yes dear"

His voice was low and sounded submissive.

"You're so under the thumb, Potter."

Draco said in a pompous tone.

"Yeah, you're right, and you know what Draco, I cannot think of a place I'd rather be"

Ginny's team moved past him and she gently reached up and touched his cheek, she mouthed 'I love you', Harry touched the hand on his cheek with his own, and answered her, 'I love you too', and then she was gone, leading her team. Ron was grinning and thumped Harry on the shoulder as he went past and Terry was shaking his head, laughing. Katie was too busy kissing Draco to notice her team had left her behind.

"Katie! I think you've been left behind!"

Katie surfaced for air and looked about, her eyes widened and she grinned and slipped from the room, following her team, not before she had left a stinging slap on Draco's behind.

He followed her hungrily with his eyes until she had left the room.

"Oh where has this woman been all my life?"

Draco asked the room in general, as his face managed to regain some its normal aloofness and disdain.

"Hate to break it to you Draco, but she's been at Hogwarts for the last six years and you ignored her because she was a Gryffindor, and last year you nearly killed her with a cursed necklace."

Neville grinned at Draco, taking the sting out of his words.

"We all make mistakes, Neville"

"That's some mistake!"

"All relationships go through rocky patches. Katie and I just went through our rocky patch before we actually had a relationship. You are always there with the negative comment Longbottom, you're ruining my moment"

Draco stuck his nose pompously into the air.

"I hate to be the one to ruin anyone's moment, but we do have a dark wizard and all his evil minions to best, can we please focus here?"

Harry pretended to be annoyed.

"Ah yes, that pesky Voldemort chap. For a moment there he had slipped my mind, very well by all means let us proceed with some immediate besting"

Draco returned with his deadpan tone. Harry just blinked at him, having never heard a dark lord referred to as that 'pesky chap' before.

"They say that Voldemort is the best at duelling, if we best him with an immediate bit of besting, does that make us the very best at besting?"

Neville wiggled his eyebrows in a moment of supposed comic genius.

Harry couldn't take much more of this, Neville and Draco were developing into some kind of wizard comedy tag team with Draco as the straight man, and Harry had his hands full trying to control the amount of 'fun' that Thomas was having.

He shook his head, wondering not for the first time if he had left it too late to swap team assignments, maybe it would be easier to work with Terry and Katie?

The bell tolled twice again, and then Hermione's team stood before them. She looked at the damage and just shook her head disapprovingly, as she led her team past she gave Harry a quick hug.

Luna gave Neville a quick kiss and reached down and playfully touched his crotch, laughing happily at the colour his face had gone, she waved goodbye and followed her team leader.

Charlie just looked around him and whistled at the amount of damage, once he had the nod from Harry he apparated back to the burrow, his task in the plan was to bring some rather special reinforcements...and their broomsticks.

Harry led his team out into the corridor. Quickly reviewing the copy of the floor plan that he had brought with him, Harry knew he was on the ground floor of the operations building. This building housed the Prison guard dormitory and interrogation rooms.

Directly across the exercise yard was the Administration building, housing the kitchens, wardens' quarters, and maximum-security wing. The two main prison wings enclosed the other two sides of the exercise yard, it was here that Harry hoped to find his friends.

Hermione and Ginny's teams had taken up positions at either end of the corridor, where it bent out of sight leading to the prison blocks, guarding the arrival point, all the buildings were connected by covered walkways, to offer protection from the harsh North Atlantic climate.

The bridgehead at the prison was secure, now they had to get reinforcements to the prison in sufficient strength before the Death Eaters could react and act to take back the building.

There were only ten of them in the prison, if the Death Eaters attacked now things would go very badly for them. There were barely enough of them to hold this corridor, let alone push out into the prison in an attempt to rescue their friends.

OoOoO

**The North Sea, Not All That Far Away**

"Captain! I have two hostiles on an inbound track, bearing 026, eighty nautical miles and closing!"

The radar controller's voice was calm and even despite the level of tension building up inside the C-I-C. If the bridge was the brain of the _**Iron Duke**_ then the Combat Information Centre was the warship's heart, it was from here that the ship's Captain could bring the ship's wide variety of weapon systems to bear on any threat.

The room was located roughly amidships and was the most heavily armoured place aboard, with its own power and air, anything short of the vessel sinking would still allow the crew to fight on in the face of crippling damage to the warship.

"Captain, Do I have your permission to go weapons free?"

Owen Jackson regarded his young weapons systems officer and nodded once, the officer turned and rattled off a series of orders that would enable the ship to fire on its attackers.

"I have a firing solution for both targets on billboard sir, getting a clean return."

A crewman reported from one of the screens, far above them, mounted high on three sides of the ship's superstructure, the billboard radar system swept the far horizon. It was a highly sophisticated system based on the American Aegis radar, it could track and systematically engage two hundred enemy targets at once. Normally set to scan in a 360 degree arc, once a threat was detected it concentrated its power in a very narrow arc and was able to lock on and guide the ship's weapons systems to their target.

"Switch to automatic."

The operator nodded and turned a key in his console, this set the weapons systems into automatic mode, now the computer would keep firing weapons until it saw the targets destroyed.

On the foredeck, behind the deck gun, which had also traversed until it pointed at the targets, the protective covers over the Sea Wolf missile system snapped back out of the way.

The improved Sea Wolf missile system aboard _**Iron Duke**_ was a far cry from the original missiles that first went to sea twenty years before. Rather than be fed up from a magazine in pairs to a firing post, these missiles were vertically launched from below the deck, allowing a faster response time to an attack.

"Sea Wolf one and two away, both are in dumb mode."

Dumb mode indicated that the missiles were relying on guidance from the billboard system for target information, the seeker heads in the missiles would only be activated in the last few seconds because this way made the missiles harder to detect and evade by the enemy pilots.

With the speed of the missiles it would take only seconds for them to reach their targets.

"We have an energy spike! Enemy fighters have a lock on us, trying to jam their radar!"

Jackson watched his counter measures team trying to match the frequencies of the enemy radar system and beam utter garbage over those bands, if they could fill the air with nothing but random static over the right frequencies there was no way an enemy could fire a weapon at them.

"Wolf one and two now in active mode!"

The Sea Wolf missiles had now activated their own sophisticated nose mounted radar systems, and were no longer reliant on target information fed to them from the billboard system.

For the pilots of the two enemy jets it was an impossible situation, there was no way for them to jam the billboard radar and targeting system, it simply pumped out too much power, and there was no way to detect the incoming missiles because they had stayed quiet until that point. It was only in the last few seconds of flight that the pilots would know what was coming, and they would just about have time to consider evasive action before impact.

"Splash one, splash two, sir Wolf one and two have killed their targets, screen is clear."

The operations staff gave a little cheer as the news was given, two enemy aircraft blasted out of the sky.

"Permission to stand down from general quarters sir?"

The weapons officer asked. Jackson remained quiet, his eyes squinted in concentration, scanning the status boards he had a bad feeling this wasn't over yet. There! A small fast moving blip on one of the radar returns.

"Incoming missile, sound the collision alarm, damage control parties to standby! Before we killed them, they got one off in return, a sea skimmer, hard to detect."

Jackson explained to his stunned officer after he had shouted out his commands.

"Sir, bogey is too close for the Sea Wolf to get a lock and engage, arming Phalanx."

On either side of the ship, just forward of the aircraft hangar, stood the large domed shape of the Phalanx sentinel system, it was made up of a large white radar system mounted above a six barrelled Gatling gun. The system had only one purpose, the last ditch defence of the ship, any aircraft or missile that breached the outer defences' still had to get past the Phalanx.

The multi-barrelled Gun jerked upwards and to the left as it was given a target feed from the giant billboard array mounted far above it, the six rotary barrels began to spin up to operational speed as the weapon received last minute information on wind speed, barrel temperature, target height and speed.

Then the integral radar system took over, the system was programmed to realise that actually firing directly at such a fast moving target was not going to work, the target would not be there by the time the rounds arrived at that place. So the Phalanx system created a virtual box in front of the target, a box it would fill with a solid wall of 20mm rounds, enabling the missile to simply fly into this hailstorm of destruction.

"Phalanx is firing."

The six barrels pumped out a steady stream of 20mm shells into the path of the oncoming missile, designed to shred anything that came near enough to the ship, the fire power was devastating.

"Missile has been splashed, confirmed kill, Phalanx is back in standby mode."

Jackson rubbed the bridge of his nose and lent back against the bulkhead, reaching above him without looking, he grabbed the handset for the intercom system and pressed the button.

"Now hear this, stand down from general quarters. That is the end of the air attack drill, well done everybody, I say again stand down."

Replacing the handset, Owen Jackson took a last look around the room and nodded with satisfaction before stepping out into the cool corridor.

As a warship commander in the Royal Navy he knew that drills were something that never stopped, there was always something that needed to be practised, improved upon. Weapons systems, damage control, boat handling, boarding parties, helicopter operations, the list was endless, and being sat here in the middle of nowhere nurse-maiding a bunch of merchant ships there wasn't a lot else to do to pass the time.

**AN/ **So there you have it, the start of Prison break Potter style, (or anything is possible if you use enough plastic explosive)

Coming soon. Chapter 14: Azkaban


	14. 14 Azkaban

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowlingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

"All right so, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us. This simpifies things considerably...They have us exactly where we want them and they won't get away this time!"

Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell 'chesty' Puller USMC (1898-1971) The most decorated US Marine in history

Chapter Fourteen: Azkaban

**Azkaban Prison, 15:00 4 July**

The sound of the explosion echoed around the empty and depressing grey exercise yard, and reverberated off the front of the Administration building.

From where he stood by the window in the warden's office, Voldemort allowed a slight smile to cross his pale corpse like features, as he looked out across the yard towards the operations building from whence the explosion had come.

"My lord?"

Voldemort turned as Bellatrix Lestrange hurried into the office, she barely spared a glance at the grotesque bloody mess on the floor that had up until quite recently been the warden of Azkaban prison. She came to a halt and knelt before her lord.

"Yes Bella?"

"My lord, Potter has arrived with a small force of Hogwarts students about a dozen strong, they have breached the outer security, but have not pushed further inside the prison, we have them sealed up inside the operations building."

Voldemort laughed, and slowly shook his head.

"No Bella, we have done no such thing. Harry has sealed himself up inside intentionally, but for what reason? Why not strike out while they still have the element of surprise? Unless…"

"My lord?"

But Voldemort was no longer listening to her, he had closed his eyes and reached out with his powerful senses. He could feel the barrier ward above him, it hummed vibrantly as if it was somehow alive and angry that the prison had been invaded by so many strangers.

Stretching out further he could see in his mind the funnel of the barrier ward that led to the arrivals room allowing people to arrive at the prison. The ward over the prison was very powerful, but he wasn't trying to knock down the ward, just…modify it slightly. Besides thanks to the now deceased prison warden he had the magical access ward runes that allowed him to do nearly anything to the wards.

If he could isolate Harry and his friends at the prison, they would be all alone, without any support, twelve against two hundred and fifty, even dear Harry could not triumph over those odds.

Summoning power beyond that which any human should have been able to wield, Voldemort reached out and with a delicacy he was not renowned for began to gently squeeze the base of the funnel, narrowing it slowly until it was too thin to allow anyone through. Then he closed the hole, sealing it shut with a burst of power.

Voldemort's eyes snapped open, and he starred at the security building in tired satisfaction, with the ward sealed any hope that Harry had of receiving reinforcements had ended, now was the time to finish the arrogant little boy wizard.

"There are less than twenty of them in there now Bella, send in the guard, and Dolohov's force, I like my new prison, take it back for me."

"Yes my lord!"

OoOoO

"Did you hear that?"

Hannah Abbot cocked her head over and listened, she was sure she had just heard the sound of an explosion. She looked over at the blond haired French girl, she hadn't said a word since the guards had dragged her in here naked, she had just gripped her knees and rocked back and forwards.

Hannah had recognised her immediately as the Triwizard tournament competitor from Beauxbatons School, but couldn't remember the girls name, Flower something?

"I heard it too"

Padma Patil looked up at her from the bench where she lay and for one brief instant a flicker of hope flashed across both their faces. A name that neither of them dared utter in case they jinxed it.

OoOoO

Exhausted beyond anything in his experience and wracked with pain, Bill Weasley leaned against the wall of the cell and felt a sense of relief wash through him, an explosion at the prison could only mean one thing. The rescue party had arrived, and despite the fact it was a trap, the fact he wasn't alone anymore filled him with hope.

Now he needed to do his best to help the rescuers. Although in the state he was in, stunned multiple times, tortured half to death, starved and beaten, he wasn't in any condition to get into a fight with even the worst trained of Voldemort's Death Eaters. So he would do what he was trained to do, the next best thing, he would attempt to drop the wards covering the island, allowing the rescuers to come and go at will.

But first he had to find one of the ward stones, a ward to cover an area the size of the entire prison would need a series of permanent ward stones to control and regulate the powerful magic used to create the ward. And because the ward stones needed to be inspected by a ward specialist on a regular basis for any degradation of the wards they had to be available. If he could locate such a stone he could perhaps undo the spells attaching the ward to the stone, weakening the ward, and if he managed it right, possibly destroying it.

With his course set, wearing the recently discarded black robes of a Death Eater, Bill pulled opened the cell door whose lock it had taken ten minutes to pick with A hair grip Fleur had dropped, and staggered out into the deserted corridor.

OoOoO

Fred screamed in pain and clutched at his ear, pulling the pink string like object clear and tossing it to the floor, he hopped around the cell. The Aurors had done a sloppy job of searching them and had missed a set of extendable ears, the twins had been taking it in turns listening at the door in the hope of hearing something useful.

"What? What is it?"

George and Arthur were both talking at once. Fred finally stopped jumping around and had slid to the floor with a pained smile on his face.

"Don't quote me on this…but I think the cavalry has just arrived, I just heard an explosion."

OoOoO

Remus grabbed hold of Harry and pulled him into a tight hug, the first two teams of Marauder reinforcements had come through the ward already. It was a carefully coordinated plan, trying to keep Voldemort guessing as long as possible as to what their numbers were, and where those numbers came from.

First the members of the D.A. that had managed to remain free, nine of them and Thomas, then the remnants of the Order of the Phoenix. Marcus and his Aurors would be next and last, Gutripper's Goblins.

Alastor Moody had led the first order team, containing Molly and Sturgis Podmore. Remus led the second team, bringing Charlie and Filius Flitwick with him. Harry smiled at his charms professor, the diminutive teacher was not an official member of the Order of the Phoenix, but he had been that angry at what the Ministry had done to so many students of Hogwarts that Harry wasn't that surprised to see him.

In his youth Filius Flitwick had been a tournament dueller, and after that some said he became a wand for hire, although no one had ever managed to get the story from him. His presence at the prison was a boon for the Marauders.

"Bit of a mess in here lad, anyone hurt?"

Alastor took a swig out of his hip flask, his magical eye was doing merry cartwheels in its socket.

"Not on our side Mad-eye, no injuries"

"Good lad, nicely done"

Harry grinned, coming from him that was some compliment. The force at his disposal now numbered eighteen. Harry turned back to the apparation pad and felt the smile slowly slip from his face, he frowned and waited for a moment, then spun around.

"What's wrong cub?"

"Remus who is the next team's leader?"

"Aberforth Dumbledore"

"Well don't you think he would have been here with his team by now? Your two teams arrived less than thirty seconds apart, it's been…what, nearly four minutes now"

Moody suddenly stiffened and gasped. With a sinking feeling, Harry knew what had alarmed the retired Auror so much.

"They're coming aren't they?"

Moody nodded in answer to Harry's quiet question.

"How many?"

"Too many lad, and that's a fact, fifty at least, they are organising themselves so they come all at once from both sides, they plan to overwhelm us in the first attack."

Harry closed his eyes. Once before, when he had been prevented from reaching the Burrow, he had sensed a ward, now he tried again, stretching his senses upwards, trying to discover what could have possibly gone wrong. He found the problem immediately, the funnel that allowed people to arrive at the prison had been sealed shut against arrivals, forcing them back to their starting location. There was a signature to the magic, like an aura that Harry immediately recognised, he had first felt that Aura directly in his fourth year in the graveyard at Little Hangleton.

Opening his eyes in shock, he looked at the small group stood in front of him.

"It's Voldemort, somehow, don't ask me how, he has altered the barrier ward, sealed it so it won't let anyone through, we're stuck here on our own. How did he manage to change the characteristics of the ward?"

"The warden of the prison has complete control of the prison wards, allowing him to lock the prison down, no one in, no one out. Just as Minerva can lock Hogwarts down when the situation warrants it. Its possible Voldemort used his knowledge of the mental arts to take the information."

Moody spoke stroking his chin in a thoughtful manner. Harry was inclined to believe him, no one would know this prison better, he'd been locking people up here for forty years.

Remus grabbed his shoulder.

"Can you break through the ward cub?"

"I don't know Remus, it's very strong, I really wish we had Bill with us, this is his particular area of expertise after all, you are going to need to buy me the time to try, hold them while I try and reopen the funnel, or bring the barrier down"

Remus looked at the serious expression on Harry's face, the teenager knew exactly what he was asking, and there was so much pain in his voice because of it.

He had taken an oath over Dumbledore's tomb that no one else he had feelings for would have to stand between him and danger. He had lost his parents, Sirius, Cedric and Dumbledore, no more he had vowed, now here he was, asking his friends, his family to stand in harms way in order to protect him.

What Remus wanted more than anything was for Harry to be able to live a normal life, so much responsibility rested on his terribly narrow shoulders? No teenager should have to protect what Harry had been asked to protect.

"We'll do what we can lad, just don't take too long, there's an awful lot more of them than there are of us."

"Yes Mad-eye, of this I am aware."

"Well, at least i won't have to look too far for an opponent!"

Moody gave them an evil smile.

Harry waited until Moody had stumped outside the room, leaving just him and Remus alone.

"Remus, I need you to pass a message to Thomas, tell him Harry says he's allowed to have as much fun as he wants, and can you send Draco in?"

Remus nodded, and strode out into the hall. Mad-eye had already dispersed the Order members to support the D.A. Remus walked over to Draco.

"Draco, Harry has asked if you would join him"

Draco looked at him with a puzzled expression on his face, but nodded and stepped into the security room.

"Ok you lot listen up. Voldemort has somehow managed to seal the barrier ward against any more arrivals, so for the moment we're it! Harry thinks he can bring down the ward, but we need to buy him the time to do it, I need you all to put your game faces on."

The group all had shocked but determined expressions on their faces as they listened to Remus. Ron, Hermione and Ginny swapped unhappy glances, they all knew how Harry felt about having others fighting his battles for him. He would be hurting to have to ask this of them.

"Thomas. Harry gave me a message just for you, he said you are allowed to have as much fun as you want, does that mean anything to you?"

Thomas just grinned widely at the former professor, god he loved to blow stuff up.

OoOoO

It hadn't taken him nearly as long to locate the ward stone as he had thought it would, what had taken the time was getting to it without being seen. In the end Bill had to hope the 'Death Eater out for a quiet stroll' cover was enough to keep attention away from him while he went to work.

The stone had actually been built into the exterior corner of the operations building, and stood out quite obviously from its more mundane neighbours.

The ward stone was black obsidian, an ideal material for the creation of permanent wards. The stone was covered in arcane runes of considerable power and complexity, even as he studied it, Bill knew that even were he fully fit and on top of his game, it would have probably taken him days of careful and precise wand work to untangle and remove the ward's lines of power that ran through that single stone.

Sighing deeply in frustration at the impossible task he had taken on, Bill lowered himself painfully to the floor, closed his eyes and began possibly the hardest curse breaking job he had ever taken on. If this had been a Gringotts contract than it would have required at least five man team, a week of research and preparation, and cost the contractor half a million galleons.

OoOoO

"Harry?"

Harry turned to regard Draco, the two of them were alone now in the arrivals room.

"Voldemort has somehow sealed the ward behind us, isolating us and trapping us here, and now they are coming to cut us all down. I think I can eventually break the ward, but it will take time."

Draco just raised his eyebrows, otherwise the news of their impending doom didn't seem to register at all.

"I need your help Draco, I need you to buy me the time I need to break the ward. Nobody knows better than I do what you are capable of, I want you to take the gloves off, do whatever you have to, unleash the inner Dragon."

Draco looked at him, slight alarm and a little fear showing in his eyes.

"Why me Harry?"

"Because you and I both know we each have a darkness inside of us, that we each struggle with our own personal demons to stay on the side of light. What I'm asking of you is something none of the others have in them. Molly, Charlie, Ron, Hermione, sweet Ginny, none of them have it in them to kill, intentionally, cold bloodedly. And that…goodness in them will today in this place be their undoing. I need you to do what they cannot."

Draco bowed his head and studied the floor intently, flexing and un-flexing his hands repeatedly, Harry's request had bothered him greatly, he was being asked to do something truly horrible, to become the man he had been trying so hard to put behind him.

"Please Draco, protect her for me."

The words were spoken quietly, but the fear and uncertainty in Harry's voice was real. Finally Draco looked up and met Harry's eyes, and nodded. Harry tried to ignore the bitterness in the youth's face.

"Here, you're going to need it more than I do"

Harry held out his wand, and after a moments hesitation Draco reached out and took it. He held out his hand, and the two young men, once enemies now allies, clasped each other's forearms.

"Until the deed is done, Harry"

"Until the deed is done, Draco"

With that the blond youth strode from the chamber.

OoOoO

"What I wouldn't give for a few of Fred and George's portable swamps around about now!"

Charlie muttered to himself, surveying the corridor. It was immediately evident to him that with the numbers they had, there was no way they could defend both ends of the corridor, not with eighteen people. They needed a way of closing one end of the corridor or they would be over run almost immediately. Seeing Remus consulting with Moody, Charlie jogged over to him.

"Remus, we can't do this with the numbers we have, we need to barricade one end up somehow!"

Remus just smiled and patted Charlie on the shoulder.

"Don't worry Charlie, I think someone else has already thought about that."

Remus placed both of his hands on the second oldest Weasley sibling's shoulders and physically spun him around and pointed down the corridor, Charlie turned just in time to see a black clad shape slip around the corner, with Ron and Hermione following close behind.

"What are they doing?"

Charlie asked, alarmed.

"I think someone is going to have a bit of fun"

Remus smirked at Charlie's puzzled expression, and just left him stood there staring at the far corner of the corridor.

OoOoO

To a casual muggle observer it would appear that Bill Weasley was attempting to conduct an invisible orchestra, he held the captured wand before him and made extremely complex and apparently random motions in the air with the wand tip. What he was actually doing was, one minute strand at a time, unpicking the lines of magical power for the ward that attached it to the black ward stone.

What increased the difficulty was that should any single stray strand he was currently unpicking touch any other strand then the ward stone would move to defend itself against what it would see as a dangerous threat, and while Bill was uncertain what effect the defences would have on him for each ward was different, he was willing to bet it wouldn't be pleasant.

But on the positive side, Bill Weasley was in his element, he was a curse breaker, one of the finest in the world, and this was what he lived for, the challenge and the feel of the adrenaline pumping through his veins, knowing one wrong wand movement could result in him being left as nothing more than a dark smear on the landscape.

Despite the pain he was suffering and the immediate danger he was in, Bill found himself smiling, he was actually enjoying himself, not so surprising when one thought about it, after all he was the older brother of Fred and George.

OoOoO

Using explosives correctly in the proper amounts and in the proper places is an art form that normally goes widely unappreciated in the wider world, it requires just as much knowledge of the subject at hand as a painter or a musician must have to excel in their chosen fields.

Anyone can blow something up, a few slabs of plastic explosive piled up haphazardly and a detonator was all it took, but artists with the correct material can not only blow that something up, they can blow it out, blow it in, or drop it down with pinpoint precision.

Thomas Bell however was not such an artist, he was however a gifted amateur who had been taught by such artists, for he had been trained by the very best, and practised his craft in some of the most hostile environments imaginable.

Even now, with bare moments before a horde of Death Eaters came pouring down the passage behind him, he would not be rushed, for you could not rush the planting of explosives, or you would quickly find yourself spread in a very thin red paste, over a very wide area.

With Ron and Hermione stood watch over him wands drawn, to protect him while he worked, he placed the very last of his charges with a cautious speed, his hands moving slowly yet confidently. With care, Thomas slid the last detonator into the small block of plastic explosive, it had been originally designed to blow open doors, and not to do what he had planned for it so he was moving with even more care than usual.

"Ok, I'm done, let's go."

Thomas picked up his pack and had just climbed to his feet, when Hermione cried out.

"Too late, they're here!"

Forty metres away, the doors burst open and a flood of angry humanity burst in upon them, firing a multitude of spells as they came, the corridor was suddenly lit up vividly as magical lines of many colours flashed across the empty space, splashing off walls, floor and ceiling.

But it wasn't all one-way traffic, Ron and Hermione stood shoulder-to-shoulder, resolute in their determination, returning spell fire as fast as they could cast, and theirs was terrifyingly accurate, but they could not stand for long against the sheer weight of spells blasting back up the corridor towards them.

Firing a spell on the run made the caster's aim wildly inaccurate, if the Death Eaters had contented themselves to a brisk walking pace then in all like hood Ron and Hermione would have fallen in the first few seconds.

Thomas had managed to work his way back to the corner under Ron and Hermione's covering fire, he had just brought his MP5 up to his shoulder to give covering fire so they themselves could fall back, when a fast moving black clothed streak moved directly into his line of fire.

"Fortis Flabra!"

In the cramped confines of the corridor the hurricane strength winds that suddenly blasted down towards the Death Eaters was completely overpowering. Not a single Death Eater was able to keep his feet under the power of the immense magical gale.

"Fulguralis Adlido!"

With a crackle of magical energy, a bolt of lightning sped horizontally down the corridor, striking one of the prone Death Eaters, causing the man to scream in pain and his robes to burst into flames. The man writhed about on the floor for a few seconds then lay still, his robes smouldering where the lightning had hit him.

Hermione and Ron turned in surprise to find Draco stood off to one side and slightly behind them, he had both his arms extended out directly in front of him, and in both hands he held a wand, one of which both Hermione and Ron recognised as Harry's.

But it was not the wands that grabbed their attention, it was Draco's face, the expression on his face, well it could only be described as pure and utter hate, an expression both of them were familiar with, it had been directed at them and Harry often enough over the years.

But the most striking thing about Draco was his eyes, Normally grey and cold, unless he was with Katie or taking part in his and Neville's comedy routine, now they seemed to have no life in them at all, almost as if they were already dead, and the body didn't know it yet. Hermione took a step back in fright, and Ron blanched white.

"Ron, Hermione, get back here!"

Thomas was motioning wildly from the corner. Ron and Hermione glanced at each other and turned and ran for the corner.

"Did you see his eyes?"

Hermione whispered, once they were safely around the corner, out of sight of the Death Eaters, and more importantly Draco.

"Yeah, spooky or what!"

Ron replied.

Thomas was still peering around the corner, muttering to himself. He couldn't get a shot off with Draco stood right in front of him, and he couldn't blow the charges with Draco stood right beside them, talented wizard or not, it would be the end of him. Katie would never forgive him for making Draco a smear on the wall.

The hurricane force wind had not relented in strength, if anything it was slowly gaining strength, keeping the Death Eaters pinned to the floor. And lightning bolt after lightning bolt blasted down the corridor into the prone bodies, causing screams of pain and whimpers of fear.

"Draco, get the hell back here!"

But the tall blond youth ignored him, or perhaps just didn't hear him over the howling of the wind. Thomas couldn't leave him out there on his own, eventually he would tire, and then force of numbers would have him.

"Bloody wizards!"

Thomas placed the detonator switch carefully down behind the corner, and unslung his submachine gun, placing that on the floor as well. Then he moved fast up the corridor towards Draco's back, reaching the wizard, he grabbed the teenager's shoulder and spun him around. With Draco's concentration broken, the magical wind quickly died to a mere breeze.

"What do you think you're doing you fool!"

Draco's voice hissed at him.

Thomas found a wand tip pressed hard under his chin, and Draco's eyes seemed to burn into him.

"I think we should talk about this later Draco, like when we have a bit more privacy"

Thomas inclined his head, Draco turned to follow the gesture, and saw the Death Eaters slowly picking themselves up, they were staring at their colleague's bodies, still smoking slightly, and they were angry. Draco turned back to Thomas and lowered his wand, and his eyes sparkled with something akin to his usual humour.

Draco coughed to cover his embarrassment.

"Yes, I think that would probably be best"

With that the two of them turned and ran as fast as humanly possible towards the corner, with nearly fifty Death Eaters right behind them. They were almost to the scant safety offered by the corner when Thomas felt something reach out and physically slam him into the wall.

His side and back seemed to burn with red hot agony, before being replaced with a familiar cold numbness, his momentum carried him moving forward, but his legs didn't seem to be working properly anymore. He had been around injuries enough to know these were not good signs.

Hitting the floor hard, Thomas slid forward towards the corner on his belly, but as he went past he reached out and smashed his fist down on top of the detonator switch. Then the entire world turned white, and a loud roaring filled his ears.

OoOoO

Even Voldemort took a step back in surprise, as one entire wing of the operations building appeared to jump several feet into the air, the sound of the explosion was much louder than the initial explosion that had heralded the arrival of Harry and his friends.

A huge cloud of dust billowed up, hiding the operations building from sight for a long minute, before the strong North Atlantic winds caught the dust particles in their steely grip and swept them away and out to sea.

When the cloud had finally cleared Voldemort starred at the operations building in shock and awe, the entire eastern wing had collapsed into nothing but a large pile of rubble, the second wing and the main part of the building still stood. But of the second wing nothing remained, the first floor had collapsed on top of the ground floor.

Even he, the most powerful wizard alive could not have done that to a building, not in an instant, over time he could have destroyed the entire prison, but no single spell was that powerful. It was a mystery, and Voldemort hated mysteries, but he did like solving them, and he especially looked forward to solving this one.

OoOoO

They didn't need extendable ears to hear this new explosion, the entire cellblock shook so hard that cracks appeared in the walls and around the doorframe, by the time the echo had died away all the conscious Weasley's were grinning madly at each other.

"Boys I think we should pack our bags and think about booking out of this hotel"

Arthur smiled. He had a feeling things were going to get better very soon.

OoOoO

Parvati Patil picked herself up of the floor of her cell and looked around her, there were cracks in the walls and dust was falling from the ceiling. She looked at her two cellmates and smiled.

Lisa Turpin looked up from where she had thrown herself on to the floor, with her hands wrapped over her head, she looked up at the ceiling mistrustfully, as if the entire thing was about to land on their heads at any minute.

Alicia Spinnet was also grinning madly, her bruised pretty features coming alive for the first time since the guards had dragged her back to the cell after her 'interrogation'. They hadn't even bothered to ask her any questions, and they had not been gentle, there had been four of them, and they had taken it in turns to entertain themselves. She had not complained, but she knew she was bleeding inside, and that she required medical attention.

What are you two smiling about? The building is about to fall down on top of us?"

Ignoring the sulky sounding Ravenclaw, the two Gryffindor's regarded each other for a moment, Alicia mouthed one word to Parvati, the Indian woman just nodded once, the next second the two women were holding each other, jumping up and down on the spot and laughing.

Lisa Turpin didn't move from her position on the floor, but just looked at the other two as if captivity had driven them mad.

What she hadn't seen was the mouthed word. Alicia had mouthed 'Harry?'

OoOoO

Ron and Hermione had backed up, keeping their wands trained on the corner, where seconds before they had watched as Thomas had slipped from sight. They had retreated almost as far back as the door to the security office, where Hermione and Harry's teams waited.

From the other end of the corridor came the sound of pitched battle as the Order of the Phoenix did its best to keep the second force of Death Eaters at bay.

"Any time now, form two ranks, first rank fires first, followed by the second, we try and keep them away from the line. If one of us falls we must wait until we force them back before doing anything to help."

Ron's commanding tone motivated the members of the D.A. into motion, they were all feeling the absence of their leader, Harry. In a short space of time they had formed ranks and pointed their wands at the turn in the corridor.

Suddenly Draco and Thomas appeared, sprinting around the corner, Thomas staggered, flopped over and hit the floor, Hermione and Katie both screamed, knowing from the motion of his body he'd been hit from behind. Thomas reached out for something on the floor and…

**BOOM!**

The entire building seemed to lift five feet in the air and move a foot across before settling somewhat uneasily back onto its foundations. All of them were thrown to the floor, and they were only just picking themselves up when a blinding, choking cloud of dust covered them.

Coughing, Hermione cast a quick bubblehead charm to allow her to breath and see despite the dust, the others, seeing the wisdom of this act quickly followed suit.

The dust cloud stretched from floor to ceiling and blocked all sight of the corner, and of Draco and Thomas. Ron glanced at Hermione, neither of them had lowered their wands, both of them expected a horde of Death Eaters to explode out of the dust cloud at any moment.

Katie sobbed quietly, her brother and her boyfriend had just disappeared, lost from sight behind the blinding cloud of dust, she couldn't bear to lose anyone else in her life, but if it transpired that she had lost both of them she just didn't think she would be able to cope.

For almost a minute nothing moved, and the dust cloud slowly began to settle. Suddenly Hermione tensed and her wand adjusted its aim almost of its own accord, a shape was advancing towards them out of the dust. It moved slowly and awkwardly, at a stagger, almost as if drunk.

As the distance closed the defenders were able to see the shape wasn't one figure but two, one being heavily supported by the other. They appeared to be having an animated conversation including much waving of arms, some of which carried down the corridor.

"…I'll admit, that I may have over done it slightly!"

"Slightly! You dropped half the building on top of us!"

"Is it my fault the prison was shoddily constructed?"

"Now you're blaming the prison?"

"That much explosives should not have had that sort of affect…"

"But you are admitting that you used too much!"

"I used all I had left, it seemed like a good idea at the time…"

Hermione ran forward, and to Draco's utter surprise she threw herself into a hug with him, he nearly dropped an obviously injured Thomas in shock. Ever since he had managed to get through to her in the coma Hermione had been trying hard to get the others to accept Draco.

"Damn you Draco you scared me half to death!"

Draco gave her a cool smile, he looked at the assembled ranks of the D.A. and saw that nearly all of them were grinning at him. Except Ron who was scowling for obvious reasons, and Katie who was looking from Hermione to Draco and back again, raising an amused eyebrow.

"What happened to the Death Eaters?"

Ron was asking Thomas.

"Well it's like this, when I blew the explosives, the roof collapsed and buried most of them under half the building. No one will be coming down the corridor from that direction for quite some time."

"Are you badly hurt?"

Hermione had released Draco and turned, concerned to Thomas, he was having trouble placing one of his legs on the floor, one side of his face was badly lacerated down his cheek and he seemed to be slightly out of breath.

"Nah, just aggravated an old table tennis injury, I just need to sit down for a minute and get my breath back, why don't you youngsters go and show the old timers how its done, I'll be fine."

Thomas leaned himself against the corridor wall to one side of the security office door and let himself slide down it into a sitting position. He grinned at them, his sense of humour seemingly unaffected by his injuries.

"Go on then, save the day, I'll be along shortly, just need to catch my breathe."

Ron nodded and began issuing orders to get the D.A. to the other end of the corridor to help the Order of the Phoenix. Thomas raised his hand tiredly and indicated they should go.

"Draco, that was a lot of fun, you be careful!"

Draco gave Thomas a funny look before turning and following the others, there had been something in the man's tone, something he hadn't heard before. Soon only Katie was left standing there, looking down at him.

"You have a fine young man there sis, you make sure you look after him, he can be a little head strong at times, reminds me far too much of me for my peace of mind! Be good Katie, and don't be too hard on Helen, in her own way she's just as strong as you are, I haven't got to know either of you as well as I would have liked, and I'm so sorry for that. But I have enjoyed being part of a family again, more than I can say."

Katie put her hand to her mouth suddenly understanding what her brother was saying, and fell to her knees. With trembling fingers, she batted aside his feeble attempt to keep her away, she moved his hand aside and gasped when she saw the deep spell wound in his side and back, and the slowly growing crimson pool of blood on the floor he had been taking great pains to hide.

"Don't, there's nothing you can do, we have no way of getting me back to the Burrow. I've seen enough wounds over the last few years to know I don't have that long left, I have punctured a lung at the very least, maybe even ruptured my spleen, plus it seems I'm bleeding out."

Katie shook her head, refusing to believe what was happening. She took off her robe, exposing the bodyarmour she was wearing, she quickly balled the robes up and stuffed the cloth into the wound in an effort to slow the loss of blood.

"You can't die, you just can't, I won't let you!"

Thomas laughed weakly, and then coughed harshly, a little splatter of blood appeared at the side of his mouth.

"Katie while I know you are a powerful witch and can do a lot of things, even you cannot beat death, the reaper will come for all of us when its our time, over the years I've pushed my luck about as far as I could push it, I have few very regrets in my life. I would have liked to see you marry, and be happy. You'll just have to promise me now that you will be."

Katie looked down, tears falling unbidden down her cheeks.

"I promise"

The coughing became more pronounced, and the splatter of blood became a trickle. He smiled weakly at her and took her hand and squeezed it tightly.

"I'm so proud of you Katie, Tell Helen I love her and I shall always watch over her, I love you sister, now you must go and help your friends, they need you, Draco needs you."

With a tearful nod, Katie leaned forward and gently kissed his forehead and rose shakily to her feet. Taking one last look back at the brother she barely knew, she drew her wand and went reluctantly to join the battle.

Thomas watched her go, and then leant his head back against the wall, laying the ever present MP5 across his lap, he crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes and let the sound of battle slowly fade from his hearing.

OoOoO

Harry had been struggling with all his might to break through the seal that Voldemort had placed on the ward, compared to the ward he had beaten over the Burrow, the ward over the prison was stronger by several orders of magnitude. He knew if he failed, they would all die, he had no choice but to get through the ward, when the explosion that destroyed part of the building had an unexpected affect. A large unexplained hole suddenly appeared in the Ward, directly under the wing of the prison that had been destroyed.

Barely had the hole appeared, when the barrier started to shift and change, it rapidly tried to compensate for the weakness, using its own energy to repair the damage, but Harry grabbed his chance and used a portion of his own magical energy to keep the hole open.

The barrier pressed against him, trying to force the hole closed, Harry at once knew that he didn't have the power to punch a hole in the barrier, not even where one had been before Voldemort had sealed it, the barrier was just too strong, but if he could hold this new hole open, force the barrier to expend all its energy trying to close it, then maybe he could drop the ward over the entire island.

Using a little more power, Harry slowly pushed back against the barrier, forcing the existing hole slightly wider. The barrier was like a giant solar panel in the sun, the more damage done to it, the less power it had to draw upon, all he had to do was keep slowly widening the hole, and the barrier would exhaust itself.

OoOoO

Bill had managed to successfully unpick two strands from the ward stone when the concussion from the explosion blew him over backwards. From his position, lying spread-eagled on the ground he watched in amazement as the other wing of the building he was working on seemed to lift several feet into the air and then slowly and sedately collapse in on itself.

He had no idea what could cause so much no damage, certainly no curse or spell he was aware of. The entire end of the building had been reduced to mere rubble. He turned back to the ward stone he had been working on and stared at it.

The power lines of the ward that passed through the stone, Visible to him because of the spell he had cast, were fluctuating wildly, almost uncontrollably, and suddenly he knew what must have happened.

There was a ward stone at the other end of the building, the end that had been destroyed. To disrupt the ward itself didn't require the actual destruction of the ward stone, it just required the stone to be moved out of position. When a ward this powerful was created the exact placement of each ward stone was of vital importance.

If he had attempted to move the stone he had been working on, the ward would have killed him instantly, but the unexplained explosion had moved or destroyed the stone at the other end of the building, and the remaining stones belonging to the ward were struggling to maintain the ward despite the loss of one of their compatriots, within seconds the remaining stones would have managed to compensate for the loss, but if he moved quick enough…

OoOoO

The battle was fought at a frantic pace, spells and counter spells flashed up and down the corridor, there were not two clearly defined battle lines, the two lines had become so entangled it as impossible to know where the frontline was, or even if there was one.

So crowded were the combatants that even if a spell missed its intended target, then the chances are that it would strike someone, either friend or foe.

The original teams had lost cohesion completely in the magical melee, and in the fast, whirling combat adhoc partnerships were formed for perhaps the casting of a single spell before the shifting battle pulled the partnership apart.

Members of the D.A. found themselves fighting alongside the Order of the Phoenix, people they knew only in passing, or those they knew intimately, it made no difference. All knew they had to buy Harry the time he needed, they were united in a single purpose, and were that much stronger because of it.

It was pointless trying to keep track of such a combat, it simply moved too fast, all one could hope to do was to survive it.

Ginny slashed a cutting hex down onto the Death Eater that had just pinned Terry against a wall with his forearm. The man howled and released his grip, allowing Terry to punch the man hard in the chest and face with alternate hands, the blows were fast and dropped the Death Eater to his knees.

What happened next was lost to Ginny's sight as the combat carried her past.

"Protego!"

Ginny raised her shield in the nick of time as a Reducto curse smashed into it, she staggered back a step and found herself back to back with her mother, who was duelling a woman Death Eater.

"Defendo Fides!"

Draco had appeared suddenly between them, touching them each on the shoulder and cast a shielding charm that Ginny had never heard before, a perfect globe formed around both her and her mother. Four spells struck the shield, and deflected straight back to the casters, at least two Death Eaters fell to the floor screaming.

Before she could offer her thanks, Draco had moved on, he moved through the combat like death incarnate, no Death Eater could stand before him. And while he never resorted to casting an unforgivable curse, his chosen spells had more permanent results on the Death Eaters than most of the spells getting flung about the corridor.

With a sharp tug on her sleeve, Mad eye pulled her out of the way of a cutting curse that would have slit her throat, his wand flicked up and a Reducto curse put paid to her attacker in a spray of gore, and then mad eye was gone, stomping into where the combat was the thickest.

Ginny ducked and rolled under a killing curse, her size and agility saving her once again. Spinning to retaliate, she turned to find her attacker being soundly beaten to a pulp by Terry Boot.

He seemed to have mislaid his wand in all the excitement and was laying into the man with his fists, it didn't appear to be random blows, but a savagely controlled violence. Lightning fast Terry fired combinations of punches into the man's face and body, eventually dropping him to the floor.

Terry turned, and seeing Ginny watching him grinned and shrugged.

"Knew those boxing lessons would pay off one day!"

Ginny laughed, and turned back to the serious business all around her.

"Reducto!"

A Death Eater that had been aiming at Hermione's undefended back, cried out and dropped out of sight.

A tall Death Eater with a black moustache appeared the other side of Hermione. Ginny recognised him immediately. Antonin Dolohov, they had fought him in the department of mysteries two years ago, where he had seriously injured Hermione, nearly killing her.

It appeared that he had recognised Hermione too, for a predatory smile crossed his face as he took aim. Ginny didn't know what to do, Hermione was almost directly between her and Dolohov, and she looked around desperately for some way of getting to the Death Eater. His favourite spell, the one he had used on Hermione before, caused massive internal injuries, it had nearly killed Hermione before when he had cast it non-verbally. This time if he used the same spell, he could very well succeed.

Raising her wand, Ginny tried something she had never done before.

"Accio Hermione!"

"Deleo Adfligo!"

The purple flamed spell missed Hermione by a hairsbreadth, mainly because Hermione was no longer in the path of the spell, unfortunately an unprepared Terry Boot was now in the path of the spell. It struck him savagely in the small of his back, he stood there for a moment frozen in shock.

"Bugger"

Then his eyes rolled up into his head and he fell to lie unmoving on the floor.

Hermione flew across the corridor and struck the petite red head hard, Ginny had braced herself, but Hermione was taller than her and considerably heavier, and moving at some speed when she hit. Ginny flew backwards, landing in an ungainly heap with Hermione on top of her. Ginny felt a sudden, vicious pain in her right arm as she landed and cried out loudly in pain.

"Ginny, why did you do that?"

Hermione climbed off of her and reached down in order to help her friend get to her feet.

"Dolohov had you, couldn't think of another way"

Ginny cradled her injured arm and gritted her teeth against the pain, it was broken she was sure of it, tucking it as gently as possible into her robes she smiled bravely at Hermione and clutched her wand in her left hand. The two witches became partners for a short time before the battle pulled them apart.

OoOoO

Bill worked faster, with less care than he ever had in his life before, it was the stuff of nightmares for a curse breaker to have to throw caution to the wind in this fashion, curse breaking was a methodical, slow and patient job, not this rushed and careless task he found himself carrying out.

Stooping over the ward stone, his wand movements had lost the precise and sedate movements of before, to be replaced by short, frantic stabbing motions.

It didn't matter now about crossing and touching the threads, with the loss of the first ward stone, the ward would not be able to detect his minor interference compared to the destruction already wrought upon it.

If he could manage to unravel the power lines running through this second, adjacent ward stone while the ward was still struggling to compensate for the loss of the first stone then maybe, just maybe he could start a catastrophic chain reaction that would destroy the entire ward, as each stone tried and failed in turn to control the immense power of the prisons ward.

OoOoO

Ginny was slammed into a wall by a struggling pair of figures, she screamed as the jagged ends of the bones in her arm ground together, and for a moment the corridor seemed to tilt in some very funny directions. But by taking long, deep breaths she was able to remain conscious.

Somehow she had found herself at the rear of the struggle, near the door to the security office, the defenders were being driven back under the sheer weight of numbers, although a few steps didn't seem like much, when the entire melee moved a few steps every minute, before long the Death Eaters would have achieved their objective.

From where she stood, Ginny could see Sturgis Podmore unmoving on the floor, she could also see Terry Boot lying face down on the floor, and nearby Neville lay on his side, convulsing violently, she wanted so much to go to her friends, but she knew she couldn't. Trying to help them would leave the defenders a body short and make her an easier target.

Spotting Luna trying to fight two large Death Eaters that had her backed into the corner, Ginny pushed her pain and uncertainty back down inside and went to the aid of her friend. Of those students in her year Ginny was closer to Luna than anyone in her own house. They had been friends from the moment the Lovegoods had moved to Otterly St Catchpole, Ginny could only barely remember Luna's mother, she had died when they were very young. Despite her apparent oddness Ginny had always felt strangely comfortable around the blond haired girl, and had been disappointed when Luna had been sorted into Ravenclaw.

Ginny and Luna had discovered that cross house friendships, while not exactly encouraged, were not prohibited at Hogwarts, and as time went on their friendship grew stronger. While Ginny regarded Hermione as her best friend, Luna came a very close second.

"Sectumsempra!"

One of the Death Eaters screamed and staggered as Ginny's spell opened a deep laceration in his side, the second Death Eater spun and pointed his wand at her, but Luna calmly and coolly stunned him.

Ginny turned and pointed her wand at the first Death Eater, who was by now laid on the floor sobbing loudly and calling for his mother. Ginny stunned him, more to shut him up than to put him out of the fight.

She looked at Luna and rolled her eyes.

"What a whiner!"

Luna laughed and for a brief second the two girls shared a moment of humour, then Luna's face dropped, the humour was replaced by a look of absolute horror.

Ginny frowned and began to turn to look at whatever had so horrified her friend. It was at this moment that for Ginny time seemed to slow to a crawl. As she turned she found herself face to face with Antonin Dolohov, he was striding towards her, his wand coming up to the aim.

Luna must have recognised the man over her shoulder from her part in the battle at the department of mysteries. Ginny began to bring her wand up, but she knew that she would never get a spell off in time, Dolohov had her and from the look on his face, he knew it too.

Dolohov's wand was pointed at her heart before her wand was even pointed at his knees, and the Death Eaters mouth began to move as he spoke the incantation that would in all like hood end her life. Harry! Oh god, Harry would never recover from this, it would push him right over the edge.

Ginny felt a hand take a firm grip on her shoulder, and suddenly she was being yanked backwards so forcefully that there was never a chance she could keep her balance. As she fell something purple flashed over her head by inches, hitting the floor Ginny found her wand was pointing naturally at Dolohov's chest.

"Incarcerous!"

Dolohov, bound by the magical rope that had shot from the end of Ginny's wand tip, overbalanced and fell backwards. Ginny lost sight of him as another figure fell blocking her view, a slender figure with long blond hair.

"Luna!"

Ginny screamed and reached for her friend, but Luna didn't respond to her cry or her touch.

OoOoO

Thomas suddenly snapped awake. Fighting back the feelings of utter exhaustion and cold, which he knew to be the effects of blood loss, he opened his eyes.

Not far away the battle still raged on, it was a lot closer now than he remembered it being. But that wasn't what had gotten his attention, something had struck him on the shoulder.

Looking up, Thomas felt his pulse quicken, a hole had been cut in the ceiling and two Death Eaters were taking pot shots at the wizards fighting below. Even as he watched, a Death Eater managed to hit Molly Weasley with a spell, knocking her to the floor with a cry of pain.

Well that just wasn't acceptable, he needed to put a stop to this. Knowing he was too exhausted to do anything about the situation magically, Thomas took hold of the MP5 and tried to lift it to his shoulder, the weight of the weapon, never a problem before, was suddenly too much to lift, it dragged at his arms cruelly.

Feeling anger at being so helpless, at not being able to help his friends. Thomas snarled. Harnessing his anger, Thomas overrode his tired body and raised the weapon, with his thumb he clicked off the safety and pulled the trigger twice.

The first round took the first Death Eater above him cleanly between the eyes, killing him before he even knew he was under attack, the second round, although redundant, hit the already dead man in the throat.

Shifting his point of aim, Thomas selected the three round burst setting with his thumb and fired again. The second Death Eater had all the warning he needed to start moving out of sight, only one round hit him, in the right shoulder, the man fell backwards out of sight moaning with pain.

His arms shaking with effort Thomas let the weapon drop into his lap. Looking over towards Molly he weakly called out to her, but she hadn't moved, just lying there still as the battle was fought around her. Thomas could see that things were approaching the critical point, a third of the defenders were down on the floor, with as many as double that number of Death Eaters.

However there was no slackening in the fire coming from the Death Eaters, as the fallen were quickly replaced.

A Death Eater emerged from the crowd and aimed his wand at the helpless form of Molly, with a snarl of anger and frustration Thomas snapped the barrel of the MP5 up and pulled the trigger, firing the weapon without taking the time to aim.

The three rounds travelled the distance in less time than it took to blink, and the man was blasted from his feet. It had taken the last of his strength to take that last shot and he could no longer hold the weapon his hands were shaking that much.

Thomas was certain that unless things changed quickly, this mission was going to end in disaster, and everyone involved would die. Come on Harry, what's keeping you?

OoOoO

With a sound that reminded Bill of material ripping in two, the last power line tore free of the ward stone. Bill Weasley sunk to the floor and rolled over onto his back with a big grin of victory on his face.

Overhead there was a loud crackle of released energy and a series of mighty booms so close together it might have been one sound that shook the ground, as each remaining ward stone exploded under the intense magical pressure.

He'd done it, he had destroyed the second most powerful magical ward in Britain single handed, now his job was done he really needed to sleep for a week. Before he could think of a viable reason to stay awake, his pain wracked body finally failed him and Bill passed out.

OoOoO

Harry had no warning, one moment he was pressing as hard as he could against the efforts of the ward as it tried to close the hole, then suddenly with a mighty boom that echoed across the sky over the entire prison, the barrier ward collapsed in on itself, all the remaining magical energy left in the barrier bled off into the only reservoir open and available to it.

Harry.

An involuntary scream was ripped from his throat, as so much magical power rushed into him, it was enough power to very nearly completely burn out his magical core, overloading him to dangerous levels.

Harry's magical core, the place he drew the energy to cast his spells was still growing, which at his age was extremely rare. Years of mistreatment and malnutrition had slowed his bodies growth, so he had several more years where his height and body masswould increase, and that his core would continue to grow. Had it already reached its mature level, the extra magical energy forcing its way inside would probably have killed him, as it was, the elasticity in the still expanding core did the only thing it could do faced with that much extra energy, it grew yet more.

Harry fell to his knees sobbing in pain, his whole body felt like the Hogwarts express had rolled over it. It was like someone was jabbing every inch of his exposed skin with red hot needles. Holding his head in his hands he cried as the pain increased to an unbearable level. Then, with no warning the pain ceased, leaving in its place a strange dull ache.

Looking at his hands, Harry was terrified to find he was bleeding from under his fingernails, and feeling wetness on his cheeks, he reached up and touched them, pulling his hand away he was horrified to find he was bleeding from his eyes and ears too.

He tried to wipe the blood away and ended up just smearing it across his face.

Staggering unsteadily to his feet, his vision swimming, Harry moved out of the arrivals room and into the security room. From the corridor outside came the sounds of battle, very close now. Flinging the door open, Harry stepped outside.

A Death Eater slammed Hermione to the floor and stepped back aiming his wand, Harry didn't hesitate, he reacted instinctively to one of his friends being in danger, he didn't even think about the fact he didn't have a wand in his hand.

"Incendiarus Globo!"

In his outstretched palm a ball of flame sprang into existence, and despite the heat he could feel being given off by it, his hand remained perfectly cool.

Drawing his hand back to his shoulder, Harry threw the fireball at the Death Eater, the fireball didn't require his physical strength, and it picked his target and flew straight and true, striking the man on his shoulder and turning him into an instant funeral pyre. There was no scream of pain, one moment the man was there, the next there was nothing but ash, bones and a burning robe on the floor.

Hermione stepped back and stared at him in horrified amazement.

"Nice of you to join us, you look like crap by the way"

Harry startled by the weak voice, looked around and saw Thomas propped up by the doorway, his blood pool so big now that he could no longer hide it. His voice was weak, and he was extremely pale, his lips almost blue in colour.

"Like you look any better! What happened to you?"

Harry asked as he knelt by the man's side.

"If it's possible, I had a little too much fun, a building fell on me!"

Thomas gave him a weak grin that didn't hide the fact he hadn't got long left, Knowing he had to act to save the man's life, Harry placed both hands on Thomas and closed his eyes.

"Curatio Attrectro!"

Harry concentrated, allowing some of his energy to flow through him into Thomas, the spell, literally translated meant healing touch, it had its limitations, such as he had to remain in physical contact and needed to concentrate hard.

Opening his eyes, Harry saw the blood had nearly stopped flowing, although Thomas' eyes were starting to close as he finally began to slip away. Placing his hand upon the soldiers shoulder, Harry concentrated on the healers' tent in the meadow of the burrow. In the blink of an eye they were gone.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW**

When the apparation ward started screaming, it took a moment for it to actually sink in, those left in the meadow had watched the three teams of the D.A. depart, followed by the two teams of the Order. And then the barrier had been sealed and everybody had settled down to wait, and it had been a long heart-breaking wait.

In the medical tent Poppy Pomfrey had reorganised the potions for the third time, she envied her younger colleague, Amanda Coombs was sitting calmly reading the latest magical medical journal, 'the lancet and the wand' seemingly without a care in the world.

Although Healer ranked above Nurse, Poppy had many more years of experience to draw upon, plus with thirty years working at Hogwarts, she had seen just about every kind of spell damage that could be inflicted on the human body.

Both of them stood when the ward went off, all the portkeys had been tuned to arrive directly outside the tent, but apparations could come in anywhere. Depending on where the person was concentrating on.

With a large crack followed by a shockwave, Harry Potter appeared with Thomas Bell, he looked around once to ensure he had arrived in the right place, then vanished again without a word, leaving Thomas semi conscious on the floor. With a swish and a flick Amanda Coombs levitated the badly injured man onto one of the beds.

Professor McGonagall pushed open the tent flap and peered inside.

"Is everything alright, I heard the alarm?"

Poppy looked up at the sound of her friend's voice.

"Tell the others the ward is open, Potter just dropped off a guest!"

She indicated the still figure of Thomas on the bed, Minerva McGonagall's eyes widened when she saw the extent of the young man's injuries, it was surprising he had lived this long from the size of the wound in his side.

"I'll let Marcus know"

She disappeared back out of the tent.

The two women healers looked at each other in concern, hoping against their own better judgement this was the worst and only injury they would have to deal with this day, before they got to work trying to save Thomas Bell's life.

OoOoO

**St. Mungos Hospital**

Emily Shacklebolt looked up from her clipboard and glanced down the length of the silent, empty ward, frowning slightly. She thought she had heard the double doors at the end of the ward swing open, but her glance showed her there was no one there. Normally she would just have shrugged her shoulders and continued with the potion inventory, but these were not normal times.

There had been strange, furtive men in the corridors of the hospital these last few days, asking questions of the staff and generally getting in the way, and the atmosphere of the place had changed into something quietly unsettling, perhaps even menacing. There was one particular man, a Frenchman, by his accent, that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up straight, she didn't know what it was about the man, he was always extremely well dressed and polite, but something about him always made Emily feel dirty.

Placing the clipboard on the shelf, she flexed her wrist and her wand was instantly in her hand, shooting out from the Auror issue wrist holster that her husband insisted she wear. She had only taken three steps from the shelf when there was an enormous clattering sound behind her.

Spinning, wand raised, Emily prepared to defend herself. Only to discover the loud sound had been caused by her own clipboard falling to the floor. Smiling at her own stupidity and the silly situation she found herself in, she squatted down and picked up the clipboard and stood up again.

Straight into the arms of her husband.

"Oh Sweet Merlin Shack! Are you trying give me a heart attack?"

Emily could feel her heart pounding in her chest and took several deep breaths in order to regain control of her racing pulse. She noticed he was wearing an invisibility cloak open across his shoulders, which explained how he had managed to scare her so completely. In his hands was a package which he was holding out to her.

"Put this on, trust me Em!"

She looked up at the tone of his voice, he sounded both sad and concerned and there were none of his usual laughter lines on his face that she had come to expect from the tall Auror.

"It's started, hasn't it?"

She asked in a small voice, Shack nodded once in confirmation and turned to watch the door. They had discussed the state of Britains wizarding world, and Shacklebolt had made plans for his wife and daughter to flee over seas should things get too bad.

Emily looked down at the package in her hands, with nimble fingers she opened it and discovered another invisibility cloak inside, she knew how rare these items were and wondered briefly what Shack had been forced to do to acquire one for her.

Slipping it around her shoulders, Emily tied the cloak but left it open across the shoulders like her husband was wearing his.

"Ok, now what?"

Shack turned back towards her and nodded at her quick completion of his instructions, he was frowning as he began moving towards the double doors.

"The Ministry has declared Martial Law; even as we speak there are men downstairs taking control of this entire hospital."

"I don't understand, why control the hospital?"

Emily asked bewildered, St Mungos was run independently of the Ministry of Magic; the ministry had no control over the conduct of the medical care provided to the community.

"Because even as we speak on the island of Azkaban there is a battle being fought between Voldemort and his Death Eaters and the forces loyal to Harry Potter. The Ministry thinks the wounded from Potter's forces will arrive here and wants them arrested as soon as it happens."

There was something in Shack's tone, some small morsel of humour that leaked out.

"I take it that Potter's wounded won't be coming here?"

"No. Harry, it turns out has more support than the Minister, or Voldemort yet realise, but he needs some specialised help."

Emily could see where this was going.

"Specialised medical help by any chance?"

"Just so Em, just so."

"Right, I think I know just who to ask."

Kingsley Shacklebolt grinned fondly over at his wife.

"I thought you might."

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

Harry arrived back in the corridor to find a battle so very nearly lost, over half the Marauders were now out of action, and all the others appeared injured in some fashion. These people had been hurt because it had taken him so long to bring down the barrier, more to add to the list of those that had stood between him and danger.

Draco had managed to fight his way to Katie's side, and together they held firm against a determined knot of Death Eaters despite both being covered in cuts and spell burns. Neville, ignoring a deep wound in his chest, had crawled painfully over to Luna, and cradled the unconscious girls head in his lap, and despite the huge sobs escaping from him put up an effective defence from the floor.

To Harry's massive relief he could see a familiar long mane of red hair moving quickly between several Death Eaters, Ginny fought beside Remus, her agility a perfect counter point to his strength, one of her arms was tucked into her robes and her face was pale and drawn, indicating some form of injury.

Remus was cut in a dozen places, but because of the wolf hidden within him he healed quicker than an uninfected human, and his strength and stamina were incredible. He would probably be the last on his feet, but even he would fall under sheer weight of numbers.

Charlie and Ron fought like lions, both were injured but neither was willing to give any ground before the onslaught of the Death Eaters, but both were tiring quickly. This battle had only one possible outcome, and for the Marauders it wasn't going to be good.

Reaching out his hand, Harry called his wand to him from Draco's hand, and the instant it appeared he rejoined the fight.

"Reducto!"

A Death Eater about to strike at a dazed Hermione, where she was leaning against the wall, was blown off his feet in a spray of gore as the power of Harry's spell literally punched a hole right through the man.

Harry blinked in surprise at the unexpected power of the spell, his normal Reducto could kill, if it was fired close enough to the target and hit the right place, the last one had been fired at extreme range and should not have caused a fatal wound wherever it had hit. Shrugging in puzzlement at this latest development, he didn't have time to figure it out now, there was a battle to win.

"Expelliarmus!"

The Death Eater about to kill Neville was thrown into the wall so hard he left an imprint of his body in the wall when he slid to the floor, the majority of the bones in his body pulverised from the impact.

"Avada Ked…!"

Harry held the Death Eaters wand before he could finish his incantation, chucking the wand aside, Harry killed the man with a cutting hex that nearly cut the man in two.

Harry was like a force of nature, the Death Eaters had no choice but to give ground before him, he left nothing but corpses in his wake, even the simplest of spells backed up with the power at his disposal were enough to maim and kill.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Harry drove a Death Eater into the ceiling with so much force that the man remained impaled there up to his elbows, with his nerve endings firing randomly, the man's legs continued twitching for some considerable time afterwards.

Suddenly there was the cooking popcorn sound of multiple apparations, and the corridor was suddenly filled with Marauders, order members and Aurors, after a second to get their bearings the new arrivals laid into the Death Eaters with a terrible vengeance, extracting payment in full for all the years of hurt suffered at the hands of their kind.

The Death Eaters had gone from having an overwhelming numerical advantage, to being outnumbered themselves, and where the Marauders had fought on against such huge odds, the sudden shock of being outnumbered broke the Death Eaters. Their morale shattered, the Death Eaters reeled back towards the exit, dragging some of their wounded with them.

The Aurors chased the Death Eaters clear and threw up a quick barrier ward at the entrance to the building. The Order members moved to try and help the wounded, of which there were so very many. Harry stood in the centre of the corridor, amid so much death and destruction and he felt nothing but despair and tiredness.

"Harry?"

Harry spun around, and when he saw that familiar mane of red hair flying towards him, his heart soared, Ginny was alive, and well enough to be running right at him.

Ginny threw herself into his arms, and Harry hugged her tightly. It was only when he heard her gasp with pain he suddenly remembered her injury. Releasing her, Harry took and step back and peered into her face, she was so pale, and she trembled slightly.

"I'm sorry! Where are you hurt Gin?"

She looked up into his face, a little shocked at his appearence, taking in the dried blood around his eyes, despite that he was smiling at her and the love he felt for her shone brightly in his eyes.

"It's my arm, I think it's broken"

Harry nodded and took hold of her good hand, he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"Will you let me look at it?"

Biting her lip in uncertainty, Ginny nodded at him, and very gently he took hold of her arm and removed it from where Ginny had tucked it into her robes. She winced sharply in pain but let him continue.

"Sorry, this might hurt a little"

Pocketing his wand, Harry placed a hand on either side of the break site, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

"Amolior Adflictatio!"

Harry didn't have the medical skill to heal the broken bone, he could by accident cause her more harm than good, but he could ease her pain, make the injury more bearable.

He used a small amount of magic to locate the nerves and the pain receptors in her arm that were sending the messages to her brain that her arm hurt, and he gently coaxed them into believing that she had only bruised her arm rather than broken it. The arm would still hurt, but to take all the pain away could lead to her causing more damage to her arm without realising it, the pain was there for a reason after all.

Ginny sighed with relief as the mind numbing pain eased until it was little more than a dull ache, she opened her eyes and smiled up at Harry.

"Thank you"

Harry held out his hand, and a large white bandage appeared. He had made sure he knew where in the field hospital certain vital supplies were stored for eventualities just like this.

He proceeded to craft a creditable sling out of it, securing it with a sticking charm he cast wandlessly. With great care he placed Ginny's arm inside the sling, and stood back to admire his handiwork, it was not as good as Madam Pomfrey could have managed, but for now it would do.

Looking around the corridor, Harry took a quick head count of who was still on their feet.

Draco appeared relatively uninjured, he was using strips torn off of his own robes to try and bandage some of Katie's deeper wounds, she appeared worse off of the two, some of her wounds would require medical treatment, but her wounds were not life threatening.

Neville was bleeding profusely from a wound in his sternum that had managed to punch through his body armour and he appeared to be having difficulty breathing. He still cradled the still form of Luna Lovegood in his arms, she was very pale but appeared to be still breathing.

Terry Boot was laid face down on the floor, unmoving. He did not appear to have a mark on him, and Harry instantly feared that he had been hit by the killing curse, which left no visible sign on the victim's body.

Ron was helping Hermione to her feet, she had taken a nasty blow to the side of her face and appeared a little dazed, but other than that she appeared to have got off lightly. Ron on the other hand appeared in right state, his clothing was torn and bloody and his face was black and blue. But despite this he was stood tall and proud, without any sign from his stance that he was in a lot of pain.

Of the ten of them that had arrived originally, only Harry, Draco, Ron and Hermione seemed in any condition to continue. With shock, Harry realised that the Order had suffered losses even more serious, of the eight order members that had joined the fight only Remus, Mad-eye and Charlie still appeared able to continue.

Molly was trying to sit up but Charlie was holding her down, she had taken a spell to her back and was bleeding heavily. There was a sense of shock and despair just hanging in the air in the corridor. They had taken a beating and nobody seemed to know what to do next.

Harry sighed, he had never wanted the role of leader thrust upon him, but it seemed whether he wanted it or not it was his regardless, and now he needed to lead. They had only fought the first skirmish of this battle, they still had many prisoners to free, and a Dark Wizard to keep busy.

"Alright you lot, lets get the wounded gathered up and transported back to the burrow, we still have a lot of people in need of rescuing in this prison, we cannot afford to sit around here all day."

Ginny glared at him, her accusing glare hurting him more than any spell could, but it wasn't that he was completely oblivious to the suffering, he just wanted it all to count for something. There was no point taking losses and then just packing up and going home, they had to press on.

"Ron!"

Ron looked over at him, seeing his friend and his sister both still on their feet made the tall, lanky red head grin with relief.

"Ron, I'm leaving you in charge of getting the casualties out of here, ok. Use portkeys to get them home."

Ron nodded and began organising the evacuation, he wanted Hermione to leave, but from the vigorous shake of her head, Harry could tell that Ron was not having his way in that conversation. Which reminded him of something he had to do.

"Ginny I want you to go back to the burrow and get your arm looked at."

Ginny gave him one of her famed 'I don't think so' looks.

"I'm staying Harry, with the losses we've taken you need all the help you can get!"

Harry touched her cheek gently.

"In your condition I'd spend more time worrying about you than I would worrying about Voldemort. If you don't go of your own free will, then I shall stun you and have someone carry you back, and you know I would!"

Ginny was outraged, but she could see it in his face the fact that he wouldn't budge on this issue, and she also knew he was quite willing to stun her himself in order to keep her out of harm's way. Well, she'd go along with him, at least for now, and when his back was turned, slip back.

"Alright I'll go"

Bending down, Harry kissed her forehead. He hadn't expected her to give in that easily, maybe she was suffering from the battle worse than he thought.

"Draco! I need your help!"

Harry waited as Draco kissed Katie, she looked pale but she smiled up at him and indicated he should go with Harry. Standing up, he turned and walked over to him.

"So what now?"

"Now we search this building from top to bottom, two of my friends are still in here somewhere, and I'm not leaving without them."

Harry had described the room he had seen in his vision, where Lavender and Dean had been tortured, to Marcus, and he had confirmed that it was one of the interrogation rooms in the operations building. Harry knew they were both severely injured, perhaps even dead, but he wasn't leaving until he knew for sure.

"Portkeys!"

Catching the eye of a passing Auror, Harry held out his hands and the Auror chucked him his pack containing six portkeys, they would need them if they found any wounded.

OoOoO

The Death Eater was half carried-half dragged in front of Voldemort. The man had suffered a shoulder wound during the battle, but not from any spell Voldemort was familiar with.

Dumping the man to the floor, the other two Death Eaters stepped back, just in case their lord didn't like what he heard, they didn't want the man's blood on their robes if they could help it.

Voldemort stepped forward and looked into the wounded man's eyes.

"Speak!"

The Death eater gulped nervously, it was the first time he had been granted such an audience with his lord since receiving the dark mark.

"We were on the first floor my lord, firing down into the enemy through a hole we had vanished in the floor. A man below us that we thought was dead looked up at us, brandished a black stick like object… the next thing I knew Brad was dead! He had a hole in his head, I was so shocked that I fell over, then I felt a pain like fire in my shoulder."

Voldemort considered the man for a moment, then clasped both of his talon-like hands to the man's head. The Death Eater screamed as Voldemort extracted the memory from his head, it was a forbidden form of dark magic, like a more violent type of viewing memories in a pensieve. It was what he had used to such good effect to strip the prison wardens mind.

"Well that is interesting"

"My lord?"

Voldemort looked up as Bella entered the room.

"It appears dear Harry has recruited some help from the muggle military. I need to look into the possibilities of us doing the same, who would you suggest I task with this?"

Bellatrix considered the options for a moment, there really was only two candidates.

"Malfoy and Snape my lord, they are as devious as any of your followers, they would be my choice"

Voldemort nodded, those were the names he had already picked, he had been testing his most trusted Lieutenant, and was very pleased she had thought so much along the same lines as him.

"Very well when we get back ask them to stop by, I have a little task for them."

OoOoO

Draco and Harry went room by room, being careful and moving stealthily, Death Eaters could have been sealed in the building with them and be lying in wait for a suitable moment. They had already discovered the prisoner's wands, over two hundred of them, and had placed them in the pack with the portkeys.

They had searched the first and most of the second floor to no avail when they had come across a locked door.

"What do you think?"

Draco regarded the door and looked back at Harry.

"Well, since the only way to really know is to have a look, let's see what's behind door number one shall we."

Draco dropped back to cover Harry as he raised his wand.

"Alohomora!"

The lock of the door clicked open, with a nod at Draco, Harry gave the door a solid kick, then spun quickly aside, out of Draco's line of fire. From where he stood to one side of the doorframe, Harry could tell whatever was inside wasn't pleasant from the sudden lack of colour in Draco's face. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Harry stepped inside.

It was the room from his vision, just as he remembered it in every graphic detail, the three bodies lay exactly where he remembered them.

Draco moved to check on Dean Thomas, Harry tried his best to Ignore Mundungus Fletcher's body who he already knew to be dead, and Harry knelt by Lavender Brown's twisted and broken body, and almost against all hope gently felt for a pulse.

Lavender's eyelids flickered open at his touch, but it took an age for her eyes to focus on his face, but when she did, she smiled. Or at least one side of her face did. One entire side of her face hung slackly, as if all the muscles had been removed.

Her body was covered in small, yet deep cuts which alone were not life threatening but together represented an awful lot of lost blood, her pulse was slow and thready and Lavender was very pale.

Both her arms and legs had been broken in multiple places and cruelly twisted so that the joints pointed in derictions they were not designed to point, in some places Harry could see where bones protruded through the skin. As if not content with that level of injury someone had then stamped on her fingers breaking them all. There were indications of worse internal injuries as well. The pain she was in must have been absolutely incredible.

Harry felt something go strangely cold inside of him, and he knew that if at any time he felt any hesitation about killing a Death Eater in the future, he would remember this moment with crystal clarity and know that some people just deserved killing.

"Hi…Harry, knew…you'd c…come"

Harry placed a comforting hand on Lavender's shoulder and squeezed to let her know she wasn't alone, but felt the bones of her collarbone grate together under his touch, he felt sickened by what had happened to his friend. How could anyone get so much enjoyment from harming another person?

"Don't try to talk, I'm going to get you out of here Lavender, we have healers to fix you up back at the burrow, don't stop fighting."

Lavender tried to shake her head, but nothing happened, a single tear ran down her cheek from her good eye.

"Too l…late for t…that now Harry. Told V…Voldemort you w…would k…kill him, please don't make a l…liar out of m…me Harry."

Harry placed his hands on her and prepared to use his healing hands spell, with her injuries it would require an awful lot of magical energy to keep her alive.

"The p…pain is fading, t..this is the end isn't it"

Harry took a deep breathe and prepared himself to pour every bit of energy into Lavender, not caring that such an action would leave him exhausted and unable to face Voldemort. His friend needed him.

But before he could cast the spell, the battle he was preparing to fight was already over. Lavender took one more rattling, painful breath, and then another, then finally she sighed softly and her body relaxed as she travelled to a place where no hurt could reach her anymore. Harry reached over and carefully closed the teenage girls' eyelids, and then took her small hand in his own.

Harry sat there in silence for a long time just holding Lavender's smashed hand.

"No Lavender, I promise I won't make a liar out of you, I'm going to kill Voldemort, I was going to kill him before, but now the difference is I'm really going to enjoy it."

Harry bowed his head for a long moment and felt the tears running freely down his cheeks, another of his friends had died. When would it end, when would other people stop getting punished just for knowing him?

This time someone had died all because Voldemort had wanted to get his attention. Well Voldemort had his full and undivided attention now, and Harry vowed to himself that the dark wizard was going to regret it.

He didn't know how long he sat there, he was aware when a portkey was activated in the room, and he assumed that Draco had sent Dean back to the burrow. Harry supposed he should send Lavender back, they could make arrangements to return the body back to the poor girls parents.

The touch of Draco's hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his reverie, and he looked up into Draco's pale, determined face. The blond youth bent and gently covered Lavender's body with a cloak, trying to restore some dignity to her in death.

"Thomas is alive, hurt badly, but alive."

Harry just nodded, staring at the still form of Lavender Brown under the cloak, he had known her for six years, and although her passing would affect others such as her family greater, he knew he would never forget this moment. It was another bill to place on Voldemort's tab, and one day payment would be collected in full.

"We have to send her back Harry, we cannot leave her here, we still have a job to do, and she would want us to finish it"

Harry nodded, Draco was right, they had to carry on or all the sacrifices would have been for nothing. Wiping his eyes dry, Harry stood and took the portkey that Draco handed him, Draco had dragged Mundungus Fletcher's body along side Lavender's so they could use a single portkey to send them both back.

Placing the portkey between them, Harry moved both of their hands so that they were touching the portkey, then he stepped back and reached down, touching the portkey with his wand.

"The burrow"

With a flash of light the two bodies were gone, leaving the two of them alone in the room. Out of his eye, Harry caught Draco looking at him strangely for some reason. Harry didn't wait to find out why. He turned and strode out of the room at such a pace that he forced Draco to jog to catch up.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Ginny Weasley exploded into existence outside the field hospital tent as the portkey released its hold over her. Two goblins and three Aurors, all of them wounded, relaxed at the sight of her distinctive red hair, she did tend to stand out from the crowd, it made her and her family easily identifiable.

She barely had time to look around her before Susan Bones hurried up to her carrying a series of coloured cards.

"Ginny, what are your injuries?"

Ginny was slightly taken aback by the snap of authority in Susan's tone, she had always been a fairly shy and nervous individual, but there was no sign of that now.

"Broken arm"

"Is that the only injury?"

Ginny nodded. Susan placed a green piece of card on her robes with a sticking charm and directed her to some chairs just inside the entrance to the tent, already sitting there were two lightly injured Order members and an Auror with a slight head injury. The tent was enchanted, it was much larger on the inside that it appeared from outside.

On the other side of the tent was a line of beds holding those with orange pieces of card attached to their robes, Neville and her mother were laid up in bed and appeared to be sleeping, Katie was also in one of the beds and waved weakly at her.

Ginny waved back. Puzzled about the coloured tags, she remembered Thomas talking about how combat medics used a system called triage to sort those that needed priority treatment from those that could wait, but she had never seen it in action before.

There were several people in healer green moving up and down the isles treating the injured that Ginny didn't recognise, obviously Amanda Coombs and Madam Pomfrey had received help while they had been away at Azkaban.

There was a flash of white light from outside the entrance to the tent.

"I have a red card!"

Susan came rushing in her voice strained, her face suddenly very pale, behind her two house elves Ginny didn't recognise were levitating Terry Boot into the tent. No wonder Susan was upset, they were best friends, it must have come as a shock to her.

An inner curtain twitched aside and Amanda Coombs appeared, the young woman looked tired, not physically tired, but mentally tired, the cost to the body of pushing your magical reserves to their breaking point by repeated castings of magical spells could be extremely severe.

"Bring him straight in, bed five. Susan I urgently need more blood replenishment potions, can you run and raid our stash."

Susan nodded and rushed from the tent. The house elves moved Terry into the inner area and appeared seconds later without him. Ginny was so busy staring at the inner curtain she didn't notice the approach of a man dressed in healer green.

"Miss Weasley, how are you? Hmm broken arm I see, no problem should have that fixed in short order. You probably don't remember me?"

But Ginny did remember the tall handsome healer from the Dai Llewellyn ward at St. Mungo's hospital, two years previously this man had treated her father when he had been bitten by Voldemort's snake.

"Healer Pye, of course I remember you, how could I forget, you saved my father's life!"

"Well it was a team effort actually"

Augustus Pye beamed down at her, he made several sweeps over her body with his wand while its tip glowed green.

"Just checking for any additional injuries, something you might not even know about, but you're right, it's just the broken arm and some minor bruising, I've always wanted to try putting an arm into plaster, just to see the effect you understand."

Ginny grinned, the man hadn't changed, he was still fascinated by the muggle healing arts as much as the magical remedies, when her father had been injured, trainee healer Pye, as he was back then, had tried to use muggle stitches to close the wound, it hadn't worked quite as well as he had hoped.

There was another flash of light from outside the tent, as another portkey reached its destination. Ginny noticed that all the healers in the tent looked up with a kind of grim expectation of what this new portkey would bring.

A female Auror Ginny hadn't seen before entered the tent, and she looked distressed.

"I've got a youth with severe lacerations to his entire body, multiple fractures to all his limbs, and extensive internal injuries. I also have two DOA's"

Three healers descended upon the female Auror and followed her outside. Ginny looked up at Augustus Pye and saw deep sadness in the man's eyes.

"What does DOA stand for?"

Ginny asked in a small voice, from the look on the man's face she was not sure she wanted to hear the answer. Augustus Pye looked into her eyes for a moment, as if deciding how much to tell her.

"It means Dead On Arrival, miss Weasley, miss Weasley come back here!"

Ginny had leapt up from her chair and strode outside, these new arrivals, what if one of them was Harry, she had to know, she just had to. The three healers were clustered around a figure on the floor, each of their wand tips were glowing blue as they cooperated in an attempt to save their patients life.

But it was towards the two figures laid out under cloaks to which Ginny felt drawn. With all the attention on the one arrival still alive, no one noticed as Ginny knelt and pulled back one of the cloaks and found herself looking down into the lifeless face of Lavender Brown.

Ginny sat back on her heels, her mind wiped clean in shock, she could not believe that her fellow Gryffindor was dead. She and Lavender had not been especially close, but she had liked the good looking and easy going girl and her endless reams of gossip on the goings on of the other houses.

Running her eyes over Lavender's injuries, Ginny choked back a sob at what the girl must have suffered before her death at Voldemort's hands, so much pain. And Harry had seen it all, in his vision he had lived every moment, and it was likely that he and Draco had found Lavender like this.

Ginny lifted the second cloak and sniffed when she saw the body of Mundungus Fletcher, which could only mean that Dean Thomas was the survivor the healers were working so hard to save. Ginny felt herself well up with tears and was powerless to stop them rolling down her cheeks.

"Come on miss Weasley, come back inside"

Ginny felt a gentle hand settle on her shoulder, Augustus Pye looked down at her with understanding and compassion. Ginny didn't want compassion and understanding at that moment, at that particular moment she wanted revenge.

Standing, she shrugged of the healer's hand from her shoulder, and drew her wand.

"Accio Portkey!"

She had spied a small pile of Portkeys that had been left to allow lightly injured Aurors and Order members to return to the battle without facing the stress of apparation. She knew that when this over she would have to learn how to apparate, with or without help. She had after all learnt to ride a broomstick at an early age by breaking into the broom shed and stealing her older brother's broomsticks. Hence rule breaking was nothing new to the youngest Weasley.

Snatching the summoned Portkey out of the air as it sailed towards her, Ginny touched the tip of her wand to it and with a determined look on her face, Ginny disappeared from sight.

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

"Uh-oh!"

Marcus Washburn looked up from where he was studying the floor plan of the prison and followed the direction of Remus Lupin's gaze. Harry had appeared in the corridor from the stairwell leading to the second floor, and from the set of his shoulders and the way he was walking something had upset the youth greatly.

But it was Harry's face that drew the attention of both men. The Harry they knew was an emotional youth, whose face read like an open book, his love, his frustration, his happiness and especially his anger all showed upon his face like an artist's canvas. But now there was simply nothing, his face was completely expressionless, almost as if his emotions had been sucked out of him, or possibly worse for all concerned, completely bottled up inside.

Draco followed close behind Harry, having to jog to keep up despite the fact Draco was nearly a foot taller then the raven-haired youth. He was shooting Harry's back regular concerned looks as he hurried along in his wake.

"Marcus, Remus, report!"

Even Harry's tone was flat and expressionless, sounding quite alien coming out of Harry's mouth, Remus would have preferred him to be angry to this complete lack of emotion.

"All the wounded have been evacuated, I have the casualty list here?"

Remus held out the parchment to Harry, but the youth ignored it and turned his attention to Marcus.

"All the Marauders are now here, except the goblins as previously discussed. The Death Eaters are holding both prison wings, and it's going to take a lot to dig them out."

Ron chose this moment to hurry up to the four, he was out of breath and was holding his side tightly.

Harry bowed his head for a moment, deep in thought.

"Time to change our plans I think, I want the Order and Aurors to concentrate on rescuing the prisoners from the cells"

"What about the Death Eaters in the prison wings?"

Marcus was frowning, had he overestimated the tactical grasp that Harry had of the situation? He seemed to be blinkered to the fact that the Death Eaters held the cell blocks, and the marauders didn't have anywhere near the manpower on hand to shift them.

"Don't worry Marcus by the time you are ready to move into the cells, there won't be many Death Eaters left in the cell area. I'm going to present to them a much more inviting target, I'm going to need all of those Charlie picked to collect broomsticks from the stash. I think its time to teach Voldemort the meaning of air power. "

OoOoO

Bill Weasley groaned loudly and placed a hand on his forehead, he found himself laid on his back staring up at the North Atlantic sky, the weather appeared to have cleared up and there was barely a cloud in the sky.

Far above, Bill could see the contrails that indicated a muggle Aeroplane was flying in a large circle above their position, and had been for a while, but the strangeness of muggles was something to be discussed on another day, right now he needed some medical attention, he just didn't think he had the strength to apparate all the way home, he needed to find some help, for himself, and more importantly for Fleur.

Grunting with the effort and the pain, Bill used the side of the building to get to his feet, and continuing to use the building for support Bill moved slowly around the outside of the building towards the entrance.

OoOoO

**The North Sea**

"Captain!"

"Yeah"

Owen Jackson looked up from the transcript of the conversation between his salvaged cargo ship and the coastguard on the night the vessel was attacked. One of his communications staff was holding out the intercom handset to him. Taking it, the officer keyed it open.

"Captain speaking."

"Sir, chief Samuels in CIC, we have an airborne track on the edge of our screens, bearing 065 degrees, from its electronic signature we have picked up I'd hazard a guess that its a French surveillance bird flying a high orbit that carries her inside British airspace on its downwind leg."

Jackson frowned and looked quickly over at the chart, there was nothing of any interest in that direction, what had the French found that had so captivated their attention.

"Well chief, I think we should amble on over there and see what it is they're looking at, what do you think?"

"Well sir, its not as if we have anything else going on is it?"

Jackson laughed.

"Precisely chief, keep an eye on our French friends, let me no if they do anything else weird and European ok."

Jackson turned and issued orders that would take the warship to investigate the planes appearance.

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

"Bella report!"

Voldemort asked his tone even, he wasn't angry with his followers for their failure to retake the operations building, after all who could have predicted that a group of rogue ministry Aurors would side with Harry Potter and his outcasts.

Bellatrix Lestrange came up to stand beside him, standing looking out of the window in the warden's office.

"My lord, over half of the original intruders are dead or seriously injured. The Aurors are believed to number only fifty, so their total force is believed to be no more than seventy strong. You currently have hundred and fifty under your command, and another thirty with minor injuries."

Voldemort nodded and turned away from the window to face his favoured Lieutenant.

"And what of the positions?"

"Potter's forces hold the operations building and show no signs so far of moving, we have a strong force in each cell block, and a reserve held here to fill any gaps."

Voldemort nodded, apparently satisfied.

"With the barrier ward down over the whole prison, let us use this chance to gather reinforcements, send word that I want to mobilise another hundred of my followers, oh and send word to the shadow council that the troop of their enforcers can make its approach to the prison. Any of Potter's heroes left alive by the day's end can be given to the dementors as payment. "

There was silence from Bellatrix, Voldemort turned to find her staring out of the window.

"Bella?"

"My lord, its Potter!"

Voldemort looked out of the window again, sure enough Harry Potter had entered the exercise yard from the far side and was walking slowly across the wide open space towards the front of the administration building.

Three others walked at his side, even from this distance Voldemort could recognise the bright red hair of Ron Weasley, the female at his side would have to be Hermione Granger. But it was the third of Potter's companions that made Voldemort's eyes widen, it was impossible to mistake the blond hair and noble features of Draco Malfoy.

Voldemort snarled in anger, Blood traitors and mud bloods, he would have them in his grasp soon enough.

"Send the reserve out there, I want them alive, I want Potter to watch his friends die by my hand one by one right in front of him, begging for their lives! And don't forget the message to the shadow council!"


	15. 15 The Duel part one

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."  
**--George Patton—**

Chapter Fifteen: The duel (Part One)

**Azkaban Prison, 16:30 4 July**

Harry stopped a quarter of the way across the exercise yard and stood with his hands on his hips staring at the administration building directly opposite him across the empty open space of the yard. The ugly grey edifice gave no secrets away under his intense scrutiny, despite that however he could somehow feel the cold, dark malice bleeding out of the building, and knew without a shadow of a doubt that Voldemort was inside.

To each side of the exercise yard stood the cellblocks, mirror images of each other, and although he couldn't see anyone, he was distinctly aware of the fact that many pairs of unfriendly eyes were observing him and those with him.

"You three shouldn't be here, it's not too late to go back inside."

Harry didn't turn to the three people he had made the comments to, just continued staring at the building across from him.

"You said to us once before at Dumbledore's funeral that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had all the time we need, haven't we?"

Hermione said quietly, her fingers nervously dancing up and down her wand as if she were playing an instrument.

"And as I've said before, we're with you no matter what happens. Without us you'd only go off and get yourself killed"

Ron said breezily, kicking at a stone on the ground.

"Besides if we left now, Voldemort and his Death Eaters would only think we were actually afraid of them, and that's certainly not the case."

Draco's tone was full of disdain for his former master and his followers.

"Very well, I had to ask, just as long as you all understand what is about to happen, and understand the risks"

Harry sighed, both pleased and afraid that his friends were standing by him.

"Yes Harry, I understand the risks involved with being in love with you, I've always understood them!"

At the sound of this new voice Harry did spin around, Ginny stood there defiantly with her good hand resting defiantly on her hip and a determined look on her face. For a moment there was a flash of anger on Harry's face, then disappointment, and then his features went expressionless again.

"You should not have come back here Ginny, you needed to get your arm looked at"

"And you should know better by now. If you hadn't worked it out already, then you need to know that your girlfriend has a mind of her own and a temper to match. I have made a choice to stand beside my boyfriend in his time of need, live with it!"

Harry regarded her for a moment, his face utterly devoid of emotion, and then shook his head and turned back to face the administration building, he really hadn't wanted her there, preferring her to be safe and having treatment at the burrow, but nevertheless he felt surprisingly glad to see her. Once his back was turned a small smile played quickly across his lips, they might actually have a chance of living through this.

OoOoO

"Does he actually know what he's doing?"

Marcus asked of Remus Lupin, the two men were stood in the entrance way of the security building, watching the distant backs of the five teenagers out in the exercise yard. Ginny Weasley had pushed past from just moments ago without giving them a chance to speak to her and ran out to join Harry.

"Marcus, one thing you should have learnt about Harry by now, he always knows what he's doing, he just doesn't always know how it will turn out!"

Marcus scratched his chin with his hand and looked sideways at Remus.

"Should I have stopped him going out there?"

Remus laughed.

"You can leave him to get on with it, you can help him do what he has to do, but don't ever try and get in Harry's way Marcus, because he'll roll right over you!"

The two men continued to watch for a few seconds more, before they turned away, they had a surprise to organise.

OoOoO

The doors to the administration block were pushed open, and a black robed tide of Death Eaters emerged, Harry guessed there must be close to forty of them, most of them already bore minor injuries, cuts and burns. They spread out into a line across the width of the exercise yard, spreading out so spell effects couldn't take out too many in one strike.

"Death Eaters…thousands of them!"

Hermione grinned as she broke out one of her favourite movie quotes for the occasion.

"Don't point…those bloody wands…at me!"

Hermione's head snapped over to regard Draco with amazement. He shrugged and smiled back at her.

"Purebloods can like films too. Not many people know that!"

Draco's Michael Caine impression was perfect, Hermione shook her head, and obviously Draco had hidden depths.

For a moment the two groups just stared at each other across the exercise yard, neither side willing to back down from the coming confrontation.

"Remember guys, we must target the outside edges of the line, and make them bunch up towards the centre, we need them in a tight group ready for the surprise that Charlie is organising."

Harry's voice was calm and serene, his authority unquestioned, the others nodded and the five of them spread out to make themselves a more difficult target. Hermione was on one end of the line, then Draco, Harry standing in the middle, Ginny the other side of Harry, and Ron at the other end of the small line.

The two lines of wildly different lengths faced each other across the exercise yard. It had been Hermione's idea, something she had read in some muggle history book, she had explained the idea to Harry and Ron and it sounded as if it could work, if only the Death Eaters could be trusted to co-operate.

The Death Eaters line began moving forward, a slow steady walk designed to increase the fear they thought must be growing in the bellies of the five teens, if only they knew how wrong they were. The range was extreme and for a moment no spells were exchanged.

In normal circumstances duels were fought at close or point blank range, so the spell range of the caster was never really a factor, but in this unique case range was everything. Harry knew he had four of the most talented and powerful students Hogwarts had produced in several generations at his side, and he would be willing to match them against any Death Eater any day, but five against so many?

"Present!"

With a calm voice Harry issued his crisp order, five wand arms came up and pointed unerringly across the exercise yard.

"Aim"

Five hands tightened on their wands, as they mentally decided what spells to use.

"Fire!"

"Stupefy!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Fulguralis Adlido!"

"Incendiarus Globo!"

"Stupefy!"

Five spells shot across the distance between the two groups, four struck home on the extreme edges of the line, two Death Eaters fell stunned, but Harry and Draco's victims were hit with more permanent results. Harry's target burst into flame as the fireball hit him, dying nearly instantly, Draco's target screamed as the lightning bolt struck home and fell to the floor writhing in agony before laying still. Harry had pictured Lavender's body before picking a spell, he was in no mood to hold back.

Only Ginny missed, with her right arm broken, using her wand in her other hand was affecting her aim. Snarling in frustration, Ginny went bright red in embarrassment.

"You missed! I can't believe you missed!"

"Shut up Draco, unless you want to spend more quality time as a ferret!"

Harry pretended he couldn't hear the banter between the two that not so long ago would led to the two exchanging spell fire, instead he watched as the Death Eaters picked up the pace slightly.

"Present"

Draco grinned as he watched several Death Eaters on the edge of the line actually flinch as the five wands came back up again. Now they knew what was about to come their way they were less eager to move forward.

"Aim"

Harry paused for dramatic effect. Despite the perilous situation he was actually starting to enjoy himself, maybe Thomas had started to rub off on him.

"Fire!"

The second volley was just as effective as the first, but this time Ginny didn't even try to fire a spell across the yard, she instead took a step back from the line and threw up a shield that covered the other four and easily deflected or absorbed the half-hearted and inaccurate return fire.

Harry looked at her in surprise, casting such a large shield was extremely difficult and tiring, Ginny wiped the sweat from her brow, just shrugged.

"Thought I may as well do something useful until they are close enough that I can actually hit them"

The Death Eaters were now pushing and bunching together, as the teenagers spell fire took chunks out of those on the outside edges of their line.

"Present"

The Death Eaters knew what was coming this time and they all took a step back as four wands came up to face them.

"Aim"

The Death Eaters advance stalled as none of Voldemort's followers wanted to expose themselves to such accurate and deadly incoming fire.

"Fire"

This time the line collapsed in on itself, and became a slow moving gaggle of Death Eaters, however this time the return fire was more effective, and Ginny's shield barely held against the onslaught. She was forced to take a step back, grunting with the exertion of keeping the shield up.

"So Hermione explain to me how this plan is supposed to work again?"

Draco's tone was conversational and even, despite the fact nearly thirty Death Eaters were now within spell range. Things could be about to get very messy indeed.

"Well what we really need is a frozen lake, but since I didn't have one, I had to improvise."

Draco turned and stared at her, what was she talking about? Frozen lake? Harry was slowly shaking his head and grinning, obviously he knew the plan and had decided to keep the information to himself.

OoOoO

Seamus Finnegan was awakening from a restless sleep, the stone bench was too hard and cold to allow someone to ever get truly comfortable. The open barred window ensured there was a constant circulation of freezing cold air into the cell. And should it rain the wind blew the droplets straight into the cell.

There was a flash of lightning from outside, it had seemed close by but there was no accompanying roll of thunder. And Seamus thought he could hear voices shouting.

Despite lack of sleep and the terrible conditions he had been living in, the curiosity that was a large part of who he was still burned bright in the heart of Seamus Finnegan. He stood up and wearily climbed up onto the bench and grabbed hold of the bars and peered out into the exercise yard.

The scene he found being played out before him made his mouth drop open. He could see five figures in what appeared to be Hogwarts School robes stood in a line, facing down many times their number of Death Eaters, spells flashed backwards and forwards in brightly coloured lines of power across the open space of the yard.

There was no mistaking the two brilliant red flashes of Weasley red hair, the size difference told Seamus that it was Ron and Ginny, which meant the bushy blob of brown hair had to be Hermione Granger, and the black hair could only be Harry Potter. The fifth figure, with blond hair was a mystery, he reminded Seamus of Draco Malfoy, but that was highly unlikely given the state of war that had existed between the pair for nigh on six years.

"Colin, Dennis, wake up! Harry's here!"

The two brothers were huddled together on the floor trying to conserve body heat. Looking up, Colin squinted at Seamus.

"Say waa?"

He said intelligibly.

"Its Harry, he's here!"

Colin sprang up and pushed Seamus aside so he could get a good look at the battle outside.

"HARRY!"

Colin cried out with excitement, turning to Seamus he grinned and grabbed the taller boy, and together they began jumping up and down on the bench, Dennis joined them on the bench only moments later.

Turning back to the window all three boys pressed their heads together and began chanting out into the exercise yard.

The chanting of the three boys didn't take long to be carried through to the cells on either side, and as more of the tired, frightened and abused people became aware of the fight taking place in the exercise yard the chanting quickly spread from cell to cell, until the whole block was chanting.

"HARRY, HARRY, HARRRY!"

OoOoO

"What's that noise?"

Arthur asked in a tired voice, since the second explosion nothing had been heard, and hopes of a rescue had started to fade. Their cell didn't face onto the yard, their window faced out to sea.

Fred pressed the pink string of the extendable ear into his own ear for a second, and a huge grin slowly spread over his face.

"Well are you going to tell us?"

George asked, slightly annoyed.

"I can hear lots of people chanting something"

"Don't make me come over there and take that off of you!"

"They are chanting Harry's name, over and over again"

"You're pulling my leg"

"Am not!"

Arthur breathed a long-suffering sigh. Sometimes he believed he had been gifted with the twins as a punishment for some crime of his youth.

OoOoO

Harry looked up in surprise, he had caught the sound of his name on the wind, and it came to him now louder than before, many voices chanting his name over and over.

"The Potter fan club is in excellent voice today I see, wonder if they know the words to men of Harlech."

Draco laughed at the expression on Harry's face, a mixture of annoyance and delight.

"Hermione, now?

Hermione nodded.

"Now Harry!"

The Death Eaters had crossed half the distance to the five teenagers and lost nearly a quarter of their number. Harry raised his wand to point at the Death Eaters, smiling as the mass of dark figures seemed to contract in on itself even further, then he continued the motion and pointed his wand into the air and fired off red sparks directly into the sky. He waited for a moment staring off into the distance, completely ignoring the approaching Death Eaters.

Draco looked from Harry to the approaching Death Eaters back to Harry, his eyes widening in concern. He was just about to make a comment when Harry shouted.

"Everybody down!!"

Harry yelled and threw himself at Ginny, knocking her to the ground and landing on top of her, she had arrived late and did not know what was coming. The other three dropped flat and threw their hands over their heads.

There was a loud whistling sound, and at the top speed possible for a firebolt international standard racing broomstick of 150 mph, Charlie Weasley crossed the exercise yard at the height of twenty-five feet, tucked in behind and slightly below him was an Auror on Ron's own broom.

The Death Eaters ducked at the low pass, a couple even threw the odd curse at the pair, but they were moving too fast and there had not been enough warning. The fly past appeared to the Death Eaters to be a mere distraction and neither man had even fired a spell.

None of the Death Eaters had noticed the four small green, metal cylinders that had been scattered in the air and had landed in their midst, they continued not to notice until the grenades, packed with high explosives, started detonating in the centre of their group, sending hot, razor sharp metal fragments scything through their bodies. But by this time more pairs of broomsticks had crossed the yard leaving their own small deadly projectiles behind.

The attack runs had been carefully timed and orchestrated by Charlie so none of the four pairs of riders flew into the explosions caused by a previous pair, and no two pairs attacked from the same direction or height, to make it even more difficult to shoot them down,

Spread out in a line the Death Eaters would have been spared most of the casualties, but bunched up in one tightly packed group made every explosion that much more effective.

It had taken every last one of the grenades in Thomas' possession, but when the dust and smoke cleared, only five Death Eaters remained unhurt and still standing.

"Present!"

Harry had quickly regained his feet and was now advancing on the Death Eaters, he no longer allowed himself the luxury of being horrified at the slaughter he had just ordered. Eventually it would catch up with him, but right now his survival and those of nearly everyone he loved rested on taking down as many Death Eaters in as short a time as possible.

"Aim!"

Moving forward, Harry was aware of Draco and Ron keeping pace beside him, wands out.

"Fire!"

The five remaining Death Eaters, utterly stunned at the violence already visited upon them and unable to comprehend what had caused such destruction in their ranks, were quickly dropped.

Harry turned back to the others and his heart stopped. Ginny was laid face down upon the ground not moving, Hermione was knelt at her side feeling for a pulse.

"Ginny?"

Harry ran back and threw himself down beside the red headed, his heart pounding in his chest he gently rolled her over, a wave of relief washed through him as he discovered she was just unconscious, between him and Hermione they could not find any magical injury to explain why she was unconscious. Even getting hit by a stunner left a mark upon the body, a small ugly red spell burn.

She had a red bruise on her forehead that had not been caused by a spell strike, and Harry felt a sinking feeling inside him as he realised he had probably injured her himself, he had thrown himself on top of her when the grenades had detonated. He had somehow managed to knock her out when he landed on her.

"When she wakes up she's going to kill you"

Draco laughed, Harry groaned because Draco was absolutely right, Ginny was seldom angry with him, but she really had a temper. There was no two ways about it, he was going to be for it.

OoOoO

Voldemort stared in shock down from his window, at the utter destruction of his reserve force, he had been bewildered at Harry Potter's tactics, and then the explosions had started. It had taken only a few seconds for the dark wizard to realise he was seeing more muggle weaponry in use. This made him all the more determined to harness this weaponry for his own dark plans.

He watched with interest as Harry ran to the still figure of Ginny Weasley, and Voldemort smiled, that was Potter's weakness, the girl, she was what mattered most to Harry in the entire world. Take away the girl or hurt the girl and Harry would either go to pieces, or do something stupid in an attempt at revenge.

It had never occurred to Voldemort that was why Harry had allowed himself to be taken captive by Wormtail. Having never loved anything or anyone in his whole life it was something he could not understand, the need to sacrifice yourself for another. It was all a matter of leverage, find the proper leverage and any task became that much easier, now he knew Harry's leverage.

Sighing with satisfaction, Voldemort turned away from the window and faced Bellatrix.

"I think its time to have a face to face chat with dear Harry, send our forces from the cell blocks to engage his friends in the operations building, there is no need to go to extreme measures to take them alive."

Bella nodded and hurried off to carry out his orders.

OoOoO

"Harry!"

Harry looked up from Ginny's unconscious body at Hermione's concerned tone, his friend was looking at the administration building. The door had opened and a single figure had stepped out and was slowly coming down the steps.

There was no mistaking the tall, bald, white-faced figure.

Voldemort!

Harry grimaced, this was the part of the prison break he had feared the most, the part that threatened to bring failure to the whole enterprise. Facing Voldemort in a duel was a quick way to commit suicide for most wizards, Harry had only survived in the past by pure luck and the sacrifice of others.

There would never be a good time for what was about to come, but in order to save the lives of his friends and all the others held captive he had to distract Voldemort and keep him away from the activities of the Aurors and the remaining Order members for as long as possible.

The only way he knew how to do this was to use the fact that he and Voldemort possessed 'brother' wands, sharing identical cores of Phoenix tail feathers belonging to Fawkes. If he engaged Voldemort in a duel Harry fervently hoped to force a stalemate that would last long enough for all of the others to be rescued.

Harry slowly stood and placed a hand each on the shoulders of the still kneeling Hermione and Ron.

"You have both done everything here that you can, facing Voldemort is my job, and mine alone, it always has been. I want you guys out of here, if I have to be worrying about you, I cannot concentrate on Voldemort, and Merlin knows i'm going to need my full concentration for this. Take Ginny back to the burrow and stay there."

Hermione was about to say something, to argue, but Ron reached out and grabbed her arm and once he had her attention, just shook his head. For a moment they just glared at each other, sharing the same form of couple non verbal communication that he and Ginny had, before Hermione's shoulders slumped in defeat and she nodded.

"Be careful Harry, come back to us!"

Hermione threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly.

"Should anything...happen, be the best sister and role model you can be, let the child know there is nothing wrong with being brilliant."

That was it, Hermione could not hold the tears in a moment longer, she cried and gripped Harry so hard he thought he might pass out. A hug worthy of a Weasley. After several seconds Hermione released him and sniffed. She kissed Harry on the cheek and took one last look into his eyes.

With that Hermione took a secure hold of Ginny's shoulder and with a loud pop they both disappeared.

"See you soon sis."

Harry whispered.

Ron stood up and faced Harry, the two looked each other for a long moment, acknowledging the years of friendship and adversity they had faced together, before Ron unexpectedly grabbed hold of him and pulled him into an embrace.

"Don't go and get yourself killed mate, I don't want to be the one who would have to tell Ginny she needs to find a new boyfriend."

Harry grinned.

"Ron, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Take care, make Hermione happy. Here take this with you and pass them out when you get back."

Harry handed Ron the bag that contained all of the prisoners wands.

Ron nodded once, and then his eyes unfocused and the red head disappeared with a pop.

Harry bowed his head and looked at the ground, as much as he wanted to, he knew he couldn't kill Voldemort yet, even if he was capable of the task, there were still slivers of his soul out there to be found and destroyed before this nightmare could end.

"You're still here Draco"

His voice was soft, and he was still looking at the ground.

"You are getting really good at stating the obvious Harry"

Draco was stood watching the approaching Voldemort with a casual air that Harry didn't think was entirely false, and showed absolutely no sign of leaving.

"You can't do anymore good here Draco, get out while you can"

Draco shook his head.

"I wasn't lying when I said your speech at the burrow was good, I was sold! Remember 'until the deed is done', well there he is, and between us we can take him, right here and right now!"

Harry smiled at the confidence in Draco's voice, Harry had grown quite attached to the blond haired youth, but Harry knew that if he stayed he stood a very good chance of dying.

"So you won't leave?"

Draco grinned and shook his head again.

"Nope"

"Fine, then let's do this, just don't blame me if you get yourself killed"

"Blame you, damn right I would blame you, I'd come back and haunt you forever!"

Harry laughing hard, turned and faced Voldemort, and with a nod to Draco they started walking to meet the dark wizard.

OoOoO

The Death Eaters poured into the Operations building, wands drawn expecting to fight the battle of their lives, but instead of opposition all they found where empty rooms and silent corridors.

The moment they were all inside the building several wards sprung into place, a barrier ward, to prevent anyone from physically leaving the building, and an anti apparation ward to stop anyone leaving by magical means. Once detected, the numbers of Death Eaters inside would ensure they would be able to batter their way out before too long, but it was only supposed to delay them, not hold them.

OoOoO

Hannah Abbot and Padma Patil were standing on the bench with their heads pressed to the bars, watching with amazement as Harry and Draco approached Voldemort. The two youths appeared as if they were laughing and joking with each other, as if they didn't have a care in the world.

There was a sound of multiple pops from the corridor outside the door, and the sound of spell fire.

"Stand clear of the door!"

Suddenly the door exploded inwards, and a tall blond haired man dressed in the grey robes of an Auror entered the cell, the man was dressed exactly the same as those that had taken them both into custody in the first place.

The two girls shared a quick look, and then threw themselves at the Auror, they would not go quietly with a representative of the Ministry ever again, not after getting dumped here and abandoned to the tender mercies of the Death Eaters.

Marcus Washburn was not an idiot, he had years of magical law enforcement experience under his belt, he had seen the two women tense up and knew what was coming, he caught a girl under each arm and dragged them kicking and screaming out into the corridor.

"Remus, can you get these two hell cats to calm down?"

Hannah looked up to find her former Defence against the Dark Arts Professor Remus Lupin beaming down at the pair of them.

"Miss Abbott, Miss Patil, please calm down, we are here to rescue you, this man is no longer a Ministry Auror, he works with us now"

"Who is 'us'?"

Padma Patil had yet to be convinced, all around her men dressed in Auror uniforms and others in blue cloaks were blasting in cell doors and bringing prisoners out into the corridor. All of the prisoners appeared to be either women or female Hogwarts students.

"We are the Marauders miss…Patil is it? Potter's Marauders"

The man named Marcus spoke as he emerged from their former cell, he was leading the naked French girl from the cell, and she seemed to be having trouble walking unaided. Remus took one look at her and swore loudly.

"Fleur, its Remus, we've come to get you out of here."

The woman just stared straight ahead without even a flicker of recognition for Remus, her eyes appeared as if she wasn't seeing anything that was happening in front of her.

"She has been like that since she arrived in our cell, she hasn't said a word"

Hannah Abbot began to feel as if they might actually get out of here alive after all.

"Here, grab hold of this, it's a portkey to somewhere safe, got it? Good!"

Marcus had handed the girls a plastic coat hangar, he waited until all three of them had a good hold, and then he tapped it with his wand.

"The burrow"

The three girls disappeared in a flash of light.

"Marauders, report!"

Marcus, when he needed it, had a voice that could cut through solid stone.

"Ground floor evacuation complete, couple of Death Eaters on the upper floors guarding the stairwells, they are making life a little harder, be clear in five!"

An Auror breathlessly reported.

"Make it three, we have a whole other block to clear after this"

"Yes sir"

OoOoO

"So here we are again, just the two of us. Its a funny old world."

"The Snake and the Lion, together again, we could take this show on the road, we'd make a fortune."

Harry and Draco stopped, and with a last grin to share a private joke, began to slowly separate, putting distance between each other, to make it harder for Voldemort to defend against both of them, and to ensure there was no way he could hit both of them with one spell.

Voldemort stopped twenty feet away, his hands hanging down by his side, his red slit like eyes moving from one to the other of them.

"Harry, Draco, what a pleasure to see you both again and together, my, what an unusual pairing, I hope you have both been well. I was sorry indeed to hear about your aunt and Uncle, Harry"

Harry knew the dark wizard would be trying to bait him into doing something stupid, and he was concentrating on keeping the blood running through his veins as cold as ice water.

"You didn't hang around long enough afterwards Tom, you and I could have settled our dispute that night, not that it matters I suppose the end result will be the same. You'll be dead and i will be crowned God Emperor of the world."

Voldemort just smiled in a most disconcerting fashion, as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"Looks like you're going to have to go on another Death Eater recruiting drive Tom, I seem to have thinned your ranks a little, sorry about that"

Harry indicated the mass of Death Eater bodies that already littered the exercise yard, some still moaned and made feeble movements or attempts to rise, but most just lay very, very still.

"Well Harry, if you must know it's very hard to hire good help these days, one is forced to use the dregs, easy come easy go."

Harry was only too happy to keep Voldemort occupied in conversation, the longer they talked the longer the Marauders had to rescue everyone from the cell blocks. By now they must have nearly finished in the first block.

"I hope you were not pinning all your hopes on using our wands against each other like you did that night in the graveyard. I had an old friend of mine fashion another wand for me, don't worry Harry my spells are just as powerful as they were before, and this time we don't have to worry about any of that pesky paired wand nonsense when we duel."

For the first time during the conversation Harry glanced down at Voldemort's wand, sure enough it wasn't the wand he had faced before, not the wand Harry had been so heavily relying upon to put his plan into action. Harry felt a chill run up his spine as he realised that his delaying tactic had just taken a right hand turn towards the utterly insane, there was no way he and Draco could stand up to Voldemort.

"Your father is very disappointed with you Draco, he is thinking about cutting off your allowance. He would have liked to have been here to express his disappointment personally, but he is currently enjoying his short stay in one of my dungeons, because of your disloyalty and your choice of companionship I'm afraid to say."

Harry looked over at Draco and saw the youth was scowling, but he didn't reply. His hand tightened on his wand, and one foot slid back as he prepared to start the ball rolling. Harry knew how he felt about his father, the Dursley's had done nothing but abuse Harry, they were however still family no matter what they had done.

Draco's father may not have shown the young man a lot of love during his upbringing, he was however still Draco's father, and he still had feelings for the man.

"I must say Harry two against one is hardly fair, I expected so much more from Dumbledore's protégé, the last time two of you faced me I had Wormtail kill the spare, but I think I should be the one who kills the spare this time."

Lightning fast, Voldemort's new wand whipped up pointing straight at Draco, a purple beam blasted from the tip of the wand and flew straight at the blond youth.

"Protego!"

Draco moved faster than Harry had thought possible, throwing up a shield in the nick of time. The spell struck Draco's shield and the force of the impact of the spell on the shield blasted him right off his feet to the floor, he hit the floor hard, but rolled immediately to avoid any chance of a follow up spell.

"Incendiarus Globo!"

Harry cast the elemental magic of the fireball into his hand and threw it at Voldemort, more in an effort to distract him away from Draco than to cause actual harm. It struck the dark wizard on the shoulder and as with every other time he had used the spell Voldemort became a man shaped inferno immediately, his robes burning furiously.

Harry grinned to himself, he had found a spell he could use on the dark wizard, but his smile faded when the flames died away as if someone had just turned them off, leaving Voldemort standing there completely unharmed, his robes smouldered slightly but that was it.

"Reducto!"

Voldemort's reply came so swiftly that Harry nearly paid the ultimate price for his inattention, diving aside he felt the blasting curse pass over him. Landing on his side Harry returned fire.

"Aquamenti!"

From the tip of his wand a powerful jet of water shot out, not at Voldemort himself but at his feet. The dark wizard suddenly found himself standing in a deep and rapidly growing puddle of water.

"Draco! Now!"

Harry shouted.

"Fulguralis Adlido!"

Draco fired his lightning bolt spell, not at Voldemort but at the growing puddle of water in which he was stood, the blue-white bolt of magically generated lightning flashed across the intervening distance and struck the water and the electricity instantly transferred into the most conductive material in reach, a slightly damp dark wizard.

Voldemort screamed and flung his head back as the electricity coursed through his body unhindered, firing all his nerves and pain receptors the way only a Cruciatus curse normally could. Harry took no satisfaction in causing pain, even to Voldemort, but he was fighting for his life and had little time for moral issues.

"Incendiarus Globo!"

With Voldemort in pain and distracted, Harry hit him again with a fireball, once again it appeared to set the dark wizard completely alight, but it was only a momentary image, as before the flames died quickly leaving Voldemort apparently unharmed.

The water on the ground at his feet however steamed as the fireball superheated the puddle in which he was stood and Voldemort screamed again as the water boiled around his ankles. The heat boiled the water away quickly, leaving a steaming crater and a dark wizard breathing heavily.

"Very good Harry, your duelling skills have improved considerably"

Harry grinned as he picked himself up off the floor. Voldemort's voice sounded forced as if he was in pain. First blood to team Potter!

"Thanks Tom, coming from you that means absolutely nothing at all."

Voldemort stepped sideways, but both Harry and Draco moved to keep their positions relative to the dark wizard. Voldemort stopped and regarded the pair, he nodded as if holding some private conversation with himself.

"Very well, now that we have each others measure shall we get on with the show"

With those words the duel started in earnest and Harry didn't have time to think of anything else other than keeping himself and Draco alive.

OoOoO

**The North Sea**

"So chief what are our French friends up to?"

Owen Jackson asked as he entered the darkly lit CIC, the chief petty officer pointed to his radar screen and the race track pattern the French plane was steadily carving in the sky.

"I have no idea sir, but they seem quite interested in this little patch of water, I have checked our charts, there is absolutely nothing there to look at, and billboard has scanned that arc, there are no surface contacts on that bearing."

Jackson scratched his chin in contemplation.

"Sub-surface contact? Possible submarine, some sort of exercise?"

"Sir at this point your guess is as good as mine, but whatever they are doing it must be fascinating because they've now been at it for an hour."

"Thanks Chief, keep watching, I'm going to inform the RAF that we have visitors, see if they want to do anything about it."

Jackson left CIC and headed for the communications suite onboard mentally planning what he was going to put in the message that he was about to send to the Royal Air Force.

OoOoO

**South West England**

The black and grey camouflaged CM130 Hercules dropped swiftly out of the darkly overcast and cloudy English evening sky, down towards the long, unlit runway like a gigantic bird of prey seeking a meal.

The Special Forces version of the world's most successful military cargo plane had been extensively modified to allow its pilots to operate in the total darkness if they had to, the biggest difference in appearance with other variants of the Hercules was the shape of the normally rounded nose, on this version the nose had been significantly lengthened and had several bumps and protrusions sticking out from it.

Sophisticated Terrain Following Radar, a digital fly-by-wire control system and Forward Looking Infra-Red were all part of the inbuilt avionics package. Despite the darkness, the large plane lined up unerringly on the unlit runway and descended smoothly until it was only a dozen feet above the ground, it was only then, at the last possible moment, that the pilot lowered the sturdy landing gear.

With a slight bump the Hercules touched down, and the pilot immediately reversed the pitch and thrust of the six propeller blades on each of the four large turbo props engines and raised the large barn door sized flaps on the trailing edges of both wings, slowing the large plane remarkably quickly, and making the four engines howl in protest.

The runway was easily large enough to land the heaviest of commercial aircraft, but as far as the pilot was concerned it never hurt to practise short field landings when the opportunity presented itself.

The rapidly slowing aircraft swung suddenly off of the runway and onto a taxiway, and made its way towards a group of dark and silent hangars at a taxing speed that would make a commercial pilot's hair turn white. The pilot waited until the last moment before swinging the nose wheel hard around and pivoting the cargo plane around until it was facing back the way it had come and applying the brakes.

The rear cargo ramp was already halfway down before the cargo plane dipped to a stop, the red-lit cavernous interior of the plane was slowly revealed by the descending ramp. The RAF Loadmaster took one quick look around for any safety hazards and nodded to the first of the three men waiting to disembark.

The three men, dressed in desert combats, quickly slung black weapons across their chests and shouldered black packs before trotting down the lowered ramp and out into the darkness. Darkness covering a scene they had not seen in nearly four months.

Despite the solemn and disquieting silence and the darkness that hung like a well worn cloak of secrecy over the buildings, to the three men, Stirling Lines, just outside Hereford, the home base of 22 Regiment SAS, the world's premier Special Forces regiment, had never looked better.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Ginny snapped awake with an awful suspicion she was supposed to be doing something really important. She sat up in the bed she found herself in and her vision immediately blurred and swam, and her head protested her actions by starting to pound mercilessly.

Gentle hands took hold of her shoulders and pressed her back down onto the bed and held her down against her feeble struggles.

"It's alright Ginny, just relax, you're among friends."

Hermione's face suddenly swam into focus above her, she had a purple bruise on the side of her face and had been crying recently judging from her puffy eyes and tear tracks down her cheeks.

"Where am I?"

"Back at the burrow"

Ginny closed her eyes and smiled, she was at home safe and sound. Then her eyes snapped open again as she remembered what she had been doing before everything went black.

"Harry!"

She tried to sit up again but found her shoulders pinned to the bed by hands other than Hermione's, turning her head to the other side she found herself staring up into the face of Hermione's mother Emma Granger.

"When I left him he was fine Ginny"

Ginny was not an empath like Luna, but she didn't need to be able to read the thoughts of her friend to know that there was something more to it, something Hermione wasn't telling her. Hermione was avoiding eye contact with her and kept shooting furtive looks at her mother.

"Hermione, what are you not telling me?"

There was a long pause as the two Granger women exchanged a meaningful look, then Emma nodded her head once and Hermione's shoulders slumped slightly.

"When Ron and I left with you, Harry was preparing to confront Voldemort, and since Draco hasn't returned I assume the two of them are together."

"What! Harry is duelling Voldemort! I have to get back there!"

Ginny tried to sit up again, only to be foiled once more by the combined strength of the Granger women. Her injured arm was bound securely across her chest by strips of material that went around her, it might as well have been a strait jacket, and with only one arm she had no hope of breaking free.

"Let me go! I have to help them!"

"I said the same thing Ginny, but they won't let me go back to help my boyfriend either!"

Ginny turned her head and looked over at the bed next to hers, Katie Bell grinned weakly at her, the older girl was pale and had dark circles around her eyes. Ginny for the first time took a long look around. She was in the field hospital, in one of the beds across from the chairs where she had been sat before, in the area set aside for those with orange triage tags.

"What good do either of you think you could do in your present conditions? You would only get in the boys way."

Emma Granger tried to sound reasonable, keeping her tone even and light, in reality she was scared for the raven-haired youth with the scar. He had entered all of their lives in a most significant manner, and she was worried how her daughter would cope if Harry failed to return.

Her musings were interrupted by a series of white flashes outside the entrance to the tent. There was a sudden commotion, raised voices, many raised voices, some questioning, some demanding, a few pleading, many crying. There appeared to be no order to the chaos, and the loud volume of the commotion was disturbing the injured patients.

"Right that's it!"

Emma Granger set off towards the entrance to the tent, rolling her sleeves up as she went, her face set in a determined scowl.

"Uh-oh, I know that look"

At Ginny's questioning glance Hermione explained.

"Someone is about to get one of mum's tongue lashings."

Both girls watched Emma Granger stalk to the entrance and push the flap aside. For a moment the commotion outside continued unabated, then suddenly a voice cut through the noise, like a hot knife through butter.

"SILENCE!"

Hermione and Ginny grinned at each other, despite the seventeen years that had past since she had last worn an officers uniform, Emma Granger still had a voice that commanded instant respect from the masses. There was instant and total silence from outside.

"That's better. My name is Emma Granger, those of you that are Hogwarts students will know my daughter Hermione. I know you have all been through a lot, but this is a field hospital and those inside are receiving treatment for injuries sustained during your rescue, so please keep the noise down."

At this moment Susan Bones appeared from behind the inner partition that led into the intensive treatment area, she was followed by a handful of healers in green, they all headed to the tent entrance. Following in their wake was Dan Granger, upon seeing Ginny awake he diverted from his path and came over to stand by her bed, in the exact same spot where his wife had been stood moments before.

Dan was wearing the same blue full-length apron that Emma had been wearing, and there was a significant amount of blood covering the front of it.

Ginny often forgot the easy going Granger's both had extensive medical training in situations much closer to the war they were now fighting than most magical healers normally received.

He smiled down at Ginny, but despite the smile, there was a kind of sadness around his eyes that Ginny had never noticed before.

"Welcome back to the land of the totally conscious Ginny, I guess that boyfriend of yours will have some questions to answer when he gets back here, huh?"

Ginny gasped, she hadn't had chance to enquire how she had gotten injured in the first place, she had assumed she had fallen to a stray spell. Harry had knocked her out? He must be kicking himself so hard, Harry was his own harshest critique, and right now he must really be beating himself up.

"Oh nice one dad, way to break it to her gently"

Hermione rolled her eyes at her father, and he shrugged helplessly.

"How was I to know you hadn't told her yet? How long do you need to pass on that little piece of news? 'Ginny, Harry knocked you out' see how hard was that?"

Hermione shook her head and made an exasperated sound before glancing up with an amused expression on her face, Ginny found herself grinning as well.

"Mr Granger its ok, Harry placed himself between me and danger, how could I possibly be angry at him for that?"

Dan Granger grinned and squeezed her good shoulder.

"Ginny, its Dan ok, after all we have been through lately, I think we can get past the whole Mr Granger thing."

The tent flap was suddenly thrown open, and in silence a large group of very bedraggled people entered, most had green tags attached to the front of their dirty and occasionally torn clothing. Nearly a third of the new arrivals had little or no clothing, many were holding conjured blankets around trembling shoulders, as the fact of thier freedom slowly set in. There were an awful lot of Hogwarts students in the all female group and with a shock Ginny realised these were all the women on the Ministry arrest list.

They'd done it, or at least half done it. Half the prisoners had been released, the women were free, now all the marauders had to do was bust all the males out of the most secure prison in the Wizarding world, held against them by a superior force led by the most powerful and evil wizard on the face of the planet, nothing to it, piece of cake.

The new arrivals huddled together and looked around themselves in a state of shock and disbelief, not quite believing they were finally safe and in good hands. The inner partition curtain swished open and Madam Pomfrey stepped into the main tent. There were heartfelt and joyous cries of recognition from the Hogwarts students among the group that made the healer break out a rare smile.

"Can I sit up now?

Ginny asked her friend and apparently her assigned bodyguard, Hermione scowled, she knew Ginny well enough to know how stubborn she was, Hermione knew she hadn't given up on the idea of returning to Azkaban to help Harry.

"Alright, dad can you help me"

Hermione and Dan helped Ginny sit up in the bed, Hermione fluffed her pillows, whatever Harry had done to her arm with his magic, it was starting to wear off. Ginny winced as the movement aggravated her broken arm.

"Ginny, Hermione?"

Both girls looked up to find the Patil twins approaching Ginny's bed, the two pretty Indian girls were clutching onto each other as if they were afraid to let each other go. They were dirty and looked like they hadn't slept or eaten in a while.

Ginny smiled in welcome at the sisters but remained silent.

"Padma, Parvati, this is my father Dan Granger, I think you just met my mother"

Hermione grinned, knowing what a first impression her mother could make. The twins looked at each other for a moment then turned back to the two Gryffindor's.

"We wanted to thank you…"

"All of you, for what you have done"

Ginny and Hermione looked embarrassed at the praise of their school friends, deep down they detested the fame just as much as their friend Harry.

"We just went along for the ride, Harry is who you should be thanking, but…he's not here at the moment"

Hermione looked at Ginny with a worried expression on her face, Ginny's face had hardened at the mention of Harry.

"We know, we saw him and Draco, they were fighting he-who-must-not-be-named"

Ginny gripped Hermione's arm and squeezed hard, she had known it was Harry's intention to face Voldemort, to keep the dark wizard occupied while the rest of the Marauders carried out the jail break. Voldemort himself could cause an awful lot of damage to the Marauders, which was why it was so important to keep him away from them.

"Padma, Parvati, I want to tell me everything you saw, I mean everything."

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

"Bombarda!"

The spell hit the ground in front of Draco, throwing razor sharp stone fragments up at the blond youth, even with the lightning fast reflexes of a seeker Draco couldn't twist his body out of the way of the fragments and he was peppered from head to toe.

Draco screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground, his entire body felt like it was on fire. His legs and chest bore the brunt of the fragments, but his face was also hit repeatedly, and blood quickly pooled into his eyes effectively blinding him.

But just because he was in pain didn't mean he forgot what was happening around him, as soon as he hit the ground Draco rolled over and over repeatedly, another spell smashed into the ground nearby but he kept rolling.

"Fortis Flabra!"

The hurricane force elemental winds that had been so effective in the confined space of the operations building corridor was nothing more than a distraction in the wide-open space of the exercise yard. But that was all Harry wanted from the spell, he just needed to grab Voldemort's attention away from Draco.

Voldemort stumbled under the force of the wind and swung around, anger etched upon his face, the two youths had so far successfully managed to combine as a team to keep him occupied and away from the cellblock.

OoOoO

The Aurors barrier ward around the operations building finally fell, but before the Death Eaters could pour from the building the two Aurors that cast the ward were aware it had fallen.

"Sir, sir, the barrier ward, its down!"

One of Marcus' best ward casters came running down the cellblock isle. They had been inside the second of the cellblocks for only a minute and had emptied only five cells. Death Eater involvement at this point would mean a long and bloody battle inside the cellblock, costing many prisoners their lives.

Marcus took one look at the expectant faces around him, his Aurors already knew what had to be done and where ready for what he was about to ask of them. For a moment Marcus felt a swell of pride in his people, they truly were the very best.

"Listen up Marauders, the Death Eaters have just dropped the barrier ward, which means they are going to be in here in about a minute. We cannot let that happen. Order members will continue freeing prisoners, we will leave enough portkeys with you. Aurors, we have to stop the Death Eaters in the yard. Form on your team leaders!"

Marcus turned towards the leadership of the Order, Remus and Mad-eye had approached while he was giving his orders. Mad-eye had a look on his face, it was obvious that he wanted to join the ranks of the Auror's for one last adventure.

"Before you say anything Mad-eye I need you here, we will be outnumbered more than two to one, some may get through, and they are yours. Gentlemen, success in all things, until the deed is done"

The three men shook hands, then Marcus pushed his way to the front of his troops, and drawing his wand led them into battle. Behind him, unseen, a determined looking Remus Lupin slipped unnoticed into the ranks of the Aurors.

OoOoO

Draco had stopped moaning and now lay utterly still, there were several areas of his robes where fresh blood showed through where he had been hit by stone fragments. But Harry, now facing down the dark lord alone, had no time to spare to worry about him, he was too busy trying to stay alive himself.

"Protego!"

Voldemort's blasting spell smashed into his shield, it was nearly strong enough to penetrate the shield and it had taken all Harry's strength to cast it. Harry knew he was tiring, even with the added power gifted to him from the collapsing barrier ward he was no match for Voldemort, the dark wizard's skill level was still far above his. This duel could only have one possible outcome.

"Incendiarus Globo!"

Harry was becoming really desperate now, most of his spells seemed to have little effect, while his constant need to shield himself from Voldemort was quickly exhausting him.

The fireball shot across the intervening space and smashed into a shield Voldemort had raised non-verbally, at the last moment Harry changed the flight path, causing the fireball to skip off the shield and shoot away at an unexpected angle across the yard.

Voldemort dropped his shield and prepared to fire off a counter curse when the fireball swung around in a tight blazing arc and hit him right between the shoulder blades setting him alight from head to toe once more.

Harry smiled, his control over his spells was improving all the time, and he had been guiding the fireball using the empty hand he had thrown it with, from behind his back, out of Voldemort's sight.

Voldemort, unprepared for the fireball had been knocked onto all fours, Harry fired a Reducto at the wizard, but the dark wizard recovered quickly and the spell deflected off his quickly raised shield.

Harry had seen the red sparks fired from a wand several minutes before that indicated that one cellblock had been completely evacuated, by now they should have been half way to emptying the second of the cellblocks.

There was a roar from behind him and taking advantage of the fact that Voldemort was on all fours, Harry grabbed a quick look over his shoulder, and was amazed to see two human tides rushing towards each other. The black tide of Death Eaters had swept from the operations building, while the grey cloaked Aurors had exploded from the cellblock.

The two wave fronts crashed together and beams a myriad of different colours flashed back and forth, there were screams of both pain and anger and distant figures fell to the ground, from both sides.

Harry was suddenly spun around as something struck his side with a sensation of white burning agony, the force of the impact spun him completely around and dropped him to his knees. Clutching at his side Harry could feel the scales of his Auror issue body armour where the curse had hit him, the armour had slowed the curse but not stopped it, and the scales had parted under the impact. Harry wasn't surprised to see blood splatter to the ground, it didn't feel too serious, and he felt remarkably calm considering what was happening.

Reaching out with his magic in a similar way he did to sense someone's wand, Harry carefully crafted illusion glamour around himself to hide the extent of his injuries. If he could hide how badly hurt he was from Voldemort, maybe the dark wizard could be forced into a mistake. It was his first real injury of the day, and he hoped it would remain his last.

Voldemort was on his feet, wand pointing at Harry's heart, advancing slowly towards the kneeling youth. Harry knew the dark lord was about to engage in a large amount of gloating over his defeated opponent, it was just what he did.

"I have to say Harry that was the hardest fought duel I have been involved in since I killed Amelia Bones, you are to be complimented on your skills, shame it was all for nothing. This ends here"

Voldemort halted just outside the range of physical attack, and Harry could see the duel had taken its toll on the dark wizard as well. He was flushed and breathing heavily, his robes were torn and smouldering and parts of his skin were blistered from burns.

"Dumbledore would have been so disappointed, he had hoped for so much from you Harry, after all you were his chosen weapon, he had planned that from the very start."

"Liar!"

Harry spat the word.

"Why do you think he insisted you be placed with the Dursley's, against, so I am told, the express wishes of your parents. I'll tell you why Harry. He needed you broken in mind and body before you ever got to Hogwarts, so that he could begin to mould you into the perfect weapon he wanted you to be!"

"Albus Dumbledore didn't need me, he was the greatest wizard alive, and he could have killed you himself!"

Voldemort laughed and shook his head.

"No Harry he couldn't, he knew about the prophecy you see, he indeed had the skill and possibly the power to confront me and win, but he knew it had to be you, he also knew that no normal, well adjusted youth could do the things you would have to do. You're no better than I am Harry, at least I don't pretend to be anything other than what I am."

"I am nothing like you!"

Harry screamed, but he knew deep down the words sounded false.

"Oh really? How many have you killed? There is darkness in you, I can see it and I'm not the only one, your friends see it in you just as well as I can. You struggle to stay on the side of light, and every time you cross that line it becomes just a little harder to cross back again. Why fight it Harry? Join me, and we could do great things together."

Those words struck a chord, the now missing Mr Ollivander had said those very same words to him the day his wand had chosen him. 'He did great things, yes. Terrible but great!' Harry felt a chill run down his spine at the memory.

"I will never join you, you are a blight on this world, and I would dedicate my life to removing that blight!"

Voldemort shrugged.

"Very well, this is the end Harry"

Raising his wand, Voldemort prepared to finish Harry off, Harry tried to raise his own wand but found it surprisingly difficult to do, his arm seemed suddenly very heavy.

"Reducto!"

Voldemort cried out as he was tossed unceremoniously to the floor and lay still, Harry's head snapped around and he was amazed to see a wounded Draco slump back down to his knees, his wand still pointed at Voldemort. Draco was in a terrible state, his face pock marked by wounds caused by the stone fragments, one eye seemed to have been blinded and was covered by a mass of dried blood, and one arm hung limply down at his side.

Harry forced himself upright and moved over to the kneeling Draco.

"How you doing?"

Draco coughed and spat a glob of dark red blood to the floor, and snorted with a strange kind of pain filled amusement.

"I've had much better days, is it done, can we go home now?"

Harry glanced back at Voldemort, just in time to see the dark wizard stir and slowly pick himself up.

"No, we have a ways to go yet, can you stand?"

"Do I have a choice?"

OoOoO

With the smallest of popping sounds, that went completely unnoticed over the riot of sound created by those fighting below, two pairs of men dressed in dark blue trousers, tunics and caps appeared on opposite ends of the roof of the Administration building. Each pair quickly dropped flat to the roof and crawled until they could peer over the edge.

Pierre DuPont shrugged off the small black pack he carried and reached inside it, pulling out a strange expandable lattice structure covered by a cloth that was silky in appearance.

At a muttered word, the structure grew until it was large enough to cover both men easily. Instantly both men disappeared from view underneath the specially built invisibility blanket.

DuPont's partner had also been busy, he had pulled a long thin case from his back and withdrawn a MAS F2 French built sniper rifle held within. The man quickly and calmly folded down the stabilising bipod attached to the underside of the rifle, and carefully adjusted his position ensuring the butt of the powerful rifle was pulled tight into his shoulder.

DuPont carefully checked his sniper was positioned so that he wasn't about to shoot through the blanket, but from under it, once satisfied he looked over at the other pair's location. The second pair were just as completely hidden as he and his partner were.

Their most important instruction had been to remain out of sight, they were to render as much aid to Potter and his group as possible without compromising themselves in any way.

"Tirez!"

On cue, both rifles spat out their first rounds.

The French Ministry of Magic, for the first time in Voldemort's second rising went to war, only…no one actually noticed.

OoOoO

Bill rounded the corner of the building and just stopped and stared at the scene before him in the exercise yard, immediately in front of him a mass of Death Eaters struggled desperately with the grey cloaked Aurors. In the distance Bill could just make out the smaller battle taking place at the other end of the yard.

"Drop your wand you bastard!"

Bill slowly turned to find an Auror around his own age with a wand held on him, the man was sat leaning with his back against the building, his shoulder and arm was a twisted mass of burnt flesh that must have been causing the man excessive amounts of pain, but none of that showed on his face.

It was at this point that Bill suddenly remembered with a clarity that sent a cold chill down his spine that he was wearing the stolen Death Eaters cloak from the cell and that black was not the best of colours to be seen out and about in that day. Very slowly Bill dropped the wand and raised his hands and lowered the hood of the robes,

"My name is Bill, Bill Weasley, you have been staying at my parents place, it's called the burrow. I have five brothers and a sister, oh my mistake I left out Harry, careless of me. I'm the oldest, next is Charlie…"

"Alright already, information overload, I believe you, now sit down before you fall over Bill, you look terrible!"

Bill laughed and settled to the floor beside the wounded Auror, the man had an untidy mop of dirty blond hair and an open honest face, with a nose that looked as if it had been broken once or twice.

"You don't look much better"

"True, true but I never was that good looking to start with. My name is Matt, Matt Hobart."

In the midst of a pitch battle the two men shook hands and a friendship was born that would end up carrying them both places they hadn't expected to go.

OoOoO

The Aurors and the Death Eaters fought with reckless abandon, no quarter was asked and none was given, and while no Auror used an unforgivable, there were plenty of spells that could maim and kill without resorting to them.

It was a messy, confused combat, perhaps even more so than the fight in the corridor. At least there with solid stone walls on two sides you only had to worry about the opponent to your front. That was not the case here, spells flashed about almost randomly and as many fell to wild spell fire as to that deliberately aimed.

Marcus smacked a Death Eater in the face with his fist and stunned the man as he fell away from him. A struggling pair bumped into him from behind, turning he found one of his Aurors being strangled by a huge blond Death Eater.

"Stupefy!"

The unconscious Death Eater carried his intended victim down to the floor with him. Marcus turned seeking another target. Occasionally he could see snatches of the Harry-Draco, Voldemort duel in the centre of the yard, but the two youths were on their own for the moment.

Marcus span around as he became aware of someone close behind him, he turned to find a Death Eater, his wand held on Marcus, but the man had a queer expression on his face, and a small neat hole punched in the center of his forehead. The already dead Death Eater slowly sank to the floor without so much as a sound.

Marcus shook his puzzled head, but had no time to put much thought into the mystery as the ferocity of the battle went up a notch.

OoOoO

On the roof of the administration building DuPont's shooter adjusted his position slightly as the spent casing ejected from the side of his rifle, another round from the weapon's ten round magazine was automatically fed in to the chamber.

These sniper rifles were unique, each individual component had been carefully enchanted with a silencing charm before assembly, and then the entire rifle including each individual round had been enchanted once more just before the start of the mission, just to be on the safe side.

As a result they were possibly the quietest muggle firearms on the planet, as if they would ever give such special weapons to muggles.

DuPont was impressed, that last one had been a fine shot, but now was not the time for congratulations, they had to maintain utter focus, they were not supposed to be here and the most important thing about this mission was not to be caught here by either side.

Reaching out, DuPont picked up the recently ejected spent case and put it in his pocket, no sign of their presence was to be left behind.

OoOoO

"Stand clear of the door!"

The door to the Weasley cell blew inwards and two men rushed into the cell wands drawn.

"Damn it's good to see you Alastor!"

Arthur Weasley came forward holding his hand out to greet his old friend Alastor Moody, for a moment the two of them stood in the middle of the cell just holding each other's forearms, the sign of two men who had already been through so much already.

"I need to get my sons out of here!"

Mad-eye grinned and motioned to his companion who was already reaching into a pack he carried. Ron looked up as he passed the portkey over, he met his father's eyes, seeing his fathers pride in his youngest son. Ron knew there would be time to catch up later, once this battle was won.

Both the twins crowded around Ron firing questions at him, but now was not the time for questions, some he couldn't answer, most he didn't want to, there was still a job to do here, the faster they finished, the more chance his best friend stood of surviving.

"We have portkeys to get you back to the burrow, we have healers from St Mungo's waiting there to treat any injuries. Fast as you can Arthur, we have to empty this block so the Aurors and Harry can withdraw."

At the mention of his newly adopted son Arthur looked concerned.

"What is Harry doing here?"

Arthur asked Moody

"He and Draco are duelling Voldemort"

Ron's voice was quiet, he wanted to be out there too, standing beside his friend, but truth be told he knew he would only get himself killed and probably Harry as well, he just didn't possess the same amount of skill in duelling as Harry and Draco.

"What! Whose damn fool idea was that?"

Arthur could not believe his ears, yes he knew Harry was skilled, and yes he knew Harry was powerful, but he couldn't possibly be strong enough to fight the dark wizard.

"Harry's"

"How is he doing Alastor?"

Mad-eyes magical eye swivelled to look through the wall behind him.

"Harry's hurt, so is Draco, but more importantly so is Voldemort, both boys are still on their feet, although Draco looks more than a bit wobbly."

"Have you seen Bill, he was dragged out of here hours ago, he wasn't returned."

"No, sorry Arthur, it's possible that he is already at the burrow, its damn confusing out there."

Arthur nodded, for now other questions would have to wait, he had a seriously injured son who required treatment, and none of them wanted to stay longer than they had to in this cell.

OoOoO

Remus Lupin unleashed was a force to be reckoned with, normally mild mannered and gentle, few of his friends had ever seen him let the wolf inside himself out intentionally as many other werewolves often did. He kept just enough control not to transform, after all he would then be as dangerous to the other Marauders as to the Death Eaters, but he did allow himself to release just enough control to let his wolf instincts take over.

Because of his affliction Remus had the strength of three men and an unnatural speed that beggared belief. He had put up his wand in favour of using his speed and strength to its best advantage.

Grabbing a Death Eater off an unconscious Auror, Remus snapped his neck like a twig, and with a howl of anger hurled the dead man away from him into a pack of five Death Eaters, then pounced on the downed men before they ever had a chance to recover.

He was looking for further targets when a mocking sarcastic voice caught his attention, the voice reached deep inside him and grabbed the mild personality that belonged to him and dragged it back to the surface. It was with relief and a considerable amount of shame that Remus let the wolf slip away from him once more and the man reasserted itself.

"Hello Remus old friend, what a surprise to find you here"

Remus took a deep steadying breath, drew his wand and turned to face the man that had once been one of his closest friends.

"Hello Peter"

The two men faced each other in a calm eye in the middle of the storm of struggling bodies, both men began to circle each other warily, wands drawn but hanging down by their sides.

Remus had known this moment would come ever since Peter Pettigrew had escaped three years before, he had somehow known it would come down to a confrontation between the two of them. With Sirius dead, only he remained to seek revenge for all the evil deeds Wormtail had personally carried out, and for all the events that had happened because of the information Wormtail had handed over to his master.

Wormtail had so nearly snatched Harry away to die at Voldemort's hand, only Ginny Weasley had gotten in the way, getting herself captured and forcing Harry to go to desperate lengths to rescue her. The whole conflict with the Ministry had come about because of Wormtail's actions.

Somewhere up above him Remus knew that James, Lily and Sirius looked down on him with sadness that it had come to this. At Hogwarts the four of them had been almost inseparable, if there was trouble to be had that's where you would find Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs. Hogwarts had never seen their like, nor since, until the arrival of Fred and George Weasley.

They had been so close, trusted each other with everything. Remus had known Peter had carried a crush for Lily Evans for a long time, and Lily was kind and sweet to everyone she met, even the boastful and arrogant troublemaker named James Potter.

Maybe the bitterness had started when Lily had turned down Peter when he had asked her out during a Hogsmeade weekend, of course shortly afterwards James and Lily finally stopped verbally fencing with each other and actually started going out, but Peter was always in the background watching with envious, sly eyes.

But the man Pettigrew was now was a far cry from the boy he had once been, he had become twisted and evil, a vile creature that had harmed innocents without reason and carried out despicable acts at his masters bidding.

"You look upset Remus, nothing wrong I hope"

The concerned words came out dripping with insincerity. Remus shook his head, and knew now he had to prepare to kill someone he had once considered one of his closest friends. This thought filled him with sadness.

"I'm mourning the death of a friend Peter, you wouldn't understand."

Pettigrew sneered at him and laughed.

"Oh dear, I had thought that by now you must be starting to run out of friends Remus, who have you lost this time?"

Remus suddenly fixed Pettigrew with a penetrating stare that seemed to burn into his soul.

"I'm mourning the death of my friend Peter Pettigrew, he died nearly seventeen years ago."

Peter tried to laugh, but suddenly felt his mouth go dry under the intense stare, he had bought into Voldemort's whole half-blood philosophy and had discounted the mild mannered Remus Lupin as a threat, now for the first time he began to get an inkling of the mistake he had made.

"Very well, I guess its time to get on with this. Reducto!"

"Protego!"

And with that two former friends threw themselves fully into the task of killing each other.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Ginny had just finished listening to the Patil sisters relate all they knew of Harry and Draco's duel with Voldemort. She was more determined now than ever to return to the fight, her headache had vanished and she had accepted a pain-removing potion from Emma that had taken the pain of her arm away.

She had seen Fleur carried in naked and placed in a bed, although she was awake she seemed to be completely unresponsive. Then Penelope Clearwater had been helped into the tent, wearing only a blue cloak belonging to one of the Order members.

The tent was filling rapidly, as wounded Aurors arrived by portkey from the ongoing battle that was raging in the exercise yard. Each Auror still conscious brought his own update, and although they had been involved in their own battle, each said that Harry was still alive and fighting hard when they had left.

Spotting her moment when nobody was watching over her, Ginny pulled the bed covers off her, pleased to find out that she was still fully clothed. Snatching up her wand from the table besides her bed, she gently placed her feet upon the floor, a wave of dizziness swept over her and she had to put a hand onto the bed to steady herself.

"Ginny what are you doing?"

Katie Bell hissed from the next bed, Ginny ignored her and took a deep breath. The dizziness receded and she let go of the bed tentatively, her balance was a little bit wobbly but she was in no danger of passing out.

Pointing her wand at her own chest, Ginny took a quick look around and then disillusioned herself, shivering slightly as a cold feeling slowly moved down her spine.

"Ginny!"

Katie's shout spun Hermione around but by the time she had, all she found herself looking at was an empty bed, Ginny was gone. She had no doubt left to find her way back to the prison in order to stand beside Harry in his time of need.

Despite the apparent rashness of her actions, Hermione couldn't find it within herself to be angry or upset at Ginny's choice, she had made her decision to stand alongside Harry regardless of the consequences back before the events in the department of mysteries, and Ginny had stuck by her decision.

It made Hermione feel guilty that she wasn't at Azkaban herself, she had been Harry's friend for six years, yet she had left him alone to face the monster that was Voldemort, even Draco, a relatively recent addition to what was considered 'the inner circle' had stayed at Harry's side while she had sought the safety offered by the burrow.

Hermione once her mind was made up took after her mother in stubbornness, and she had made up her mind what she had to do. She had made a mistake to leave Harry at Azkaban and Hermione hoped it wasn't too late to correct that mistake.

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

The duel raged on.

"Sectumsempra!"

"Protego!"

Voldemort's cutting spell smashed straight through Harry's shield as if it wasn't there, and although the wyvern scale body armour soaked up some of the spell's power, there was still enough to open a deep cut on his chest. With Draco badly injured he was trying to divert as much of Voldemort's attention onto himself as he could. He now completely believed that Voldemort was playing with them both for his own amusement.

While Harry and Draco's spells were losing power as they tired, Voldemort's seemed to be the same strength as when they had started the duel, it could not last much longer now, neither youth had much left to fight with.

"Incarcerous!"

Thick magical ropes shot out the end of Harry's wand tip to envelop Voldemort from his shoulders down to his knees. It would likely not hold him for very long, he would dispel the ropes wandlessly, Harry took the opportunity to cast a quick healing spell on himself in an effort to slow the blood loss from his major wounds and the dozen or so cuts he had accumulated.

"Impedimenta!"

Draco's spell hit Voldemort as he was in the act of dispelling the magical ropes, the spell caused him to fall to the ground his legs kicking in the air as he went over, this sight caused Draco to smile despite the pain he was in.

The smile was short lived however, the ropes suddenly vanished as if they had never been there, and Voldemort thrust out his hand at Draco. A purple flame flew out from his wand, catching Draco in the chest.

The blond youth opened his mouth to say something, but nothing but an unidentifiable gurgling sound came out. A look of complete surprise crossed his face, then his eyes rolled up into his head and he folded silently to the ground.

Harry wracked his brains in order to come up with a way to distract Voldemort so that he could go to Draco's aid, nearly every spell in his arsenal had seemed to have little effect on the dark wizard. In desperation Harry recalled his happy memory, that of Ginny laid in bed after the attack on the Burrow, smiling up at him, and focused all his concentration on that image.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The large silver stag erupted from his wand tip, the spell was so much easier to cast when there were no Dementors around trying to suck your soul right out of your body. With a wave of his hand, Harry sent the silver Prongs at Voldemort as more of a nuisance tactic than anything else, not expecting any sort of result from the action, after all Patronus' were only solid when used against Dementors, it would pass straight through the dark lord.

Voldemort also believed this to be the case and ignored the Patronus, Voldemort however was somewhat mistaken in his belief. The dark wizard had crossed a line between his remaining humanity and dark magic when he had performed the rebirth ritual two years before, and now he was paying the cost. His little remaining soul was now so filled with darkness that a Patronus was as solid for him as it was for a Dementor.

Prongs somehow sensed this vulnerability, lowered his head and charged the dark wizard, using his antlers the silver stag opened a large wound on Voldemort's side, the dark lord shrieked in pain and turned to devote all his attention to the silver stag attacking him.

Taking advantage of the break in the incoming spell fire provided by his stag shaped Patronus, Harry ran to the still figure of Draco, the blond haired youth's eyes were closed and blood trickled from his mouth and nose. Taking his last portkey from his pocket, Harry laid the toy car on Draco's chest.

He was about to send Draco to safety when the youth's eyelids flickered open and regarded him.

"What are you doing, I'm still in this fight"

His voice was so quiet and weak that Harry had to struggle to hear him, Harry shook his head and placed his hand on Draco's shoulder.

"You've done more than enough my friend, time for you to go"

Draco had opened his mouth to argue but Harry activated the portkey, sending Draco to the burrow in a flash of white light.

"Well Harry, now it's just the two of us, shall we finish it"

Voldemort had finally managed to banish the troublesome stag, but not without picking up several serious looking injuries in the process, with a smile Harry realised that the fight was now going to be fought on a much more even footing.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Hermione found herself stood beside Dobby in Harry's room at the burrow, she had managed to breach her friend's privacy ward with Dobby's help. She needed Harry's Invisibility cloak, and she knew that he kept it in his chest at the foot of his bed. Just apparating or portkeying to Azkaban would probably involve her having to fight her way through the Death Eater/Auror melee that was occurring, whereas if she used the cloak then at least she could get nearer to Harry before she gave her presence away.

Whipping out her wand, Hermione advanced on Harry's chest as if it was an opponent to be defeated, hoping that she had what it took to open the chest, Harry was normally very careful about guarding his privacy, hence the security on the door to the room. Pointing her wand at the lock she concentrated on the chest opening.

"Alohomora!"

Nothing, no reaction at all, Hermione frowned wondering what enchantments Harry had placed upon his chest. She was just about to try something else when the little house elf stepped forward.

"Dobby will open Harry Potter's chest"

The little house elf squinted severely at the chest and waved a hand over the lid, his breathing became laboured and he appeared to shake with the effort. Finally with a loud click the chest lid opened.

"Harry Potter is a very great wizard, Dobby nearly unable to open Harry Potter's chest!"

Hermione reached into the chest and looked for the invisibility cloak, she knew it would be in there somewhere, Harry still didn't have enough possessions yet to warrant a second chest.

As she searched she came across a familiar book bound in red leather, a book she hadn't seen since the end of their first year at Hogwarts, despite what she knew was an invasion of privacy, she couldn't help but open it.

As she had suspected, it was Harry's magical photo album, given to him by Hagrid at the end of his first year when it had only contained pictures of Harry's parents and of Harry, Ron and her. But judging from the number of pictures now inside, Harry it seemed had been busy adding photos to those in it originally.

There were several photos of the three of them from the different school years, one of the original Gryffindor Quidditch team captained by Oliver Wood taken after winning the house cup. There was a photo of the entire Weasley clan enjoying a meal before Harry was adopted. A picture of Dumbledore holding up several pairs of multi coloured thick soaks, his eyes twinkling merrily. A picture of McGonagall looking stern yet amused at the same time, one of Hagrid standing outside his hut, with fang beside him.

But it wasn't these pictures that caught her eye, it was the more intimate ones that stood out, ones that could not have been posed.

A photo of her and Ron studying in the common room, Ron gently running his fingers through her hair.

A photo of Ginny studying in an apparently empty classroom, her nose scrunched up in concentration.

A photo of Ginny and Luna moving between lessons, laughing and gesticulating excitedly about something.

A photo of Ginny curled up asleep in an armchair in the Gryffindor common room, Ginny on tiptoes, reaching for a book above her head in the school library.

A photo of Harry and Ron concentrating on a game of wizard chess, Ron was winning of course. There was even a photo of Ginny on her broomstick during her tryouts for the house team.

And then there was the photo of Ginny and Harry's first kiss, after the cup-winning match where Ginny had replaced Harry as seeker because of his detention with Snape.

Although Colin Creevey had obviously taken some of the pictures, Hermione had to wonder how often Harry had borrowed Colin's camera and put his invisibility cloak to a much more mundane use than it was normally used for.

Sighing, Hermione replaced the photo album carefully into the chest. Harry was such a private person that she had never seen the photos. So many happy memories, it was time to ensure they had more of them. Finding the cloak, Hermione pulled it clear and slipped it around her shoulders.

"Is Harry Potter in danger miss Hemy?"

Dobby asked solemnly, his lower lip trembling in concern, Hermione had to constantly remind herself that Dobby was not your normal house elf that would take no action without orders, Dobby had started displaying an uncharacteristic amount of initiative. Hermione squatted down on her heels to talk to the little creature.

"Yes Dobby, Harry is great danger, Harry and Draco are at this very moment duelling Voldemort in order to protect others at Azkaban prison, I'm going there to help if I can."

Dobby nodded and smiled up at her, his big soulful eyes wishing her success. Concentrating hard, Hermione vanished from the bedroom with the smallest of pops.

OoOoO

**AN/ **This chapter and the one following it were originally one single chapter, but it was too large for the site to accept it (44,000 words) so i had to find (and create) a break point to split the chapter up, hope it still works as well as it originally did.


	16. 16 The Duel part two

**AN/ **So here we are, the longest chapter to date, and originally part of one 'super chapter'. Enjoy.

* * *

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

_"When you run out of bullets, stab with the bayonet. If your bayonet breaks, strike with the stock. If your stock gives way, hit with your fists. If you're fists are hurt, use your teeth, but for godsake hold the bridge!"_

**Major John Frost**, 2nd Paracute Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st UK Airborne Division, Arnhem Bridge (a bridge too far), Operation Market Garden. (10,000 men were supposed to hold the Arnhem bridge for two days, 600 lightly armed paratroopers held it for five days against the cream of the German army, when they finally surrendered they had suffered 85 percent casualties)

"Never give up, never surrender."_  
_- **_"Captain Peter Quincy Taggart"_** (in the movie "Galaxy Quest")

Chapter Sixteen: The duel (Part Two)

**Azkaban Prison**

Five Death Eaters finally managed to break free and get through the press of Aurors and moved quickly and unopposed towards the seemingly unguarded cellblock.

Two high powered scopes patiently and methodically tracked the break away group of Death Eaters across the exercise yard, and almost as if a verbal order had been given, both rifles spat out the 7.62mm French made rounds at almost the same instant.

Two Death Eaters appeared to stumble in mid stride and they fell to the ground unmoving and unnoticed by their three surviving comrades. The three remaining Death Eaters managed to get inside the cellblock, once there they found an old man with a false leg and a strange revolving eye blocking their path. The three newly joined Death Eaters laughed at their puny opposition, but the old man just smiled knowingly at them.

OoOoO

Once more the bolt flew back, ejecting another spent case. The face of the bolt began to move forward again as the powerful spring forced it back into position, as it passed the top of the ten round magazine another round was taken and fed into the chamber, and the French Ministry sniper went back to doing what he had been trained so long for and was finally being allowed to do, kill Death Eaters.

Lucas Binoche was what in Britain was called a Squib, born of magical parents but with no significant magical power of his own. The French magical community had long since put discrimination against such a man far behind it, although finding work in the magical community was still hard.

Unsurprisingly for a man born with a certain lack of conscience, a teenage Lucas often found himself on the wrong side of the law, acting as an enforcer for a magical organised crime syndicate. When the group was finally broken up by French Aurors, Lucas had been expecting serious jail time, but one Auror saw something inside him that Lucas himself didn't know existed and spared him from prison. That man had been Henri Delacour.

Lucas had served a term of conscription in the French Army in an attempt to sort himself out, during which time to his amazement he discovered he was a natural marksman. Such skills were recognised and encouraged in the military, and Lucas voluntarily entered a second term of service, during which he attended the French Army sniper school in Marseilles, attaining top marks.

A gifted shot with any firearms, he was quickly recommended and accepted for special forces training. And so it was that he joined the French Foreign legion, and there Lucas might have remained for his entire career had it not been for another chance encounter, with an officer of the Foreign Legion who also happened to be an Auror, named Henri Delacour.

Delacour, having by now been transferred to SMOG and upon finishing his year of service with the foreign legion had gone on to command his own twenty man Ministry strike team, and he had asked for Lucas to be transferred to his command especially, so impressed had he been by the man's skills.

It had been the first time that a Ministry strike team had used muggle weaponry and technology, and it had created a storm of controversy centred around wizards too proud to admit the muggles could do certain things better.

Now, ten years on each of the ten Ministry strike teams had two of its own dedicated snipers, trained and coached by Lucas, and now finally some of them were here and ready to make a difference.

OoOoO

Marcus looked around quickly, his Aurors had performed brilliantly, but were now in real threat of being over run, he had more injured people now than uninjured and more Death Eaters seemed to be arriving all the time. It was almost the moment that the Marauders got to spring their final surprise of the day, one last sleight of hand that would either win the day, or condemn them all to a very violent and messy death.

OoOoO

Remus spun aside from Peter's killing curse and tried to body bind his opponent, Peter had thrown up a shield however and the spell deflected harmlessly into the ground.

Both men bore minor wounds, but appeared to be quite evenly matched, this duel could go either way.

"Reducto!"

"Protego!"

Remus got his shield up in the nick of time, deflecting the spell safely into the air.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Remus lifted an unsuspecting nearby Death Eater from the ground and hurled him at Peter, both men went down in a tangle of arms and legs.

"Stupefy!"

Remus had been aiming at Peter, but the evil little toad held up the Death Eater that had landed on top of him, causing the spell to strike him instead of its intended target. Peter climbed quickly to his feet.

"Crucio!"

Despite his best efforts to avoid it, the torture curse struck Remus a glancing blow, dropping him to the floor in absolute agony, here again his affliction came into play. While a normal human under the Cruciatus curse would be unable to do anything due to the pain they were suffering, Remus on the other hand, while suffering the pain, was still able to think clearly and take action.

"Reducto!"

Wormtail took the curse on his wand hand, the magical silver one gifted to him by Voldemort the night of his rising, the impact sounded like someone had struck a bell with a hammer and Wormtail was thrown backwards by the curse, landing on his back. The movement interrupted the Cruciatus curse on Remus, allowing him to pick himself up off the floor.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Remus threw himself sideways at full stretch and felt the green beam of the killing curse pass over his shoulder, striking an Auror who had his back turned to them, involved in his own struggle, the man slumped to the floor, killed instantly.

Tucking his shoulder into the roll, Remus rolled over and came back up to his feet, his wand extended pointing directly at Wormtail.

"Reducto!"

Only Wormtail wasn't there anymore, using his animagus ability to his advantage he had morphed into his rat form and was attempting to scamper away through the legs of the combatants, however Remus wasn't about to let him off that easily.

"Accio Wormtail!"

With a squeal of horror the rat flew through the air to Remus' outstretched hand. The rat wriggled and twisted in an attempt to flee, scratching and biting in his desperation to escape, but Remus was having none of it and kept a firm grip on the creatures neck, trying to wring the life out of the creature.

Wormtail, forced back into his human form, struck out at his captor, his silver hand catching Remus in the face, breaking his nose. Remus, spun half around by the force of the blow, continued the turn and lashed out with all his strength.

The punch had all the power and anger Remus felt for Peter behind it, and the blow caught Wormtail on the side of the temple, the man's eyes rolled upwards in his head and the Pettigrew slipped to the floor. Remus, breathing heavily, stood over his enemy in triumph and held his wand on the prone figure.

By all rights he knew he should just kill the dark wizard in retribution for all he had done, but although he had killed in the past, Remus was not a murderer and could not bring himself to kill Peter in cold blood no matter what his crimes.

"Stupefy! Incarcerous!"

Stunning and binding Peter, Remus turned and regarded the obviously one sided duel occurring at the other side of the exercise yard. His godson Harry needed his help and he was determined to give it, all thoughts of Wormtail were brushed aside as he turned and began fighting his way through the press of bodies to reach his godson's side.

OoOoO

If anything the speed and violence of the duel seemed to pick up with Draco's absence. Both wizards threw themselves into the fight wholeheartedly, not sparing a thought for the others out in the exercise yard. The duel had travelled until it was being fought on the outskirts of the Auror-Death Eater battle.

Spells flashed across the intervening space, occasionally striking one or other combatant, occasionally deflected or absorbed by shields, but a few missed their intended target and struck a combatant in the larger scale battle going on nearby.

Voldemort fired the spell with purple flame that had downed Draco, it looked like the one that had injured Hermione in the department of mysteries as well.

Harry dived aside, firing a fireball as he did so. Without his hand to guide it though the Fireball just hovered in the air without moving. Harry cried out as he landed, as for the first time since he had left the burrow his thigh burned with pain.

The potion he had taken before he had left was starting to lose its strength it was wearing off and once its effects completely dissipated this duel was as good as over, the after effects would probably cause him to pass out, but be incapable of fighting certainly.

"Reducto!"

"Protego!"

Harry cast the shield spell from the ground, but was slightly too slow. Voldemort's spell blasted right through the partially raised shield striking the youth on the shoulder, destroying the wyvern scale body armour in that location , spinning him around on the ground as if he was a child's top. Harry screamed in pain.

"Levicorpus!"

Harry found himself suddenly hoisted into the air and left dangling by his ankle off the ground, completely at Voldemort's mercy. The dark Wizard lowered his wand and smiled at Harry.

"Avada Keda…"

"Rictumsempra!"

Voldemort giggled.

Harry had never heard the dark wizard giggle, give an evil, chilling laugh yes, but giggle no. But it wasn't just one giggle, it was like he couldn't stop himself. He bent over clutching at his sides, from the look of anger on his face the giggling wasn't down to him being amused.

"Libracorpus!"

Harry found himself lowered back to the ground, he tried to sit up but the best he managed was to roll onto his side. Someone knelt down beside him and helped him into a sitting position. He looked up and blinked in surprise.

He found himself looking into the face of the last person he had expected to see in this place. Ginny had a dressing covering the bruise on her forehead, and her arm was securely bound to her chest. She was sweating, her face was dirty, but in Harry's eyes she had never looked more beautiful. She was a like an angel, with the setting sun framing her fiery hair. She was a wonderful sight, just completely and utterly unexpected.

Taking a spur of the moment action, Harry reached up and pulled her head down and kissed her on the lips.

"Ginny, what are you…oh never mind, can you help me up?"

With Ginny's aid Harry struggled to his feet and looked around for Voldemort, but he had been swallowed and lost from sight by the battle flowing all around them.

"Now where do you suppose he went?"

OoOoO

Any doubt DuPont had about the skills and power of Harry Potter had been swept clean away. His job officially was to act as spotter for his shooter, Lucas, but the man was an incredible shot and had the kind of situational awareness that most snipers could only dream of. Besides it was only the fact the targets were all moving that added to the difficulty, the Death Eaters were at what was for the sniper rifles, point-blank range, the man didn't really need his help at all, so he had kept an eye on Potter's duel.

The speed and ferocity of the spells flashing between the wizards had been beyond anything he had ever seen, as the two youth's had battled the dark wizard. It was something Pierre DuPont would remember for the rest of his life. He had tales of Voldemort's power second and third hand, but he had never been in a position to actually witness a conflict such as what was going on below him.

But now Voldemort had vanished from sight, and Potter had been joined by a petite red headed girl.

OoOoO

Leaning heavily on Ginny, Harry rested his head upon hers, he felt weary beyond belief, his entire body felt like it was fire, and he was breathing hard in an effort to control the pain so as not to alarm Ginny. Harry looked around for his opponent, but of Voldemort there was no sign, either he had departed the field of battle, or he had lost himself in the ongoing fight.

"I never had him pegged as a coward, a vicious, life sucking killer yes, but a coward no."

"Maybe you scared him away, mighty wizard that you are oh boyfriend of mine."

Ginny grinned up at him.

"I don't think that's very likely, you saw him, he had me. At least until you turned up and tried to make him laugh himself to death, for that alone I love you, its a moment I am never ever going to forget."

Ginny smiled and tightened her grip around Harry's waist, he was hurt badly, but his sense of humour was intact and that meant he still had plenty of fight left in him. However if Voldemort had indeed left, leaving Harry still alive and reasonably intact she wasn't overly upset.

Harry quickly took a moment to ensure the glamour hiding his injuries was still in place, he didn't want Ginny scared at his appearance, he also cast a quick healing spell non verbally in order to stop the worst of the blood flow from the three major wounds. He didn't have the skill or the knowledge to heal himself, but he could slow the blood flow without danger.

Reaching out, he called a blood replenishing potion to his out stretched hand and swigged it down in one. He felt surprisingly good despite the longest magical conflict he had ever fought, the extra energy he had absorbed had given him more stamina that he could have imagined, now if only his skill level could be increased he might give old snake lips a run for his money.

"Oh come on what the hell is taking so long"

Harry had turned to look at the cellblock, hoping to see the signal that indicated all the prisoners had been freed, he never saw a pale figure step from underneath an invisibility glamour, wand extended in front of him. Neither did he see the slight shimmer in the air that marked the movement of someone wearing an invisibility cloak.

"Reducto!"

The spell was intended for Harry. It would have hit him in the back at point blank range, shattering his spine and killing him instantly, but because he had suddenly turned to look at the cellblock it would have missed him…and it would have struck Ginny with devastating force.

But the curse in fact struck neither of them, mainly because another figure had placed themselves bravely and defiantly between Harry, Ginny and Voldemort.

"Protego!"

The air surrounding Hermione Jane Granger buzzed with static electricity as she let the invisibility cloak fall away from her shoulders and she had raised the strongest shield she could conjure. Hermione put all the power at her disposal into the incantation, all the love she felt for her friends and all her hopes for the future, and braced herself for the impact of Voldemort's curse.

It slammed into her shield with a hammer blow of force that astounded her, she was nearly thrown off her feet at the sheer power of the curse, but her shield held…barely.

Hermione was amazed, when she had thrown herself into the line of fire she hadn't imagined for a single moment that her shield would hold. Voldemort was a fearfully powerful wizard, and she had expected her shield to buckle under the savage assault. But two people she cared about more than nearly anything in the whole world had stood in danger, and she had acted without letting her fear of the consequences stop her.

She had just started a round of self congratulation on the strength of her shield charm when the second curse, cast without an incantation struck her shield.

The second curse had been cast right on the heels of the first, it was supposed to be a battle winner and Voldemort had poured more than the usual amount of power into it. The combined power of the curses utterly shattered Hermione's shield, leaving her completely open to the effects of the second curse.

Harry, alerted by Voldemort's incantation, turned in time to see the curse strike the brown haired witch, flipping her end over end and pitching Hermione heavily to the ground like a puppet that had suddenly had all its strings cut.

"**NO!"**

Harry cried out, the pain in his voice no less than if the curse had indeed struck him, Hermione hit the floor hard, rolled over twice before coming to rest face down and there she remained, very still. Ignoring Voldemort, Harry threw himself down beside her, gently taking the young woman in his arms and turning her over, aware as he did so that Ginny had fallen to her knees by his side.

"Oh Hermione!"

Her eyes were open, staring up at the heavens. For an instant Harry thought he was too late and that Hermione had already died, right there in his arms, but then she suddenly blinked, and her intelligent brown eyes slowly focused on his face, and a small smile crept onto her lips.

"Well that could have gone so much better"

Her words were so softly spoken that Harry had to struggle to hear them, even as she spoke a small trickle of blood appeared at the corner of her mouth. Despite wishful thinking on his part, it was obvious from her wounds that Hermione was mortally injured. Looking down at his shaking hands he found they were covered in her blood as it soaked through her clothes from the wound in her chest.

"Don't try to talk Hermione, we'll get you back to the burrow and get you fixed up."

Ginny tried to be positive, to give her friend hope. But Hermione knew better. Hermione had always known better, she wasn't called the smartest witch of her age for no reason, she knew she was dying, and she knew there wasn't anything that could be done to save her.

"Tell Ron I love him and I'll be with him, always."

Harry took hold of Hermione's hand and squeezed gently, feeling the tears running unbidden down his cheeks, the young woman had been a part of his life for seven years and stood by him loyally, not flinching away from a single threat he had faced in all that time. He simply couldn't imagine his life moving on without her in it.

"I shall, and I'll be there for him whenever he needs me, I swear"

"You're a good friend Harry."

Hermione whispered weakly, smiling up at him despite the pain she must have been in.

"No Hermione, I'm really not! If I was a good friend you wouldn't be lying here ….bleeding."

Harry couldn't bring himself to say the words 'dying', not when it related to Hermione, Harry found himself choking up with emotion as he watched his friend slowly slip away in his arms. He wrapped his arms around her and held on tightly as if by his own strength he could physically hold her to this world.

If he had the strength he would have apparated Hermione to the burrow himself, as he had already done for Thomas, but the stark truth was that apparating himself such an extreme distance was incredibly draining, taking Hermione with him as exhausted as he was would almost certainly result in a fatal splinching for both of them.

"While this is all very touching Harry, we DO still have a duel to finish!"

Harry slowly looked up and locked his gaze onto Voldemort, the dark wizard was stood thirty feet away, with his arms crossed, seemingly impatient to carry on the duel. Harry felt his face lose all expression, as his fist clenched around his wand.

This had been his plan, his responsibility. To engage Voldemort in a duel in an attempt to divert his attention away from the cell blocks and the prisoners being released. He had hoped to carry out this magical feat using the brother wands that both he and Voldemort carried, but that had failed, trust Voldemort to anticipate such an event. His plan had already rained hurt and distress down on his friends and family. Neville, Luna, Katie, Terry, Draco, Thomas, Molly Weasley, and now Hermione lay dying, all because he had thrown their lives away on some foolish attempt to be a hero.

Harry closed his eyes against the tears that threatened to fall, he refused to cry in front of his most hated enemy. Harry felt something snap inside of him, some barrier that had been holding him back was suddenly overcome, and Harry knew deep inside that his life no longer mattered. All that mattered was his remaining actions saved as many people from Azkaban as possible.

Gently as he could Harry lay Hermione down into Ginny's waiting arms and rose to his feet, stumbling slightly as his thigh threatened to collapse under him. By sheer force of will he straightened and turned to face Voldemort, ignoring the pain and weariness his body felt.

He reached down and placed a hand on Ginny's shoulder, Harry gave the young woman he loved a reassuring squeeze as he moved around her and the dying figure of someone he regarded closer than any sister, towards Voldemort.

"Harry please don't do this, you've done enough already, the cells have to be nearly empty now, we can all go home."

Harry shook his head and smiled sadly down at her.

"Not quite yet Ginny, I have to keep him busy for a little while longer, stay with Hermione, get out of here as soon as you can, don't worry i'll be along shortly,"

Harry rotated his shoulders, trying to restore some feeling to his injured arm and gave his girlfriend another sad smile before turning his attention back to Voldemort. The two duellists faced each other thirty feet apart, their wands held down at their sides, each waiting for the other to make a move.

"Another one of your little friends out of the way Harry, when will you learn you cannot hide from me behind the skirts of others?"

Harry could feel his teeth grinding together at this comment and he knew he should have kept quiet, but the return comment was out of his mouth before he could stop it.

"You keep aiming for me Tom, but like a bad marksman you keep missing the target."

Voldemort cocked his head to one side as if considering Harry's comment, then an evil smile crossed his face, looking more like a grimace from the lipless mouth.

"The law of averages are on my side Harry, you see I only have to be lucky once, you have to be lucky every time!"

There followed an evil chuckle that was meant to be menacing, but this reminded Harry too much of the recent giggling fit Voldemort had been forced into by Ginny's hex for it to be menacing, and his face wore a smile of his own.

For a moment the two men, mortal enemies faced each other silently, then Harry raised his wand to the salute position in front of his face, Harry dropped his arm back down to his side and inclined his head towards his opponent as Voldemort carried out the same gestures

"Enough idle chit chat Tom. Lets dance, you and I."

OoOoO

"Ginny?"

Ginny tore her attention away from Harry and Voldemort as they warily circled one another, and looked down into the face of the dying young woman cradled in her arms. Hermione's face had taken on a strange serene, almost peaceful quality that Ginny was afraid heralded the end of her friends battle for life.

"Yes Hermione, I'm right here."

The bushy haired witch smiled sadly, all the pain and fear seeming to fall far away from her. Ginny gently brushed some of her brown hair from her face.

"Look after him for me."

"I will, I promise I will"

Ginny was crying heavily now, she was unsure who it was she was supposed to be looking after, it could have been either Ron or Harry, it didn't really matter, she would look after the both of them.

"I think I'll be going now"

Hermione whispered, as her eyes closed. Before Ginny could answer there was a burst of flame almost directly overhead and the beating of powerful wings.

Ginny had thrown herself over Hermione's body thinking they were under attack, but when nothing untoward had happened she looked up to find herself being regarded at close range by a pair of intelligent and kindly black eyes.

The swan sized majestic bird, covered in fiery crimson feathers, cocked its head as it looked at her, and Ginny found herself under the impression the bird was grinning at her. Ginny had recognised the bird as a phoenix instantly, but she was uncertain if the phoenix was actually the only one of its kind she had ever been in close contact with.

"Fawkes?"

The bird dipped its head in acknowledgement of her query, before it turned to regard Hermione, the wounded witch had opened her eyes and was looking up at the magical creature with a knowing expression, as if she had expected to find him there.

"Hello Fawkes, it's been a long time, this is my friend Ginny."

_Time for introductions later fledgling, besides, the lioness and I have already met, first I must do my best to heal your wounds._

Hermione smiled and relaxed as the Phoenix began to trill a gentle tune that filled her with hope, and as the Phoenix bent its head over Hermione's body, spilling his precious tears into the open wound, Ginny sat back with a shocked expression on her face, she looked from the Phoenix back to Hermione, her mouth hanging open in astonishment, for she too had heard the sweet sound of the Phoenix's voice in her mind.

OoOoO

**Above Azkaban Prison**

Far overhead the French Air Force Orion surveillance plane flew in long, lazy circles over the prison, its four turboprops struggling in the thin air at the extreme limits of the aircrafts altitude ceiling. The pilot was very experienced, and controlled the plane with a steady hand, holding the Orion in a constant turn at a very precise angle of bank.

Mounted below the mid point of the fuselage in a transparent bubble, the Orion's three high definition digital cameras were filming everything that happened below and feeding the image via a satellite uplink to the French Ministry of defence building.

As with all magical areas, the prison had a muggle repelling charm and other enchantments placed upon it that would have made it impossible for the muggle military to find. This was why a French Auror had joined the crew on this mission, posing as a journalist researching a story. He had made the crew immune to the charms on the prison, and was tasked to removing the immunity when the mission was over.

In the rear fuselage sat the four electronic warfare officers or EWO's, pronouced EEWOO, each was sat sideways on in the fuselage, facing a large screen which allowed the mission commander to track everything that happened in the air and on the surface of the sea for two hundred miles in every direction.

Unlike most military aircraft the senior pilot was not the mission commander, the senior EWO, normally at least a Captain, was in overall command of the mission, and directed the pilot where to steer in order to carry out the mission objectives.

This particular flight had been a little out of the ordinary because of the journalist, and because of the fact that the feed from the cameras were not being recorded or viewed by anyone on the aircraft but was being sent directly to Paris. The flight was about to become even more unusual.

"Mon Capitan?"

One of the EWO's had spoken into his headset to attract his supervisors attention.

"Yes Pierre, what is wrong?"

From where he sat the officer could see the shoulders of his junior tense up and knew that this was not a good sign.

"I have two fast moving contacts closing on our position, they are now fifty miles out"

The officer frowned, the Osprey dome radar mounted above the wings and fuselage was effective out to two hundred nautical miles, how had a contact gotten this close without being spotted?

As is reading his officers mind the other man explained.

"They must have come in at almost wave top height, since we weren't looking for airborne contacts they managed to get in close, lost in the surface clutter."

The officer nodded at the explanation, looking back to his own screen he selected the appropriate display and studied the approaching two blips. The speed of their approach and their distance apart ruled out any form of commercial traffic.

Reaching up to his headset he pressed a switch that allowed him to speak directly to the pilot.

"Our small piece of sky is about to get quite crowded, we have company coming. Possibly fighter jet interceptors from Britain, the warship probably tipped them off."

Almost as soon as they had taken up station they had detected the British warship on the distant horizon and had detected the billboard radar signature when the vessel had painted them. Since then the warship had sailed closer, but was still outside the range of visual contact.

"What are your orders?"

The pilot's voice was calm and level, there was no sign that the news that two fast moving military jets were converging on their position was anything out of the ordinary.

"We are in international waters, barely. Plus we are not armed so we pose no threat, maybe they are just being curious, continue on mission."

"Affirmative"

The pilot turned to his co-pilot and shrugged in puzzlement, both men began craning their necks, peering out of the cockpit, in an attempt to spot the new arrivals before they were on top of them.

"There!"

The co-pilot pointed off to the left slightly, sure enough two small black dots were climbing up to their altitude and approaching, very fast, very fast indeed!

The two jets passed down either side of the slow moving turboprop, the turbulence of their passing tossed the larger plane around violently in their wake, forcing both pilots to grip the controls so tightly that their knuckles turned white.

"Damn, that was close."

The co-pilot breathed, he was twisting his head from side to side, looking out the cockpit windows in an effort to reacquire the two aircraft visually, they would now be circling around and be coming up behind and below the Orion. He didn't have to wait very long to spot them.

Off to one side, very close alongside, a sleek grey shape rose gracefully and effortlessly into sight. The pilot looked over and immediately identified the aircraft as a Royal Air Force Tornado F3 interceptor, its British roundel and some tasteful painted nose art the only colour showing on the otherwise bleak dull grey airframe.

The tornado had a variable geometry 'swing' wing, the wing adjusted its angle to provide maximum stability for the speed the aircraft was flying at. The Tornado's wing was at that moment swept fully forward and the large flaps were fully lowered to allow the military high speed jet fighter to keep pace with the much slower moving turboprop. The fighter must have been verging on its stall speed, and yet the pilot of the fighter was flying in perfect formation with the French plane. It was an impressive piece of flying.

The pilot of the fighter, in the front seat of the two seat cockpit raised his hand and waved in greeting.

"To the French Orion, this is Boxer lead, how are you boys today?"

The French pilot was impressed, the English pilot had spoken to him in very good French, much better in fact than his English.

"Boxer lead, this is Sentinel Two, we are well, how are you?"

"Sentinel, Boxer, we're good, if a little surprised to find you up here, is there anything we can do for you?"

The Frenchman could hear the usual dry humour in the English voice, and realised what the man was actually saying was 'there is no reason for you to be here pal, move along'.

"We are being moved on by the local policeman, are we finished here?"

The French pilot spoke to the mission commander seated in the fuselage behind him. There was a delay as the man spoke to the French defence ministry in Paris asking for instructions.

"Yes, we are finished here, set course for home."

"Roger. Boxer, Sentinel thanks for the offer but we have what we came for and are heading for home, safe flying."

"Safe flying to you too Sentinel, Boxer out."

The grey Tornado accelerated slowly, pulling slightly ahead of the slower surveillance plane, then the fighter pilot rocked his aircraft's wings and waved his hand once again in farewell. In the backseat, the Navigator raised a camera and took a picture of the two french pilots. Then his engine exhausts flared a bright angry red, and like a racing car leaving the starting grid the large grey fighter shot away from the turboprop, its wings folding smoothly back against the fuselage as it accelerated away.

The second Tornado of the pair reappeared from somewhere below them and formed up tightly on its flight leader, as the two jets nosed down heading back for the deck. Despite the lack of threat the pilot slowly released his breathe.

"Did you see the missiles?"

The co-pilot spoke for the first time.

"What?"

"The missiles under the wings, they were coloured white!"

The pilot hadn't noticed the weapons under the fighters wings, white missiles indicated they were live weapons, 'war shots' they were called, had they been blue they would have been training ordnance. It was unusual for even interceptors to be carrying live rounds in peace time, unless they were expecting to need them.

The pilot adjusted the planes course, banking them smoothly out of the circle they had been flying for the last hour and turning them onto a course for home, utterly oblivious to his approaching doom.

"That's odd."

"What's the problem?"

The pilot replied to the puzzled co-pilot.

"The outside air temperature just dropped by twenty degrees, and its still dropping."

The co-pilot reached forward, and he did what aviators had done since man had first taken to the air, with his finger, he tapped the dial of the instrument that was giving him such a strange reading. The instrument reading changed, but not in a way that pleased the co-pilot, the outside temperature continued to drop.

In the rear of the aircraft one of the EWO suddenly yelped. He had switched his radar display back to scanning mode after the departure of the British interceptors, and was surprised to see that another contact had appeared on the screen, this one appearing much bigger, and much, much closer than the departing jets.

"Radar contacts close aboard, suggest immediate evasive action!"

"What the hell…"

The cockpit windows were starting to ice up, even as the horrified pilots watched, the fingers of ice began to spread up the window, obscuring their forward vision. The Pilot reached up and checked the circuit breakers on the instrument panel above his head, ensuring the cabin heaters were working.

"The wings are icing up!"

"We need to get out of here, right now!"

The pilot had a sudden intense feeling of hopelessness at their situation, there was no escape, and the ice would keep mounting until the weight of the ice alone would make them drop out of the sky like a brick. There was nothing he could do.

The pilot closed his eyes and moaned to himself as all hope of survival was crushed within him, he could hear his co-pilot whimpering quietly to himself and knew they were as good as dead, no action he could take could save their lives.

In the rear of the fuselage, French Auror Jean Abnett unbuckled his restraints and stood suddenly upright, striking his head in the cramped fuselage, he fought down the fear and hopelessness that threatened to engulf him and concentrated as hard as he could on the happiest moment of his life, the birth of his daughter Chloe.

He knew exactly what was happening to the crew and why, and he knew he had very little chance of saving them. Pushing his way past the four men, each of them having to deal with having their hopes and their memories used against them, their emotions literally drained out of them, he entered the cockpit.

From the small patch of vision left to him through the cockpit window his worst fears were realised, the aircraft was surrounded by Dementors, more than he could count. They were streaming past in an unending wave, black ragged cloaks trailing behind them.

They were not interested in the French aircraft at all, they were bypassing it on their way somewhere else, and they appeared to be in some hurry. The Auror suddenly felt a heavy weight settle in his gut as he realised where the foul creatures were going, they were heading to the prison, the Dementors were returning home to Azkaban.

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

Marcus saw the red signal overhead, the second cellblock had been emptied, but he couldn't turn around and tell his force to return to the burrow, half his people would die attempting to flee the battlefield. But the Marauders' had laid their plans very carefully for this moment, the last surprise of the day was about to sprung on the Death Eaters.

Turning towards the cell block, Marcus raised his wand into the air and fired off green wand sparks, he knew that a single junior Auror, forbidden from entering the combat so he would be ready for this very moment, would be watching for this signal, a portkey ready in his hand.

It was hard to say exactly what happened next, eyewitness accounts differed wildly. What was sure was that the Marauders final surprise of the day was an absolute masterpiece of unintentional timing.

A new group of Death Eaters nearly a hundred strong arrived in the exercise yard, the sound of their mass apparation sounding like popcorn cooking off. Their arrival pushed the numbers decisively in the Death Eaters favour, the new arrivals were just getting their bearing, about to enter the fight, when with absolutely silence a golden brilliantly glowing portal snapped opened in the exercise yard. The portal was several metres wide and two metres tall. For a second the Death Eaters paused unsure what is was they were seeing, before they could recover sixty blood thirsty, extremely angry Goblin warriors charged straight through the portal, arriving smack bang in their midst, armed to the teeth and ready for combat.

The Goblins set upon the Death Eaters with a bloodthirsty glee, no quarter was given to anyone wearing a black robe, the warriors of the Goblin Nation Armed Forces had waited fifteen years for the chance to take revenge for the losses the Goblin tribes had taken during the first war. At that time the numbers of Death Eaters were much smaller, their actions more hit and run, which made the chance of a Goblin battle company catching them in the open very slight.

But today was different, today the Death Eaters had been tied to a location known in advance by the Goblin warriors, today those that wore the black robes would pay a high price in blood. Blades rose and fell in the early evening sun as the diminutive warriors bounced, tumbled and danced around their taller adversaries.

For a Goblin battle company magic use didn't involve throwing spells offensively, for that they had tribal shamans, although they were rarely taken into battle because their position was similar to a holy man and they were so very few in number. The magic Goblin warriors used in battle was much more subtle and revolved around boosting their own bodies or enchanting weapons, making themselves stronger, more nimble and faster than they were naturally, in battle they let their blades do the talking for them.

Not since the last Goblin uprising had warriors of the Goblin Nation Armed Forces faced wizards on the field of battle. Warriors of the Nation were more commonly used as bank guards or garrisons of far flung outposts, but despite this the little warriors had not forgotten their trade and unlike their opponents, the Goblins were highly trained professional soldiers.

The fighting didn't go all the Goblin's way, once the initial surprise had worn off, the surviving Death Eaters were able to pull themselves together and were able to start picking off several of the miniature warriors with killing curses or blasting charms. But what had been a one sided battle was now back on a more even footing.

OoOoO

**Above Azkaban Prison**

The French Auror felt, rather than heard the pitch of the engines change as the weight of ice that was encasing the aircraft became too much for them to keep aircraft aloft. The four engines valiantly struggled for more thrust, but there was simply no more to be had, and the French Orion slowly nosed over, dragged down by the weight of the ice encrusting it into a shallow but ever steepening dive and began its long inevitable descent towards the sea far below.

The Auror took a last look around the Orion's cockpit, wishing there was something, anything he could do. He was neither especially powerful, nor talented and he was far enough from home to know he didn't have the strength to apparate someone else along with him. Using a portkey from a fast moving, high altitude aircraft was a recipe for diasaster. He felt like a coward, being forced to run away, but he really had no choice but to abandon the aircraft and its crew to their fate.

Shutting his eyes and concentrating as hard as he could, the Auror pictured the Ministry lobby, and with an almighty roar he disapparated. The Orion, helpless and out of control, under its sheets of ice plummeted downwards, spinning like some child's toy until impacting with devastating force into the freezing grey waters far below.

The Dementors, oblivious to the carnage they had caused continued their journey, dropping in altitude as they approached Azkaban.

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

Wendel ducked under a killing curse and sliced upwards with the first of his razor sharp short swords, disembowelling a Death Eater with a neat, clinical precision, then he span, moving blindingly fast, lashing out with his second sword and removing a second Death Eater's wand along with his hand at the wrist.

He had waited a long time for this moment, he knew he was fighting on the same battlefield as Voldemort, the one he had sworn a blood oath to kill after the death of his entire family fifteen years before, if he was lucky he would get his chance to take his revenge today.

But despite the temptation to throw himself upon the dark wizard and fulfil his blood oath, he was determined to carry out his orders given to him by Gutripper, the company commander. He wouldn't violate his orders to protect the Aurors, to get that chance to strike at Voldemort, there would be other battlefields, other days, before the scourge of the Death Eaters was finally cleansed from the world.

Muttering an incantation, Wendel enchanted a minor boost of speed upon himself, allowing him to close on a knot of Death Eaters that were already being attacked by his mentor, Bodrod. The older Goblin sought his own death in combat, which was no secret in the Goblin company, and threw himself into the thickest part of the fight with gusto, without any thought for his own safety.

Bodrod's axe twirled and spun in a complicated dance of death, somehow managing to miss the human Aurors that were their battle partners for the first time in Goblin recorded history, which went considerably further back than that of the humans, and Bodrod began carving a hole through the Death Eaters ranks.

Even as he reached the group, Wendel saw two Death Eaters draw aim on Bodrod's unprotected back with their wands, the first was blown off of his feet by a blond female Auror that held a command position in the Auror force, since no female Goblin was allowed to join a battle company, for the Goblins the inclusion of females in the Auror force had come as a little bit of a shock.

Wendel tried to move faster, to catch the second Death Eater unaware before he could cast his spell, but to the dismay of the young Goblin he realised he was already boosted and could not move any faster, there was no way he would reach the Death Eater except to avenge Bodrod's death.

And then when all hope seemed lost the strangest thing happened, the Death Eater jerked backwards and there was a spurt of blood from the location of his heart. And a split second later the already dead man jerked again as something struck his head. The man folded slowly and silently to the ground.

OoOoO

"It seems we both aimed at the same man!"

"It would seem so my friend"

The two French snipers, along with their spotters, were equipped with the latest frequency hopping, secure radio sets, especially enchanted to work in magical environments. It allowed the two teams to be in contact with each other despite being over one hundred metres apart without having to shout above the noise of battle.

"L'Enfants are making a terrible mess"

Lucas commented, gaining an audible snigger from the other sniper.

The French slang for Goblins was 'L'enfants' or 'the children'. The arrival of the Goblins had confused matters, they were not accepted as widely in French magical society as they were in the British. In fact in the past the Goblins had undergone considerable persecution in France, and the Goblins had very long memories. But a whispered command of 'stay on the Death Eaters' had the shooters back focused on the right targets again.

"Archangel, be aware, Dementors are approaching your position."

DuPont, surprised by the radio transmission from Paris when there should have been radio silence, jerked his head upwards and looked about in concern, Death Eaters he could handle, but Dementors were something else entirely, in an open space like this it would be a slaughter. For an instant he actually considered breaking his mission's prime objective and sending a warning to those that fought the Death Eaters below.

"Alright, you heard the man, Dementors are coming, we have done all we can here, prepare to move."

Lucas had just inserted his third magazine of ten rounds into the weapon and had only fired one round from it, he had fired twenty-one in total and he had hit with every shot, after this mission, after his memories were reviewed by pensieve his reputation as the premier sniper in this or any French Ministry team would be cemented.

DuPont had kept one eye on Harry Potter, and another on the cell blocks, he had seen the second red wand flare, and knew that all the prisoners had been released, the stated objectives of the mission had been met, Fleur Delacour, French citizen had been released, and despite his own desire to stay to the end to find out how the titanic duel now being fought below him finished, DuPont was first and foremost an obedient soldier.

The two shooters knew better to argue with the team leader, both during the course of the engagement had settled their sights for a period on to the head of Voldemort, each wishing they had permission to fire that one crucial round, but there was no way of knowing if a muggle firearm could even injure the dark wizard.

So instead the two shooters quickly collapsed their weapons, pulling out the magazines and ejecting the unfired round from the chamber, each man then made his final statement on the number of rounds fired, while their partners ensured they had the correct number of ejected cases.

Once satisfied the pairs knelt up, quickly collapsed their blankets and with small pops vanished from the rooftop, between them the two men had managed to account for thirty six Death Eaters.

OoOoO

**_HMS Iron Duke_**

"Oh Shit! Captain, Captain!"

Owen Jackson's head snapped around at the chief petty officers tone of voice rather than his words, the man had a reputation of being ice cool and was normally absolutely unflappable in a crisis.

"What's up chief?"

The petty officer was marking a point on his screen with a china marker, turning to his superior officer he pointed to the place he had just marked on the screen.

"The Frenchy just went in hard sir, straight down into the deck, like someone just shot him down!"

"WHAT!"

Owen Jackson was stood over his petty officer's shoulder in an instant staring at the radar trace, sure enough there was no longer any sign of the French plane on the screen, at its maximum speed the plane should have been on radar for at least an hour as it departed.

Jackson wasted no time, he crossed to the intercom and reached for the handset and thumbed it on.

"Bridge, this is the Captain, make your heading 240 degrees, bring the ship to flank speed, and prepare the ship for rescue duties, that is all!"

As he replaced the handset, Jackson could feel the extra strong vibrations through the deck plates as the two massive gas turbine engines buried deep in the ship came suddenly alive and began to wind up to the type 23 frigate's stated maximum speed of 28 knots. It was if the warship had been straining at the leash, and had finally been set free.

Jackson turned back to the chief.

"Chief I want you to go back over the record of that radar trace, I want you to squeeze every single piece of information out of it possible, because we are going to need to know exactly what we are getting ourselves into."

"Aye aye sir!"

_**HMS Iron Duke**_ leaned hard into the tight turn, accelerating onto her new bearing, quickly reaching flank speed which was two knots faster than her listed maximum, the ships very shape implied speed and grace, and now she was showing why her class of warship was known in the Royal Navy as the greyhounds of the sea.

None aboard could know that the heading they were on now would in a scant few minutes place the warship firmly between the Dementors and Azkaban prison.

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

For those few that witnessed what occurred at Azkaban that day swore it was something they would never forget until the day they died. The two wizards, one tall and pale, the other small and dark haired, wand tips glowing like the sun, spinning, twisting, ducking in some strange malice filled ballet of death. The energies being released were blinding in its intensity, casting flickering shadows over the whole exercise yard.

Harry cast non-verbally, his wand tip a blur as spell after spell blasted across the yard, but no matter how fast his wand tip moved, Voldmeort's moved faster. Many spells and curse deflected off each other mid-flight. To Harry the whole world had disappeared, there was only him and his opponent that mattered now.

Had anyone been watching closely they would have seen a small smile on the face of the dark haired youth as he fought the magical duel of his life. It was matched by the grimace of pure hatred on the face of Voldemort.

Harry slammed curse after curse at Voldemort just as fast as he could cast them, the number of spells criss crossing the yard leaving a blazing trail of multi-coloured light hanging permanently in air between them. He wasn't trying to defeat Voldemort, realising that task was at the present moment beyond him, he was trying to distract him, to occupy his attention long enough for the Aurors to break clear and escape.

Voldemort, invincible, unbeatable Voldemort. The dark wizard had been hurt every bit as badly as Harry, few that had crossed wands with him in the past had ever managed to land even a single spell on him, but today Harry had proved he could be duelled without the outcome being a forgone conclusion. Voldemort was dishevelled, and his robes were torn in places, revealing jagged wounds that for some dark, arcane reason refused point blank to bleed. It was if instead of being hurt his magically created body was in fact merely damaged.

Harry on the other hand was wincing now with every step he took, the pain of his thigh bringing tears to his eyes and forcing his breath to come in ragged gasps. His three main wounds were bleeding freely, and he could feel his cold, sodden robes sticking to him in several places. He was still maintaining his glamour, so there was no external sign of his wounds. But Harry knew he had very little left to give.

Harry, despite his success in not yet dying, knew this duel would have only one conclusion. His power increase from the ward had gifted him with a magical stamina he had never before dreamed of, allowing him to last in the uneven duel longer than he had dared hope, but his skill level had not changed, and skill wise Voldemort was decades ahead of him.

"Isn't it time you scuttled off home with your tail tucked firmly between your legs Tom?"

Harry kept his tone calm and even, despite the exhaustion he felt, surprising even himself with his force of will. He wanted nothing more than to run back to Hermione, and felt sick to his soul that he had left her at such a time.

Harry had caught the brief flash of light out of the corner of his eye, and thought he had heard brief snatches of the sweet sound of Phoenix song, but he couldn't spare the time to look back over his shoulder and see what was happening. Any lack of focus, any slip of attention on his part and Voldemort would leap at the chance of finishing the duel.

"And miss the chance of ending this here and now, I think not Harry. Besides you are growing weaker with every passing second, I don't think I shall have very long to wait."

Harry was forced to agree with him, he was weakening, but the thing that stood out for Harry was that Voldemort suddenly appeared to be tiring faster than he was, his voice sounded tired and strained to Harry's ears. Harry was suddenly struck by the thought that Tom Riddle was over seventy years old! He was fighting a geriatric, albeit a geriatric who had enhanced himself with the use of dark magic.

"Oh I think I have strength enough left in me to send you packing Tom!"

Voldemort laughed, an evil humourless sound that grated on Harry's senses, the dark wizard seemed to have suddenly regained his confidence and strength, he raised his hand and pointed over Harry's shoulder.

"Strength enough to fight me to a stalemate perhaps, but strength enough to fight all of them, I think not!"

Voldemort laughed again, and against his better judgement Harry turned his head to look where his opponent pointed. What he saw froze his heart, on the horizon, growing larger with every passing second was what at first appeared to be a large black storm cloud, except this cloud was moving at sea level and was moving against the direction of the strong North Atlantic wind.

"Oh crap!"

Dementors, lots and lots of Dementors, possibly more Dementors than Harry had ever seen in his entire life, certainly more than he had fought off with his Patronus in his third year.

Harry groaned at the bloody unfairness of it all, he couldn't fight Voldemort and hundreds of Dementors at the same time even if he wasn't wounded or exhausted.

In the wide open space of the exercise yard the Aurors and the Goblins wouldn't stand a chance of defending themselves. If they could fall back to the buildings, create bottlenecks to defend with a Patronus or two, then there might be a chance to hold the Dementors off long enough to organise a retreat.

There was something moving on the sea between the Dementors and the shore, a low, sleek grey shape that was hard to spot against the background, Harry didn't recognise what he was looking at and his eyes slid over the object.

Harry turned, a warning to the Aurors already on his lips, only to realise with a sudden nightmarish clarity that he had made a terrible, horrific mistake, he had taken his eyes off his opponent, he had lost his focus on the duel, and now he was going to pay.

The Reducto curse struck him high up on his already wounded shoulder, some instinctive reaction on his part had him already trying to dodge away, but it was too little too late, there was no way his already exhausted body could move out of the way in time.

The curse blasted into him, his Wyvern scale body armour, already damaged in that area didn't even slow the curse down. The curse snapped his collar bone like a dry twig, driving shards of bone deep inside his chest, dislocating his shoulder and destroying the joint, and crushing his clavicle into fine powder. At such close range, the power of the curse still had the penetration to force its way through the shoulder, exploding in a gory shower from Harry's back.

The sheer impact force of the curse flipped him right the way off of his feet and sent him cart wheeling through the air, his glasses flying in the opposite direction to his body. He nearly completed an entire back flip before he was dumped unceremoniously to the ground with bone crunching force.

Harry laid there whimpering in pain, he couldn't remember being in as much pain as this, even the night he had rescued Ginny from the clutches of Voldemort hadn't resulted in the agony currently ripping through him.

His vision was swimming, but without his glasses he couldn't see much of anything anyway, and he had the distasteful salty, copper taste of blood in his mouth, the breath had been knocked right out of him by the collision with the ground. He was aware of a strange sensation in his chest, like indigestion, but far less comfortable, a dull ache that made his breathing painful. But despite his crippling injuries, somewhere inside of him the will to keep fighting, to overcome, still burned brightly.

"Reducto"

Ignoring the pain, storing it inside him in that special place he reserved for such occasions, Harry rolled over twice as Voldemort's curse exploded where he had been laid moments before. Taking his wand in his good hand he pointed it in the direction of Voldemort's blurred figure, without his glasses Harry had to squint to see much of anything. But now Harry knew he had to re-take the offensive, laying there was just asking to die.

"Glacies Imber!"

With a powerful kick, a shower of foot long ice shards leapt from Harry's wand across the yard towards Voldemort.

"Infero Obex!"

A wall of flame sprang up from around Voldemort's feet, there was a loud hiss and a coil of steam rose to the heavens as each of the ice missiles struck the barrier, but none managed to pass through.

"Fortis Flabra!"

Harry cast the hurricaine charm, sending gale force winds rushing directly at Voldemort. The wind crashed into the fire barrier and under such pressure the flames were blown back into Voldemort. The dark wizard cried out in pain as bright flames engulfed him once more, only this time he was suffering from his own spell.

Voldemort cancelled his fire barrier immediately ending his pain, but even as he raised his wand to target Harry again a large shard of ice crashed into his shoulder, tumbling the dark wizard to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs.

"How did you like that!"

Harry shouted, he lay back and despite the pain giggled to himself, he had cast his spell non verbally to give Voldemort no warning. He felt light headed and knew that his reserves were all but gone, he had done all he could, it was now time to get the hell out of there.

With a groan Harry flopped over onto his front in an ungainly manner and tried to climb back to his feet. Only one of his arms was obeying instructions, his other arm hung limply on the ground, the arm was completely numb, and he couldn't even feel where his hand rested upon the ground. Having to place his wand between his teeth, Harry used his good arm to lever himself into a kneeling position.

He closed his eyes and thought hard about the Burrow.

"Goodbye Harry."

Harry's eyes snapped open in time to see the curse leave voldemort's wand.

The second Reducto curse missed its intended target of his head by inches, instead catching Harry a glancing blow on the side of his neck, the impact snapped his head back and caused his arm to fold under him like a wet piece of cardboard, dumping him back to the ground on the ruin of his wounded shoulder.

He screamed so loudly it seemed as if his vocal cord would tear and as he slipped into the blackness of unconsciousness, he thought he must have been imagining things, because he would have sworn the last sound he had heard before passing out was the sound of a muggle chainsaw revving up.

OoOoO

**Azkaban Island, Offshore**

Owen Jackson was leant over the petty officer's shoulder, his face so close to the screen he nearly had his nose pressed against it. He was intently studying the record of the radar trace taken moments before the French plane had fallen out of the sky, trying to identify a large shape that seemed to collide with the plane.

"So what the hell is that?"

The Chief Petty Officer manning the radar station, a career sailor by the name of Jason Morrow, peered at the shape his captain was pointing at and shook his head.

"Sir, I've been doing this job all my adult life, I have never seen anything like that before, and I have no idea what it is."

The Petty Officer switched back to a current live radar scan of the horizon and pointed with his pen at the same shape that was now halfway to the centre of their screen.

"But whatever it is, it's headed this way, almost at sea level now."

Owen Jackson stared intently at the 'blob' on the radar, his inner voice was simply screaming at him now, he had just seen this object bring down a French air force plane, and he had a sneaking suspicion it was the same object that had attacked the cargo ship he had salvaged and all the others in the quarantine zone, and now it was coming right at them!

He looked up at the ship's crest on the wall and read the words underneath. 'Virutis fortuna comes' the Latin translated as 'fortune is the companion of valour'. He wasn't going to let anything touch a member of his crew if he had anything to say about it, he wasn't sure what the admiralty would say about his actions, but at that very moment he didn't care, he would deal with the backlash later.

"Chief can we get a lock on that 'thing'?"

"A lock sir?"

The chief asked surprised.

"A weapon lock chief, can you get me a lock?"

The chief turned back to his console and adjusted his controls, focusing the billboard radar system onto a much narrower angle.

"Its as if the object isn't solid sir, like there are many individual objects moving tightly together, but I think I can get a lock if I switch to full power on billboard."

Jackson smiled grimly and clapped the chief on the shoulder. Full power on the billboard radar system, focused down a narrow angle was extremely hazardous to the health of those on the receiving end.

"I don't care if later in life they can have kids or not, do it."

Turning he reached above his head for the intercom handset, with his free hand he hit the red button that would sound the general quarters siren throughout the ship, before he spoke into the intercom.

"Sound General Quarters, sound general quarters, man your battle stations, this is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill. Go to condition three throughout the ship, condition three. We are being approached by an unknown assailant thought to responsible for the recent attacks on vessels at sea; we are preparing to defend ourselves, stand to your Battle Stations, Marines prepare to repel boarders."

Condition three prepared for a gas attack, all the outer hatches would be shut and locked, and a pressure seal around the hatches would be inflated to stop anything gaseous from getting inside. The ship would be running on purely its own internal oxygen supply for the duration of the attack, pumped from outside and passed through a number of filters.

"Sir what are your orders?"

The weapons officer, young, and eager as a new puppy was suddenly at his side.

"When that…that object...thing closes to within 30 nautical miles of my ship, I want you to kill it for me. Do you understand your orders?"

The young officer gulped, and nodded nervously, it would be the first time he had ever fired live munitions in anger.

A strained silence fell in the CIC as every eye not doing something vital already watched the large radar screen, the 'blob' closed on them at a seemingly sedate pace, but close it did, until finally…

"Sir, object has crossed the 30 nautical mile threshold."

Petty Officer Morrow reported to his immediate superior, the weapons officer.

"Very well, we have authorization to engage with all weapons systems, switch to automatic, begin engagement."

On the foredeck, behind the Mk 8, 4.5inch deck gun, the covers of the Sea Wolf missiles snapped clear of the launch tubes, and the gun itself swung around as well despite the fact it was currently well out of range.

"Computer is now in automatic mode, radar is tracking targets and generating a priority list, now commencing engagement."

The launch of the first Sea Wolf could be felt throughout the ship, a loud bone jarring roar and a deep vibration in the deck plates, those on the bridge stared out in fascination as the missile rose vertically from its launch tube on a column of fire directly before their eyes, before tilting over sideways and accelerating away.

Before the smoke of the first launch had cleared away, a second Sea Wolf had launched, closely followed by a third, and a fourth.

Down in CIC the radar plot tracked each of the missiles as they left the ship, as one after another the ship's entire complement of thirty two Sea Wolves leapt clear of their launch tubes.

"All missiles away in dumb mode and tracking, Billboard have a good lock on all targets."

Chief Morrow reported, his voice at last showing just a hint of excitement.

Owen Jackson sat back and let his crew get on with their jobs, they were well trained and didn't need him breathing over their shoulders at such a time.

He had never been onboard a vessel that had depleted it's entire missile magazine during a single engagement before, whatever 'it' or 'they' were out that was approaching his ship, they were about to get a very nasty surprise.

The outbound wall of thirty two missiles were guided dumb virtually all the way to the target, they only switched to thier own internal sophisticated seeker heads when they entered the last few seconds of flight. Each of the thirty two individual missiles wobbled slightly as they locked onto their selected targets and made minute course corrections.

The Sea Wolf missile was designed as a short range air defense system to defeat attacking aircraft and anti-ship sea skimming missiles, they had a top speed of mach 2 and were agile enough to outperform evading aircraft. In the nose of each missile, located behind the seeker head was a warhead of fourteen Kilograms of high explosive initiated by an electrically triggered proximity fuse.

Against a fast moving, evasive target the improved Sea Wolf was expected to score a hit 80 percent of the time, in this circumstance, the targets were not fast moving, nor were they evasive at all. Only one missile missed its intended target, but with so many targets moving so closely together it didn't matter a hell of a lot

60 Dementors were completely vaporised in the space of twenty seconds as the missile warheads designed to destroy attacking aircraft literally blew them apart, the tattered remnants of their black cloaks drifted down into the sea like surreal confetti. But there were nearly two hundred Dementors remaining from the blood pack dispatched by the council, and they were determined to press on and carry out their mission.

On board the Royal Navy warship the cheers from the successful engagement died as the radar contact continued to close upon the vessel.

"They're still coming! Targets now entering within range of the 4.5inch gun, deck gun is tracking targets…firing now!"

The weapons officer reported, his young, inexperienced voice cracking slightly under the pressure.

In the bow of the warship the Mk 8, 4.5inch Dual purpose turreted deck gun traversed off slightly and its barrel elevated, as the computer automatically adjusted for the speed of the ship and the speed of the targets. The deck gun was completely automated, requiring no crew to feed it from the auto loader below decks.

The gun began firing, pumping out the high explosive shells into the air, one every six seconds. While not quite the precision radar guided ordnance that the Sea Dart missiles were, in the tightly packed formation preferred by Dementors, the shells could hardly miss.

Another forty of the creatures had perished in the four minutes it took before the auto loader finally clicked empty and the deck gun fell silent. Below decks the weapon crew hurried to reload the now empty auto loader from the magazine, but there was not enough time.

Down in CIC, Owen Jackson snorted in dismayed amazement as another of his offensive armaments ran dry. The only offensive munitions left aboard now other than small arms were anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons, of no use against an airborne target.

"Well I suppose we could always go up on deck and throw harsh language at them."

There were several sniggers from the CIC staff at his comment. Despite the tension, his crew were remaining calm and professional, he could not have been more proud.

"Sir, Target is entering Phalanx range, Phalanx is showing positive target locks, shall I arm the system."

The weapon officer enquired.

"Sure, why not, throw the lot at them."

On deck just forward of the aircraft hangar, the radar dome of the Phalanx sentinel system began to receive target information from its powerful relative the billboard radar. This was not the sort of engagement the Phalanx system had been designed to handle, It was designed to fire on one or two fast moving targets on a direct collision course with the ship, not a large number of smaller, slower moving, agile targets.

The six barrelled Gatling gun slowly began to turn, quickly spinning up to full speed as the radar was fed slight aiming corrections due to barrel temperature and target speed, then the weapon jerked suddenly to the left and fired a stream of rounds.

Dementors were extremely magically resistant and could stand up to some of the most powerful spells and curses known to wizards, but the physical impact of a large number of 20mm depleted uranium armour piercing rounds blasting through their bodies was more than enough to end their evil existence.

The Phalanx was working harder than its creators had ever intended, it fired a short burst, stopped, selected a new target, fired again, repeating the sequence over and over. The weapon jerking to the left and right, up and down, as it tried to keep up with the flood of targets pouring towards it. The sound it made as it fired each burst was distinctive and sounded like a chainsaw buzzing.

Dementors were very direct creatures, having little in the way of imagination, they had been given their instructions, to seize the island, and it never crossed their minds to deviate from those orders for an instant. They flowed over the warship, for an instant covering the superstructure like a thick black fog, ignoring the ship in favour of the island of Azkaban.

The Phalanx system on that side of the ship, suddenly without any targets to engage, hunted for a few seconds, before returning to its standby setting, its six spinning barrels slowly coming to a halt as they cooled rapidly.

As the Dementors cleared the centreline of the ship, the second Phalanx weapon engaged the Dementors and continued to inflict casualties until they had passed out of range, the weapon ceased firing, its barrels steaming as the spray from the sea splashed up at them.

By the time the Dementors reached the island they had lost over two thirds of their number, and the element of surprise had been totally lost.

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

Hermione floated uneasily in a sea of pain, her body was suffering so much pain that her mind had withdrawn from the sensation in order to keep working. In a cold logical manner she dispassionately assessed her chances of survival, and despite the intervention of Fawkes and his healing tears, she didn't rate her chances particularly highly.

There was only so much damage a Phoenix could repair, massive internal injuries and organ damage were beyond the wonderful magical bird, and that was what would kill her. While she had very little formal medical training, her parents had always thought it better to equip their daughter for the big bad world as best as they were able, and therefore she knew enough to know that while she wasn't in any danger of bleeding to death anymore thanks to Fawkes, with a collapsed lung, damaged kidney and possibly spleen and who knew what else wrong with her it wasn't looking promising.

Her body had gone numb, but whether that was because she was laid upon the cold ground, or because of the amount of blood she had lost, she wasn't sure, but either way her body had started taking desperate measures to keep her alive, channelling blood away from her limbs to keep her internal organs working. But even with such measures it was now only a matter of time.

She was propped up with her head in Ginny's lap, Hermione could feel Ginny's warm delicate little hand on side of her head, fingers gently stroking her cheek, and occasionally she could feel one of Ginny's tears fall upon her face.

_You must be strong and hold on fledging, your journey is not yet complete, you and your friends still have long lives ahead of you._

The normally flat and even tone of the Phoenix had been replaced by a tone filled with concern.

"I'm scared Fawkes"

Hermione whispered, finally admitting to herself that was indeed the case.

_I know you are fledgling, but this is not your time, we are your friends, and we need you. As soon as your wounds have closed I shall deliver you to the home of your nest mate. _

"Fawkes is right, hang on Hermione, I need you. Who else could I go to for advice on boys and help with my homework?"

Ginny spoke, laughing despite her tears. Hermione felt immensely grateful for her friendship, it couldn't be easy being her friend. Such was Hermione's pain and her fight to stay conscious, it never entered her mind to question how Ginny had heard what the Phoenix had said to her. She was just glad her friend Ginny Weasley was there.

Hermione Granger didn't make friends easily, she never had. As a young child, before she really understood the special powers she had been born with, she had tried so desperately hard to relate and get on with the children her own age.

Her attempts at friendship had resulted in some spectacular failures over the years, causing the young girl no end of distress and heartache. In the end as a form of self-defence she had built a wall around herself in order to keep those that could potentially hurt her away, her wall consisted of her books.

She had always loved books, her first proper memories were of her mother and father reading stories to her at her bedtime, but at an early age she found she could seek not only knowledge but also solace and companionship in the pages of her books. It was where she ran to when she was hurt, angry or scared.

Then her Hogwarts letter had arrived, and her whole world had started to change, not immediately of course, for after so long alone she was still incredibly awkward around other children, covering this awkwardness with a bossy and pompous manner which similarly failed to endear her to her many Hogwarts peers.

But now at least she understood why she had seemed so different from the other muggle children, why unexplained things had happened around her whenever she had been very angry or particularly upset. She had been born with the power like all those at Hogwarts, but unlike many of those at Hogwarts, Hermione had been born into the muggle world, and to her parents in particular, and this gave her other gifts she could call upon.

She had inherited her mother's incredible thirst for knowledge, a craving to learn everything about…well everything, she had also inherited her mother's commonsense, level headedness and strict adherence to the rules. From her father she had inherited her drive to succeed, to seek to be the very best at everything she did, and the ability to drive herself hard until she had accomplished whatever goal she set herself.

These inherited traits combined with her magical ability to produce an unusually driven young witch that wanted and needed to learn with a passion for books and the ability to soak knowledge up like a sponge, but who had no idea how to relate to others.

All things being equal, Hermione Granger would have possibly spent her time at Hogwarts ignoring and being ignored by most of those around her, those that thought her a freak and a bookworm, a teacher's pet and a swot.

But one thing was lacking in her life, and Hermione wasn't even aware of it. You cannot get companionship and friendship from a book, not even from an entire library full of them, and that was what she lacked. And without even knowing it, cracks had started to appear in her wall designed to keep people out.

It had all started the moment when she had met the two of them on the Hogwarts express, the dirty faced red head, and the boy in the clothes several sizes too big for him, who she had identified because of his unique scar. She wasn't to know then that these two young wizards would become her supporters, her co-conspirators, her champions and most importantly they would become her best friends.

That first year had been very difficult for Hermione, she had needed to make a lot of adjustments to her outlook and how she interacted with others. But for the price of a long hard look at herself, what she got in return was a gift beyond measure, she had become a valued part of a team, and she finally had friends.

For the gift of friendship freely given by two young boys, she found herself willing to break the rules, look over and correct their homework, and even defy a teacher or two, for the first time in her life she was a complete person, and she liked the changes she had made.

In her third year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, her two best friends became three almost by accident, Hermione had of course been aware of Ginny Weasley before her arrival at school from Ron's descriptions of his home life. But it wasn't until the start of her second year that she had met the youngest Weasley now in the year below, but the small girl and her strange fascination for Harry mostly slipped beneath her notice in light of the threat from the chamber of secrets, and the ongoing attacks on school students.

One night shortly after the start of her third year, Hermione had been finishing one of Snape's potion's assignments at some time past midnight, when a distraught Ginny Weasley had entered the common room. The girl, thinking she was alone, sat on the sofa and started sobbing uncontrollably.

Hermione, although much better at relating to people than she had once been, was still at a loss at how to comfort the sister of one of her best friends. In the end she just sat beside Ginny and put her arms around the younger girl and just held her for what seemed the longest time, Ginny eventually fell into an exhausted sleep in her arms, and a new friendship was born.

Ginny eventually told her about the nightmares that had been plaguing her dreams since the events of the previous year, and how her schoolwork was suffering from her lack of sleep.

Hermione knew that after suffering such trauma Ginny needed to see a counsellor, a professional to help her work through it, the frightened young girl wasn't convinced but agreed only if Hermione would come with her.

She accompanied the younger girl to see the school nurse, and Madam Pomfrey agreed immediately with her assessment, and with their head of house's permission a counsellor was requested from St. Mungo's.

Hermione could have let the professionals deal with it from there, but Ginny wanted someone she trusted to go with her, and she didn't want anyone else to know about what she considered her own personal weakness, not even her parents. So Hermione had agreed reluctantly, knowing these sessions would cut badly into her own lesson times.

That was when Professor McGonagall, with Dumbledore's permission had given her the time turner.

If and when her friends found out, she was to say it was so she could study extra classes, and in the end that was what Hermione mainly used it for, but at the start of the year it was so she could attend Ginny's sessions, held in the Headmaster's office, without her school work suffering.

How could any of them know that by the end of that year the time turner would be put to a much more noble use, saving Sirius and Buckbeak. With Ginny's counselling ending towards the end of the year, and her exams over Hermione had tried to hand the time turner back to her Headmaster.

_Flash Back_

Hermione waited, slightly impatiently in front of the headmaster's desk, she didn't really want to be there, but there was something that had to be done before the end of school, and she was now running out of days.

It had taken almost a week for her to be able to pluck up the courage to ask for this meeting, its not that she was scared of Dumbledore exactly, but she was very wary of him and the way he seemed to be manipulating Harry. There was more to the man than the absent minded schoolteacher front he wore like a comfortable cloak, but she sometimes wondered if she was the only one that saw it.

Hermione's attention wandered around all the strange devices on the shelves in the office, the pictures of past headmasters on the walls, and the crimson Phoenix sat upon its high perch.

Almost magnetically she found herself drawn to the regal, red and yellow-feathered swan sized bird that sat on its perch across the room from her. The bird seemed to be regarding her with an amused but patient look, and there was a deep intelligence behind those black eyes. It was the first time she had ever seen the headmaster's pet Phoenix so close.

_Old whitebeard does not own me fledgling, I am no one's pet!_

Hermione nearly fell over in shock, the voice in her head had a musical quality that seemed to fill her heart with joy, made her want to sing out loud. Never having been one to let her emotions rule her head this was a unique experience for her.

"Fawkes, are you talking to me? Can you hear my thoughts?"

_Yes fledgling I can talk to you, and before you ask, why we can communicate this way is a mystery to me also_.

"Surely you can talk to the headmaster? Hear his thoughts?"

_Of course I can, but I am bonded to old whitebeard, and have been for fifty one years. I am his familiar, between you and I no such bond exists, or can exist while I am bonded to another, it should not be possible, yet somehow it is. Most strange._

Hermione was sure she could detect a hint of humour in the tone, mixed with a dose of frustration, the bird was slightly annoyed at the fact there was something happening it didn't understand, but Hermione got the sense that it enjoyed the challenge in finding out the answer to the problem, 'just like I would' Hermione thought to herself.

Hermione traced back what she knew of history and cross referenced it with what she knew of the headmaster. 1945, that was the last year of the second world war, the same year that Dumbledore had defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald.

"You were at the headmaster's side when he fought Grindelwald?"

_No, I became his familiar after the battle had finished. I was attracted to his nobility and his self-sacrifice, Old white beard knew that the duel with Blackheart would be the death of him, and yet he fought anyway. _

"But he didn't die!"

_He would have fledgling had I not bonded with him and helped to heal the worst of his wounds. _

Intrigued at this new development and the new information that went with it, Hermione rounded the desk and crossed to the perch, she studied the bird for a moment before hesitantly reaching out a hand to stroke him, Hagrid's care of magical creatures classes had planted a certain level of caution in all his students.

The bird offered its head and allowed Hermione to run her hand over its plumage, the feathers were so soft, she wondered if she could get a look at the magnificent birds' wingspan.

Slowly, so as not to startle her, the Phoenix raised itself up and stretched out its wings to their full length. Hermione frowned, unsure how the bird knew what she had wanted.

"Thank you Fawkes."

_You are welcome fledgling._

The bird closed its wings and bobbed its head towards her hand, allowing her to stroke his head once more, crooning softly all the while in encouragement.

"You should consider yourself most fortunate miss Granger, Fawkes does not let just anyone touch him, and he is most choosy about those he does."

Hermione gave a little squeak of surprise and dropped her hand to her side and spun around to face the voice of her headmaster. Professor Albus Dumbledore stood in the doorway regarding her with an amused expression on his face, his eyes were twinkling merrily from behind his glasses at the young female Gryffindor.

"I'm sorry sir I didn't mean anything."

Fawkes, a little peeved to have his stroking interrupted, leaned forward on his perch and gently brushed his head against Hermione's ear, causing the girl to freeze in confusion, not sure whether she should step away from the Phoenix or not.

"Don't be silly Miss Granger, you have nothing to apologise for, besides its quite obvious that Fawkes likes you, and he has always been a superb judge of personal character, although of course there was that one fairly notable exception."

Hermione was startled when the Phoenix let out a very loud hiss, a sound that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Fawkes was very angry about something.

"And as I have told you before you silly bird, he managed to fool many people, some who should have known much better including myself, what's past is past, think no more upon it."

Dumbledore crossed the office and moved past Hermione, pausing briefly to stroke Fawkes himself, before taking his seat behind the desk, he indicated that Hermione should take the seat across from him.

"Now miss Granger what is it I can do for you?"

Hermione leaned forward in her seat and fished an object out of the pocket of her robes, opening her hand, palm upwards and held the object out towards her headmaster.

"I think its time to return this to you sir, the reason for which I originally accepted it has gone and I'm not sure I need to keep it."

Hermione met the gaze of her headmaster steadily, and continued to hold the time turner out to him, when he made no move to take it from her she placed it down upon his desk.

"How is Miss Weasley now?"

Hermione was extremely surprised at the question, and it must have showed because Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.

"Miss Granger, the mind is a wonderful thing, especially the mind of the young, it's why I became a teacher in the first place, shaping inquisitive young minds, there is no greater calling, but I digress. The mind can also be a very frightening and scary place, full of nightmares and horrors of our own creation, and sometimes, even when we think we are healed from our wounds, the mind will replay the very worst images we have seen, even years after the events depicted"

Hermione got the impression the headmaster knew exactly what he was talking about, there had been a moment, just an instant, that she had seen his unguarded emotions, and there had been pain there, such incredible pain that it made her heart ache in sympathy, but then the curtain had swiftly closed again.

"So you are saying Ginny may not actually be any better?"

"She has improved a great deal of course, but the poor girl was put through a terrible ordeal last year, an ordeal that would have left its mark on many far older than her, and the effects of that ordeal haven't yet completely worked their way out of her system, she will need her friends around her for a while yet I fear."

Hermione nodded at the wisdom of this, she had no intention of leaving Ginny to cope alone, and maybe she should mention something to Ron and Harry so they could watch her over the summer, and then they would all be at the burrow just before the Quidditch world cup.

"What about the time turner?"

"I will be honest with you miss Granger, a time turner can be a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands, there can be severe consequences for dabbling in time, which is why the Ministry so strictly controls their use. However they can also be used to do the right thing, as with you and Miss Weasley, she desperately needed a friend she could depend on, and you have, to your credit, become that friend. And, as I'm sure you are aware, a time turner can be used to put right…certain tragic injustices."

Hermione grinned, she was only too aware of what the headmaster was talking about, namely the rescue of a certain escaped prisoner and a certain Hippogriff both of whom would have been executed had she not had the time turner.

"Are you saying I should keep it sir?"

"What I'm saying Miss Granger is that none of us can predict the future, it is, after all a fluid thing, but sometimes doing the right thing means not doing the right thing. If you should decide to keep the object may I recommend you tell no one you have it, that you use only in the direst need, and that you never let it reside far from your person."

Hermione looked at those eyes for a moment, trying to get a sense of what Dumbledore's true intentions were, but now the eyes gave nothing away. With a sigh she reached out and picked up the time turner and studied it in her hand for a few seconds before stuffing it back into her robes. Thanking the professor and nodding with respect to the Phoenix, she stood and left his office.

_End of Flash Back_

Hermione smiled as she lay there, listening to the sound of her friend Ginny gently humming in harmony with the Phoenix song as the regal bird continued in his efforts to heal her. She knew she was dying, and at least had the satisfaction in knowing that what she had done hadn't been in vain, she had saved the lives of her two friends.

There was no panic now, just the realisation that the slide into the blackness was happening regardless of the wonderful magical creature above her. She wanted to tell Fawkes to save his strength, to go aid Harry in his duel against Voldemort, but she tried to speak and nothing happened.

Sighing deeply, she settled back and let the blackness claim her, the last sound that reached her ears belonged to Fawkes as he shrieked in disbelief as his patient lost her fight for consciousness.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Emma Granger moved from bed to bed, tending to the injuries of the non-critical patients, with the timely arrival of the magical trauma team from St Mungos, she had been glad to hand over care of the more seriously injured to the medical professionals.

She was exhausted, she had been on the go from the moment Kingsley Shacklebolt had arrived at her home and told her and Dan of the unfolding events. They had both insisted on returning with him to the burrow to do what they could to help the injured.

Emma had never in her life felt such relief as the moment her daughter had walked calmly through the door levitating an unconscious Ginny in front of her, Hermione had been battered, bruised, and covered in cuts, but otherwise unharmed. Emma had known her daughter had been involved in some of the worst of the fighting, but had come away from it virtually unscathed.

Now if only Harry, Ron and Ginny could drag themselves back here in the same condition she would be thrilled. She paused as Dan walked by, taking the few seconds away from the patients to wrap his arms around her weary shoulders and kiss her neck. She smiled and gripped his hands in return.

Dan and one of the St Mungos healers named Augustus Pye were dealing with all the walking wounded, those with green triage cards, most of the Aurors just wanted to get up and return to the battle. Once they had received treatment, those with less serious injuries had been forming adhoc squads and apparating back to Azkaban, to no doubt suffer fresh injuries.

Emma looked down and found herself at the bedside of Katie Bell, at first she thought the tall, good looking dark haired girl was asleep, but as she approached the teenagers eyes flickered open and she grinned up at the woman.

"You look like you need a week off"

Emma grinned down at Katie, despite everything the girl's sense of humour was still intact, which spoke volumes about her mental state. A positive mental attitude was just as important as medication in bringing about a quick recovery.

"You are right of course, and once this is over I might even get an hour or two off. Anyway, more importantly how are you feeling?"

Emma moved closer to Katie's bedside and began to examine the girl's dressings, some of them were already blood soaked and Emma set about changing them for clean, sterile dressings. Katie's wounds, although numerous and deep, were not life threatening, just painful and disabling. The girl had lost a lot of blood and her skin was pale in contrast to her raven hair.

"I hurt just about all over and I'm worried about Thomas, Draco and Harry, I'm not sure what I would do if I lost any of them."

Emma reached out and gave the girl's hand a reassuring squeeze. The Bell family had suffered a great deal recently, it said a lot about their strength of character that they were still willing to get involved in the fight, knowing they had so much to lose. Both Thomas and Draco were on the critical list and undergoing surgery, both had suffered very serious injuries during the battle.

Emma knew how it felt for a loved one to rush off into danger. Hermione had insisted on going to Azkaban to aid in freeing her friends held there. And Harry was as close to Hermione as any brother could be, he was at that very moment fighting a duel with Voldemort.

"Harry will manage to look after himself, he always does, Draco won't die because he enjoys winding Harry and Ron up too much, as for Thomas, well he cannot die either, there is way too much fun to be had here yet!"

Katie chuckled at Emma's words knowing the truth of what she said, then immediately winced in pain as the movement tugged at one of her wounds. She clamped her teeth together and sucked in air through her teeth against the sudden pain.

"Do you want more pain relief, I could always get Madam Pomfrey to get you a dreamless sleep potion?"

Katie shook her head vehemently.

"No I need to be conscious and alert, Helen is all alone at the moment and after my parents, seeing me unconscious will scare her silly, and I want to know when Thomas and Draco come out of surgery, and when Harry, Ginny and the others get back, I need to know my family and friends are safe, you can understand that right?"

Emma nodded and clasped the girls arm in sympathy and understanding. The girl had taken on parental responsibilities for her younger sister, currently being looked after by Minerva McGonagall. That was one of the reasons she had wanted to come here, she wanted to be useful, to put her medical training into practise, but most importantly she had wanted to be here to know all those she cared about were safe.

"I understand completely, but if you change your mind just shout, right that's me finished, I'll be back to check on you later, try and get some sleep, I promise to wake you, if Helen arrives or when I have any news."

Emma waved and moved away from the bed, looking up and down the row of beds and seated patients she realised that there was no one currently awaiting treatment, and for the first time since she had arrived back at the burrow she had nothing to do.

If there was one thing Emma Granger hated with a passion, it was having nothing to do, she didn't even have a book handy to pass the time until the next casualty arrived. Sighing in mild frustration at this lack of planning on her part, Emma walked to the entrance and pushed the flap open and stepped through it.

Outside, the sun was shining down and there was hardly a cloud in the sky, the birds were singing and cart wheeling through the sky without a care in the world, completely oblivious to the cares and petty squabbles of the humans far below. Emma found it hard to believe that on such a beautiful day as this people were fighting and dying as she was stood there.

She was distracted by an intense flash of bright red fire right in front of her that left a blinding after image on her retina, like looking at the sun for too long. Susan Bones appeared from inside the tent and hurried urgently past her, ready to assess the condition any wounded, Emma blinked furiously trying to clear her own vision so she could help the casualty.

"Red card, I have a red card!"

A critical trauma case requiring immediate surgery, Emma sighed deeply, hoping that the flow of casualties would soon come to an end, that the blood being spilled that afternoon would leave no more families without loved ones.

Two house elves she didn't recognise hurried past bearing a stretcher, followed immediately by two female healers, one of them, Amanda Coombs was already well known to her, after she had saved Hermione's life following the Death Eater attack on their house. The second healer was a tall, striking woman with long black hair tied back in a pony tail.

The two healers were trying to get close to the figure on the ground, but were being held back by the swan sized, crimson bird that had stretched out its impressive wingspan and was waving them protectively over the casualty. The bird was shrieking at the top of its voice, making the bird sound as if it was the one in pain.

Stepping closer, Emma finally managed to clear the after image from her sight and took a good look at the scene. It was only now she could get a good look at the casualty, and the moment was instantly etched on her memory as the subject of every nightmare she would have for months afterwards.

"HERMIONE!"

Emma roughly pushed aside the dark haired healer and tried to get to her daughter, but the crimson bird had turned to face her and hissed loudly, it seemed almost confused by what was happening, it was trying to protect Hermione and its misjudged efforts were stopping the healers from reaching the girl.

Emma knelt down in front of the bird and found herself looking into black, intelligent eyes filled with pain.

"Please, let me get to her, she's my only daughter. Please, she needs me."

Emma spoke softly, her voice filled with pain, incredibly calm despite the fact her heart was racing. Hermione was pale and still, and Emma could not see if her chest was rising and falling or not. There was a bloody wound to the left side of her daughter's chest, far too close to the heart for comfort.

The large bird stopped shrieking at her words and cocked its head while regarding her, and then slowly, almost reluctantly, the bird folded its wings across its back, and took a step away from the body.

The two healers needed no urging, they virtually threw themselves at Hermione, wands raised, incantations on their lips. Emma forced herself to ignore what was happening over her daughter, instead maintaining eye contact with the large bird.

"Thank you."

The bird dipped its head once in acknowledgement, not for a single moment taking its eyes off of Hermione and the healers gathered over her. Like some sort of avian bodyguard. But even as Emma watched the activity of the healers noticeably slowed and then stopped completely.

"What! Why aren't you helping her?"

Emma screamed, hearing an echoing scream from the bird that had moved up alongside her. The unknown healer just turned to face her, sadness and sympathy clear for all to see.

"I'm sorry, there is nothing we can do, she's gone."

For an instant Emma's mind went blank, before a moment of clarity sprang into place. They were going to let her daughter die, without lifting a finger to help her, Hermione; after all she had been through for these people deserved so much more.

"No, my daughter is strong! She has never turned her back on anything in her life! She's a fighter, she won't let this beat her! Get out of my way!"

Emma pushed the healer roughly aside for a second time and without hesitation began giving Hermione chest compressions. All personnel in the British Armed Forces were taught basic first aid, and this was one of the most basic techniques. By pumping Hermione's chest in a regular rhythm, Emma simulated the heart beating the blood around the body and helped the heart start again.

Or at least that was the plan. It wasn't working, and Emma realised she was tiring fast, she looked up to find the large red bird stood on the other side of Hermione, its head cocked over, studying her every move. Noticing her attention, the bird looked at her and began to sing.

It was the most hauntingly beautiful sound Emma had ever heard, somehow filling her with strength and hope to continue pumping her daughter's chest. Nothing else existed know for Emma except her daughter and the haunting music.

The healers both starred at the woman in astonishment, neither having the slightest clue what she was doing. For all their skills, magical healers had never developed any way of restarting a heart, no spell or potion existed once a patient had reached such a state. In this way muggle medical knowledge was proving to be more advanced than that of their magical counterparts.

The healers turned at the sound of running feet to find Dan Granger bearing down on them at high speed, he took one look at what was happening and threw himself down beside his wife. Gently lifting his daughters head up and tilting it back to open her airway, he pinched Hermione's nose and bent over her, his lips formed a seal over hers and breathed into her.

The oxygen was forced down into Hermione's lungs, and her chest expanded, this repeated twice more as Emma paused her chest compressions. As soon as the two breaths had gone in then Emma began the compressions again.

At some point in the proceedings the bird trilled joyously, and some instinct made Emma feel for a pulse at her neck, and to her eternal relief she found a weak pulse.

"She's back, Dan we have her back!"

OoOoO

**Azkaban Prison**

Across the width of Azaban's exercise yard, rutted and scared by three hours of intense magical conflict, Voldemort advanced on the unconscious and mangled form of Harry Potter. With a groan of effort the dark wizard pulled the ice shard from his shoulder and studied with interest the sticky black substance that served these days as his blood. He stopped on the way to kick aside the pair of glasses he found lying abandoned on the ground. He was chuckling evilly to himself as he realised the spoils of victory lay only an arms length away, his for the taking.

Finally after all the plotting and all the plans, all the years of disappointment, finally the day had come when he would finally be rid of Potter, the one thorn in his side, the only one who had refused to be cowed by his power, the one that had managed in such a short time pull together an alliance that threatened to humble his Death Eater force.

"The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches… Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…?"

Voldemort raised his wand, almost casually pointing it at the youth who had yet to stir from his unconsciousness.

"Out of interest, I would have liked to have known what the rest of the prophesy had said before killing you. But I shall somehow learn to live with the disappointment, goodbye Harry."

As Voldemort began the incantation that would finally end the threat presented by Potter forever he caught sight of a metallic glint out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head slightly, Voldemort had only enough time for his eyes to open in surprise before the throwing axe buried itself in his side.

Two Goblins, one carrying a large two headed axe, the second Goblin, far younger than his companion, carrying two blood stained short swords, were slowly approaching, weapons out and big toothy grins upon their faces. Voldemort was beside himself with fury, that these…creatures of a lesser race should dare to attack him, at the moment he was on the cusp of victory.

Voldemort reached down and pulled the throwing axe from his side and tossed it aside.

"You shall pay for your interruption with your lives!"

The two Goblins shared a look of understanding and touched their weapons together with a clang, before moving apart.

Voldemort threw a killing curse at the elder of the two Goblins, but with an unexpected burst of speed the little creature dashed sideways away from the curse. Snarling, Voldemort aimed again, this time with a blasting curse directed at the ground at the Goblins feet.

The curse exploded into the floor of the exercise yard, and created the same effect the spell had had on Draco Malfoy earlier, dozens of razor sharp projectiles shot upwards, that peppered the Goblin's legs, while the scale armour the creature wore absorbed most of the impact a few penetrated to leave thin trails of blood running down the metallic armour.

The older Goblin slowed to a halt and began to pull the larger stone fragments from his legs, showing no sign of the pain he must have been in. Stopping however made him an easy target, and with glee, Voldemort took aim with another killing curse.

Sudden fire erupted across Voldemort's thigh and he screamed in pain, he had been cleverly duped into focusing on one Goblin while the second closed in unnoticed and attacked him, the younger of the two creatures had opened his thigh down to the bone and danced out of range, preparing to attack again.

Throwing out a clawed hand, Voldemort hit the Goblin with an intense blast of ice, lifting the little creature and throwing him backwards a dozen feet. Smiling, Voldemort pointed his wand at the stunned Goblin, only to have the elder of the two creatures suddenly hit him in the small of the back with his axe, making him stumble forward, the killing curse missed its intended target.

OoOoO

Ginny threw herself flat to avoid Voldemort's first killing curse that had missed the elder Goblin, she was skirting the edge of the battle using the distraction the Goblins had won to reach the crumpled form of her boyfriend.

She had watched helpless, as Hermione had slipped away right in front of her. Fawkes had appeared to immediately lose control, becoming confused and agitated, it had taken Ginny grabbing hold of the bird and yelling at him to get the Phoenix calmed down. He had then grabbed hold of Hermione and disappeared in a flash of fire, hopefully taking her friend safely to the burrow.

She had looked up to find Voldemort advancing on Harry's still form, certain of victory. She had been ready to engage Voldemort with a curse herself when the two Goblins had done the job for her, now she was determined to use the time their bravery had won for her to reach Harry's side.

Picking herself up with difficulty because of her broken arm strapped tightly to her chest, Ginny kept low to the ground, crossing the distance in little sprints, trying to avoid Voldemort's notice, she needn't have worried, he was far too busy fighting the partnership of the two Goblins.

Reaching Harry's side, Ginny fell to her knees, ignoring the fact that the torn up exercise yard cut cruelly into her knees, frantically she felt Harry's neck for a pulse, her own heart hammering in her chest. 'Let him be alright, please let him be alright' kept repeating through her head, she didn't think she could stand it if after everything he had been through Harry died in this dirty, torn up prison yard.

There was a pulse, painfully weak and slow, but it was there. Ginny wanted to roll him over onto his back, but with only one good arm she lacked the strength to do it. Of his wounds she could see very little, every time she tried to look closely at him, the air around Harry's body seemed to shimmer and painfully blur, forcing her gaze away.

Ginny realised Harry was enveloped in a glamour, a spell designed to show observers an image that wasn't real, like wearing a disguise, it was only under close scrutiny that a glamour could be uncovered. This was very strange; glamour's normally were cancelled when the caster stopped concentrating on them, such as fell asleep or were knocked unconscious. Raising her wand over Harry, Ginny cancelled the glamour, although not without substantial difficulty.

What was revealed was simply horrendous. Ginny could no longer afford the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks, she knew she had to be strong now like never before, for Harry's sake, but she had no idea how anybody could suffer such devastating injuries and still be alive.

Ginny was suddenly glad she had not tried to rolled him over, his injured shoulder was worse than any wound Ginny had ever seen, and that was looking at the injury just from the back where it had exited, deep and ugly. Blood, muscle and bone fragments all competed to leave his body through the large hole. The skin around the edge of the wound had taken on an unnatural purple colour.

Ginny was afraid to touch the mass of exploded flesh and tissue on Harry's back, frightened that anything she might do would only make matters worse. The shoulder was bleeding heavily, forming a crimson pool in which the youth was lying.

She reached out and grabbed hold of Harry's wand from where it was lying on the floor and placed it in her robes, it was only then that she got a good look at his other side. Ginny bit back a scream as she saw the wound in his neck, it was deep and as she watched, Ginny could see dark red blood pumping out in weak little spurts.

Moving quickly, Ginny tore her own tattered robes off and shivering slightly in the cold Atlantic air, bundled them as tightly as her one good arm allowed and pressed the wad of cloth into Harry neck as hard as she could.

There was another wound in his side, although that didn't seem to be bleeding heavily, it was deep and there was bound to be internal damage resulting from it.

In short, she knew she needed to get Harry to a healer immediately or he would die, but it was only at that moment Ginny realised she had no way of doing it.

She couldn't even apparate herself back to the burrow, let alone take Harry with her, she had used the last power in the stolen port key to get her here, she had discarded it upon her arrival. She didn't have another portkey or any way of creating one, it was a spell that was beyond her present ability.

Harry was stuck here, and she was suddenly determined that whatever the cost, she wouldn't leave him, not now, not ever again.

"Accio glasses"

Pointing her wand using just the hand of her broken arm, she summoned Harry's glasses from across the yard, snatching them out of the air and putting them into the same pocket into which she had thrust his wand.

As Ginny knelt there, trying to keep the pressure on the wound in Harry's neck, she gently stroked her hand of her broken arm through his hair, mainly because she was at a loss to think of what else to do, the sound of Harry's voice made her jump slightly.

"Ginny?"

Harry's words were heavily muffled and slurred due to the wound in his neck and the incredible pain he must have been feeling, he still lay face down on the ground, his head turned away from her. Harry's body was a bloody tangled mess.

"Shhh Harry, I'm here love. You're hurt really badly, so please don't try to talk or move ok sweetheart."

"Leave…Burrow?"

Ginny shook her head, not that he could see it from his position face down on the ground, so she placed her free hand gently on his cheek just to let him know through physical contact that she was still there with him.

"I'm not leaving you Harry; I will always be here at your side."

"Promise?"

Harry sounded now very much like a scared child, terrified and unsure of himself, he also sounded as if he was speaking from a long way away or from the other end of a long tunnel, and the very sound of his voice was enough to scare Ginny.

"I promise you, Harry. I'm not leaving!"

There was no response from the youth.

"Harry?"

Ginny brushed his cheek again, but he had already passed out, his skin was cold now, his skin colouring almost a shade of grey, she had to get him out of here and she had to do it now.

A shadow crossed over her, looking up she found the young Goblin named Wendel stood protectively over her, his short swords swinging casually from his hands.

OoOoO

Voldemort howled in pain and clutched at his back. The oldest of the pair of Goblins struck him again, reversed his double headed axe and swung again, inflicting another deep wound.

Spinning, Voldemort lashed out with a clawed hand and backhanded the Goblin across the face, throwing the warrior to the ground. The creature lay there stunned by the savage strike, as Voldemort levelled his wand, and this time there was no one to get in the way of the green killing curse.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The short sword, arriving five seconds too late, spun end over end and struck the dark wizard in the side, remaining lodged deep in his ribcage.

Screaming, Voldemort turned to finish the second of the creatures, only to find the Goblin, small even for its diminutive race, had positioned himself in front of Potter, who had been joined by his blood traitor of a girlfriend. The Goblin stood there defiantly holding the twin of the sword presently embedded in his side.

"Step aside Goblin! Or I will make you and your family suffer more pain than you can possibly imagine!"

The Goblin relaxed its stance, swinging the sword casually in one of its hands, and then the little creature grinned at him, showing teeth!

"I have already suffered as much pain at your hands wizard as I care to, as for my family, they are somewhere beyond your ability to hurt them, you sent them there. I thank my ancestors for the chance they have given me on this day to fulfil my blood oath, I shall wash my blades in your blood dark one, and my ancestors shall be at rest."

The Goblin suddenly raised its empty hand palm outstretched, and the blade in Voldemort's side ripped free in a spray of black ichor and spun end over end until the hilt smacked solidly into the palm of the Goblin's outstretched hand.

Voldemort snarled in rage and pain, his wand stabbed out and bright red flames washed towards the Goblin and the two figures he was protecting, like a hungry predator looking for an easy meal. To Voldemort's dismay, a translucent silver shield suddenly snapped into place over the Goblin, Ginny Weasley and the still form of Harry Potter, the flames traced the outline of the shield without harming any of the figures inside.

This was a common enough shield charm, but it wasn't Goblin magic, it was human.

"I think its time for you to leave!"

A fourth figure limped out of the cloud of dust that had been thrown up by the battle. Ginny had never been so pleased to see Remus Lupin in her life, her former professor looked the worst for wear, his nose was obvious broken, his robes covered in blood, hopefully not all his own, but his stance was as defiant as the Goblin stood in front of Ginny.

OoOoO

"Reducto!"

Marcus blasted a Death Eater from his feet, not pausing to see if the man was ever getting up again, moving onto his next opponent. He was aware he was slowing down, stumbling from one combat to the next, he had never fought for anything like the length of time that he was being currently forced to. Even his harsh training at the Auror academy paled in comparison to this.

Along with the exhaustion was the fact he was injured, cuts, bruises and spell burns all competed for the limited space he allowed his brain to devote to such mundane matters.

They were all carrying injuries, not a single Auror would walk away from the combat without a scratch, but most would walk away, which in itself was a major achievement.

Blinking the sweat from his eyes, he knew it was the moment he had been waiting for; the devastating arrival of the Goblins had forced the bulk of the Death Eaters away from the struggling Aurors.

"Sonorous!"

Taking a deep breath, Marcus took a second to put his commands into a logical order before pointing his wand at his neck and speaking.

"Even numbered squads break off combat and begin casualty evacuation, odd numbered squads keep the pressure on, don't let the Goblins be overrun. Remember we're all marauders, Auror or Goblin, we don't leave anyone behind."

The retreat, always in danger of becoming a rout, succeeded and the remaining Aurors and Goblins took their last attacks before each Auror grabbed hold of a Goblin and apparated away to safety. But despite orders, in the confusion of combat one Auror, one Goblin, two order members and two members of the D.A. were left behind.

OoOoO

Voldemort took a step back and turned to face this new threat, he knew who Lupin was, in part because of his one time spy in the Order of the Phoenix, Wormtail, and in part because of the man's constant efforts to undermine his work to recruit the other werewolf clans.

The dark wizard knew Lupin was exceptionally knowledgeable in defence spell craft, and despite not having a huge magical power base to draw upon, any duel with the werewolf in his already weakened state would be no easy prospect.

Feeling his prize slipping away from him, Voldemort snarled and launched a series of curses directly at the werewolf.

"Ginny!"

Ginny looked up in surprise at the sound of the familiar voice. Staggering out of the dust came her eldest brother Bill, being partly supported by the young male Auror that had accompanied her and Harry on the rescue mission to Kings Cross, Matthew Hobart was his name.

Both men were badly hurt, the Auror had a terrible burn across his chest and one shoulder and was limping. Her brother appeared to have deep cuts all over his body and face that she didn't think any spell had caused.

"Bill, help me, Its Harry, he's hurt so badly, we need to get him to the burrow, but I can't….!"

Bill grinned weakly at her, and lifted what was held in his hand, it was an Auror's field pack, but it was what he pulled from it that mattered to Ginny more, a portkey!

"We saw you over here, and thought you might appreciate a way off this rock."

Bill grunted against the pain, but his voice was still filled with humour. Ginny smiled at both of them, a weight lifted from her shoulders, knowing now she could get Harry back to the medical attention he needed so badly.

Remus could have ducked aside, his reflexes would have let him avoid the curses with ease, but he knew that behind him, the group around Harry were in no fit shape to defend themselves. So he stood his ground, shielding himself in magical layers of defence and hoping his strength was up to the task.

It was, barely. Forced down to one knee by the furious magical assault, Remus panted at the effort. Struggling back to his feet, Remus fired off a muted counter strike, more to distract then to actually harm the dark wizard.

"Marauders! We are leaving!"

Bill's shout was Remus' signal to spin around and run to where Ginny held aloft the portkey, the lone Goblin looked at Voldemort and smiled, preparing to launch himself at the dark wizard for the final time, to fulfil his blood oath or seek his own death trying.

"Come with us!"

Remus urged, rushing past.

"There will be more honour to be had serving at Harry's side than dying pointlessly here!"

The Goblin carefully considered his words, and then jerked his head into a nod once, turning and running alongside the wizard.

Seeing his opponent fleeing, Voldemort grinned and drew aim on the running wizard's back, preparing to put an end to Lupin's resistance, with the werewolf out of the way his job would be considerably easier. Some innate magical sixth sense made him look up at that moment, and he saw the Auror and one of the many Weasley's had both aimed wands at him and fired curses.

Voldemort blocked the two incoming curses with ease and shouted in anger as he saw his opponents escaping; once again victory had been snatched from his finger tips by the narrowest of margins. Watching as the group around Harry disappeared in a flash of light, Voldemort shut his eyes and vanished with a pop.

He had never even thought to warn his remaining forces of the arrival of the Dementors, by the time the much reduced host of creatures flooded over the island, the only ones left alive there were Death Eaters, those few that saw them coming, or knew in advance of their arrival apparated away, those that didn't died the worst deaths imaginable.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Emily Shacklebolt pressed her glowing wand tip into the deep wound on the inside of the Auror's thigh, the man convulsed despite being held down by two of the male St Mungos nurses. The man's severed artery, which had been spraying the man's blood out at an astonishing rate, was proving difficult to seal, and he would bleed to death very quickly unless she was successful.

"There, got it I think."

Emily removed the wand tip carefully from the wound, and leaned in closer to examine her handiwork, the blood flow had ceased and the artery had been neatly patched. The man would require further magical surgery and treatment, but for now he was no longer in danger of bleeding to death or losing the leg.

"Close up for me."

Emily stepped back from the table and let one of the nurses take her place, normally she would close the wounds on her patients herself, but the three healers at the burrow specialising in trauma care, herself, Amanda Coombs and Augustus Pye, were so much in demand that she was having to delegate vital post operation care to the nurses.

The healers were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of arriving casualties, first the male prisoners, released from their cells and suffering varied injuries, arrived along with the constant stream of wounded Aurors, Goblins and Order members.

Then the retreat of the Auror and Goblin force stretched the already overworked healers to breaking point, the casualties were arriving faster than the students that Susan Bones had co-opted to aid her, could categorise them. Many of the wounded ended up receiving initial treatment on hastily conjured beds in the meadow, as all the beds inside the medical tent were quickly filled by the injured.

That was where Emily was at that moment, using quick fix surgery out in the open on those seriously in need so that they would survive long enough to get the standard of care they required.

The house elves were working as hard as the healers, shuttling the injured to treatment areas, moving supplies to where they were required, even transporting the bodies of those who had died, without the house elves a lot more of the wounded would have succumbed to their wounds.

Emily glanced up as the portkey alarm sounded again and frowned, she had already seen her old friend Marcus Washburn from a distance, and knew he would be unlikely to leave a hot zone if there were any of his people left behind.

But she also knew from experience that whoever was arriving was undoubtedly wounded to some extent. Ripping off her blood stained gloves and apron, Emily vanished them both with a flick of her wand, and conjured fresh ones to wear. Even in the magical world, medical staff took the risk of infection seriously.

"Healer! We need a healer here!"

It was the cry of a young woman, who from the sound of it was on the verge of hysteria. Emily indicated one of her nurses should follow, then threaded her way between the clusters of medical personnel and volunteers already dealing with patients, and headed towards the sound of the voice, her much depleted leather medical supply bag bumping off of her hip as she moved.

The small group she found in the centre of the space kept clear for arrivals were a diverse bunch, a Goblin, an Auror, a member of the Order, a member of the D.A. and to her shock someone dressed in the black robe of a Death Eater. Emily was just raising her wand when she noticed none of the Goblin guards had so much as raised a weapon at the red haired man's appearance.

The Goblin, small even for its race was speaking to the guards in rapid fire Goblinesse, Emily had taken a Ministry sanctioned language course once, many years ago, but the conversation was too fast for her to catch more than a few words. She heard 'Bodrod', Voldemort', 'Potter' and 'duel' mentioned, but understood little else.

The response of the guards to these words was alarming, with a snarl the Goblins shouted something and drew weapons, brandishing them in the air, blades of all descriptions shone in the waning light from the setting sun.

Pushing her way nervously through the energetic, weapon waving Goblins, Emily's eyes travelled across the new arrival, of the injuries she could see the Auror's burns appeared the most serious, raising her wand, she approached the man.

To her surprise the Auror held up his good hand to ward her off her attempts to heal him and indicated a figure lying on the floor that had until that point remained hidden from her view.

"Deal with him first, I can wait."

The figure on the floor was another member of the D.A. A thin, scrawny under fed looking black haired youth, far too young to have sustained the serious injuries he had. What were his parents thinking, letting him run off and fight in such battles?

Emily Shacklebolt had been a qualified healer for ten years, seven of those specialising in magical trauma care, but in all that time she couldn't remember seeing anyone with so many life threatening injuries. Any of the three injuries she could see were possibly going to kill the youth.

"Right clear out of the way, let me in"

The small group reluctantly moved aside, as if still afraid for the youth's safety despite having arrived back at the burrow, all except a petite red headed young woman who was knelt by the injured youth's head, touching his cheek.

The girl whose age was even younger than that of the injured male, perhaps only fourteen, had the track mark of fresh tears running down her cheeks and one arm bound tightly to her chest indicating a previous injury.

"Move aside, please."

Using healing magic, especially some of the more complicated spells for a serious injury, was an exhausting process because it involved passing some of the healer's own magic into the patient. Having already worked nearly a full shift before being called to assist at the burrow Emily had reached the point that she was snapping at people without realising it.

She knelt over the injured youth, her wand tip glowing brilliant neon blue that left a trace in the air as she ran the wand over the damaged body. Emily cast a complicated diagnostic spell allowing her to see exactly how badly hurt the youth was.

With a shimmer, a rough three dimensional image of a body appeared hovering over the youth, the injuries on the youth's body displayed on the image in a variety of colours, red for external injuries and green for internal, the darker the colour the more serious the injury.

Emily sighed heavily, it was as she had initially suspected. Even with a fully equipped hospital operating theatre available she doubted she would have been able to save the youth, in a meadow or an under equipped field tent she had no chance. Already the youths grasp on life was slipping, his respiration was so shallow now that it barely registered on her spell at all, and his heart beat was weak and erratic, getting weaker with every passing moment.

Sometimes the triage system worked in a cold and heartless way. With the large number of wounded that already needed immediate treatment, and the limited medical resources available, some harsh decisions had to be made about where to best place those resources, in other words, which patients it was worth trying to save and which it wasn't.

Emily stood slowly, she generally enjoyed her job, all except this part, telling friends and loved ones that there was nothing that could be done except watch someone die never got any easier even after all these years.

"I'm very sorry, there isn't anything that can be done, I'm afraid he is already too far gone. All I can do is make his passing as comfortable as possible. I am very sorry."

Emily felt her heart go out to the small group, the look of stunned disbelief on the face of the Auror was mirrored on the faces of each of the others. With a nod to her nurse, she turned away, her mind already on her next patient, the nurse would numb the injuries so at least the youth would not suffer in his final moments.

She had barely taken a dozen steps when the voice from behind her brought her to a sudden halt, it wasn't loud, nor overly threatening or particularly hostile, but something about the words, their utter lack of emotion had made the hairs stand up on the back of her neck.

"Healer, I suggest for your own good you turn around and come back here."

Emily Shacklebolt very slowly turned around. The young red head was standing now side on to her, the girl's good arm extended straight out at shoulder height, her wand pointing directly at Emily's heart, and looking into those brown, intelligent, utterly emotionless eyes, Emily had never in her whole life been so sure she was going to die.

Ginny felt her heart hammering in her chest, somehow she managed to hold her wand arm steady despite the shakes that were trying to engulf her.

The sheer audacity of what she was doing had surprised her almost as much as it had everyone else. She had never before really had the confidence to push herself to the fore in any large group situation, she always felt overwhelmed by the adults around her, only too happy to stay quiet, blend into the scenery, escape notice.

With Harry, Ron and Hermione it was different, she was an accepted member of the team, they trusted her, relied upon her, listened to her. In many ways Ginny knew she still suffered from the 'runt of the litter' syndrome, feeling utterly overshadowed by her many brothers.

But now she had acted without hesitation in order to save Harry's life. After all he had sacrificed for her and all the others he had saved, could she really do any less?

"You should carefully consider what you're doing child, before someone gets hurt. I understand you are upset, but this isn't helping matters."

The healer just couldn't help herself, even now with Ginny's wand held on her, the healer was patronising Ginny, using her 'adult' voice in an attempt to regain control of the situation.

The teenage girl let the smallest of smiles break onto her face as she realised that she wasn't pretending to be determined anymore, she actually was determined, utterly determined to do anything to save Harry. She finally, perhaps far too late, understood a little of what made her boyfriend go to the extremes and commit to the actions that he did, understand and feel very ashamed that she had taken him so much for granted for so long.

Ginevra Molly Weasley had always been a little immature for her age, it had come from being molly coddled as a child, by her parents, and by six older male siblings.

But standing there in the meadow, her wand held unwavering on a healer, ready and fully prepared to do anything in defence of her boyfriend, Molly Weasley's little girl finally grew up.

"Upset! You have no idea! You stand there acting all smug and superior. All you see is a boy too far gone to make it worth the effort of trying to save. What I see is a man so brave, that without hesitation or any thought for his own safety he today threw himself in front of Voldemort in order to save the lives of nearly everyone here."

The words poured from Ginny's heart, the emotions she felt bubbling up inside her brought a lump to her throat and threatened to make her burst into a fresh flood of tears. Taking a deep breath, Ginny savagely clamped down on her feelings, she couldn't afford to turn into a hysterical wreck now.

"And it's my job to try and save countless more, to save his life…"

The healer pointed at Harry.

"…Would take all my attention, probably for days. During that time how many others would perish? How many have died while I stand here debating this with you?"

The Healer replied heatedly, the two women continued staring at each other as if trying to stare each other out, the tableau frozen in a stalemate.

"If your hand so much as touches your wand, I swear to Merlin it'll be the last thing you ever do!"

Bill's quiet words broke the stalemate. He had moved sliently up behind the large male nurse, whose hand had been slowly inching towards his pocket and the wand stored within while Ginny had been distracted. The healer had been playing for time, hoping the nurse would reach his wand unnoticed.

Ginny smiled at her eldest brother in gratitude for his watching her back, Bill just winked at her. The healer, with a face like thunder now that her plan had been undone had turned to regard the Auror in the group, Matthew Hobart.

"Well, you're an Auror! You know who I am, are you just going to stand here and let this…this…snip of a girl threaten me like this?"

Matthew Hobart had drawn his wand, but had kept it down at his side, now under the stern gaze of the healer, he slowly raised his arm, for a moment Ginny was afraid he would actually turn on her. Force her to allow Harry to die, the healer obviously thought so too because she smiled in the anticipation of victory.

The Auror, his wand pointed at Ginny, locked eyes with her and held the eye contact with Ginny for a long moment, and then he smiled. It was a tired smile of a soldier returning from combat, someone who had seen and perhaps even committed foul deeds, it was a smile of shared dangers and experiences, from one comrade in arms to another. It was a smile that set Ginny free.

With a sharp twist of his wrist, the wand disappeared up the sleeve of his robes, so fast Ginny could barely follow the movement. Matthew Hobart stood up straight, almost at attention, a movement that made him hiss in pain. He raised his good arm and pointed at the marauder badge on Ginny's arm.

"I'm no longer an Auror of the Ministry of Magic; I handed in my resignation to the Ministry. I'm a marauder now and I'm proud of what we have accomplished today, but so much of that accomplishment belongs to one person, the one who tied V…V…Voldemort up in so many knots he barely played a part in the battle. That teenager saved more lives today than you will, and he's lying right there dying! His name is Harry Potter."

The ex Auror pointed at where Harry was lying prone on the floor. The female healer turned to regard Harry again, a puzzled expression on her face.

"That's Harry Potter? I was expecting someone…well…you know…taller!"

Despite the situation, or maybe because of it, Ginny found this comment somehow hilariously funny; she had to struggle to contain her laughter knowing such a display would not help her cause in the slightest.

"Alright, I'll do all I can, but I doubt it will be enough. I'll warn you now that my original prognosis still stands, he is going to die, and nothing I can do will change that, it would take a miracle to save him!"

Ginny found herself smiling broadly, Remus and Bill were smiling as well.

"You just don't know Harry, miracles are his speciality."

OoOoO

**AN/ **I have made a few leaps in this story

1) that Dementors can be detected by muggle radar.

2) that they can be engaged and destroyed by muggle weaponry (in my defense, in canon, no-one actually tried)

This is not that big an advantage considering that muggles still cannot see them, and small arms fired randomly into the sky would not really affect them anyway.

and yes, I am aware of what happens to muggle technology when in a magical warded area, which is why i conveniently dropped the wards over the prison before the **Iron Duke **arrived, or she would have been dead in the water having lost all power.

Yep i finally got to kill Hermione, (Ron's next then Ginny, **I am joking, or am I?**), but c'mon, thanks to a bit of CPR she's back in the land of the living!


	17. 17 Blood Purity

**AN/ **Normally i would include a quote that seems to fit the chapter, but this chapter is a little different. This is a tribute to a friend of mine.

**WARRANT OFFICER CLASS 2 GARY O'DONNELL**

**11 EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL REGIMENT, BRITISH ARMY**

**KILLED IN ACTION, HELMAND PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN**

**10 SEP 2008**

**A good friend, a better soldier, sleep well.**

**They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:  
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.  
At the going down of the sun and in the morning  
We will remember them. **

Chapter : Blood Purity

**The Burrow, 19:00 4 July**

From the moment an utterly exhausted Emily Shacklebolt pushed back the curtain and stepped out of the hastily constructed tent into the bright evening of the meadow, she was aware of the utter silence that greeted her appearance.

Blinking in an effort to adjust her vision to the sudden brightness after the interior of the tent, she saw that all activity in the meadow had suddenly come to a complete grinding halt and every single eye was now on her, Goblins, Aurors and rescued prisoners, all waited to hear the news only she could impart.

Harry Potter wasn't just a wizard to these people, he was a beacon in the darkness, a figurehead for all those that wanted to stand up to Voldemort.

She moved to the small group that hovered nervously near the entrance, many of the group were seriously injured in their own right, most had refused treatment until they had the news she was coming to now to bring them.

There was an air of expectancy, and also a feeling of dread, because no one was sure which way the news would go.

Emily paused and ran her hand tiredly over her face, she knew that she must have looked a state, pale and probably with dark rings around her eyes. A magical healer could easily damage their own health while treating the most serious injuries; it was why normally they worked in teams of two, in order to share the magical cost to themselves of attempting to heal the patient.

"He's still alive…"

Broad grins broke out on the faces nearest her, and she could feel some of the tension easing. She had been utterly convinced the youth would die on the table before she could stabilise him, his vitals had been as low as any she had ever seen. But somehow Harry Potter was clinging to life with a tenacity that was both admirable and encouraging; it was if he just didn't want to release his grip on this mortal coil.

"…but don't get carried away celebrating just yet, we are by no means out of the woods, the worst is still yet to come, he has a long hard struggle in front of him."

She knew from experience that nothing she could say would douse the hope that blossomed on the faces of the group in front of her, she had been prepared for that, relatives and friends often had highly elevated expectations for a patient's recovery, and given Potter's historical reluctance to die in the face of dark wizardry perhaps this time even more so.

The news quickly spread from person to person until all those others in the meadow had heard the news, and grins appeared on many faces, including those of the Goblins. 'The-boy-who-lived-again' was heard muttered by several voices, although Emily thought it was far too early to start such comments.

"Healer, can I?..."

The petite young red headed woman indicated the tent that had literally been built around the youth with a nod of her head, she looked absolutely terrified on the patients behalf, and wanted to see his condition for herself. Given that he could still die at any time and that she obviously cared for him so much she was willing to hold a wand on a healer, Emily decided to allow it.

"Alright, but if you want to touch him you have to be careful, most of his body has been encased in a null field to prevent infection and aid healing. You can hold his left hand, touch his face, other than that I would ask you not touch him."

The girl was solemnly nodding in understanding at her instructions, her long red hair sliding off of her shoulders. Despite a slight quiver of her lips the girl was outwardly quite calm. Emily guessed that under the surface the red haired girl's emotions were anything but calm, she was holding it together very well considering.

"He's in a magically induced coma, so he probably won't even know you are there."

Emily smiled briefly to herself as a look of defiance and stubbornness crossed the young woman's equally exhausted and tear stained face.

"He'll know I'm here for him, Harry always knows"

When Emily returned later, after gathering an armful of medical supplies, and a willing helper in the form of school nurse Poppy Pomfrey, she found Ginny Weasley sat in a chair at the side of the bed, her head resting on the mattress alongside that of the wounded youth. She was pale and yet sound asleep, gently touching the cheek of the dark haired boy with the finger tips of her good hand.

But what stopped Emily in her tracks, what totally blew her mind, was that from the door way it looked for all the world as if Harry Potter was smiling. Not a huge, ear to ear smile, but a smile never-the-less. She didn't understand. From the amount of medication and pain relief he was on, the youth was in such a deep coma he should not have been aware of a Hippogriff nibbling on his legs.

Poppy Pomfrey smiled at the younger woman's confusion and quietly crossed to the sleeping girl, she looked down at her two charges with an expression of sadness for a moment, and then reached for a blanket. With a gentleness that was often hidden by her gruff Scottish exterior Poppy placed the blanket carefully over the girl's shoulders before turning back to her colleague.

"When it comes to these two Emily, you have to learn to just throw the rule book away, Potter has never been one to follow the crowd and do things the easy or the established way. Miss Weasley is much the same."

Poppy indicated the sleeping girl and the unconscious youth.

"I can't explain it, and to be honest I have given up trying, but I have seen it before, Miss Weasley is right, Potter always knows she's there. Trust me when I say this, he'll heal quicker with her somewhere nearby…"

Poppy snorted in amusement.

"…like you'll be able to drag her away from his side until the moment he opens his eyes and smiles at her anyway."

OoOoO

**Olney, Buckinghamshire, 06:00 5 July**

The sleepy and quaint little town of Olney sat just outside of Northampton, in the northern corner of the county of Buckinghamshire. The town's main claims to fame were its beautiful Tudor period buildings, its annual pancake race and the little known fact that the man who had penned the hymn 'amazing grace' had been born there.

Olney had a population of just fewer than eight thousand people, each of these ordinary people happy to go just go about their business in peace, happy in the knowledge that little that affected the outside world had an impact on their quiet lives, but unbeknownst to them one family that lived among them was a little less than ordinary.

The Connor family had always lived in Olney, going back for generations, since long before the formation of the Ministry of Magic and the introduction of the international statute of secrecy. Going back into the mists of history villagers had always come to the family for help with injuries, sick animals and poor crops, help that in the past the large Connor family had freely given.

But now the current generation of townsfolk just thought of the Connor family as being a little bit strange, they were however friendly and polite, keeping themselves to themselves. They weren't criminals or illegal immigrants or the noisy speed freaks that frequented the nearby Santa Pod drag racing strip, so the townsfolk were willing to overlook the family's small eccentricities.

Lauren Connor sighed heavily, and rolled over in her bed for what must have been the hundredth time, today was going to be a big day in her young life, it was her final interview to obtain a very high profile assignment, her first since graduating the Auror academy, and that fact was weighing heavily on her mind.

Finally giving up on getting anymore sleep, she sat up in bed and swung her legs out from under the covers, she sat there for a moment rubbing at her eyes and trying to come up with a reason not to get up.

Standing, she slipped her feet into a pair of slightly embarrassing, yet comfortable 'bunny' slippers and padded to the en suite bathroom. Running a bowl of cold water, she splashed the water onto her face in an effort to wake up and regarded herself in the mirror.

Lauren had been called pretty, even beautiful, her entire life, it was a title that she hated. She would much rather be thought of as 'the smart one' or the 'hardworking one' but no matter how intelligent she proved herself to be or how hard she worked, she was always tagged as the 'pretty one'.

Staring into the mirror, Lauren regarded the young women that stared back at her. She was tall and slender, her shoulder length strawberry blond hair pulled into a loose ponytail that hung at the nape of her neck. With a slight twitch of her mouth she did have to admit she was pretty, but she was also much more than that.

She wore a sleeveless pyjama top with matching bottoms, and it was with some pride that she noticed the definition of the muscles in her arms that her daily workouts and practise had given her. She had always been a runner, to her it was as natural as breathing, but now she had the wiry strength to go with it.

Newly graduated Auror, Lauren Connor turned away from the bathroom and walked to her large wardrobe, after a moments pause she selected a trouser suit that didn't flatter her figure too much, after all she wasn't trying to catch anyone's eye, in what was possibly her new job quite the opposite was true, she was trying to prove she could blend into her background in the muggle world, a skill pureblood witches and wizards were normally remarkably bad at.

Reaching into a drawer by her bed she pulled out the shiny brand new Auror issue forearm wand holster and strapped it on, being careful to ensure that the suit jacket hid the holster from prying muggle eyes.

Had she been wearing normal Auror robes she wouldn't have bothered with the holster, there was a spell proof pocket specially designed into them to prevent an enemy summoning the wand away. But considering the fact she would spend the day rubbing shoulders with unsuspecting muggles and wearing the clothes that entailed, it didn't seem fitting somehow to have her wand sticking out of her back pocket.

Fitting her wand inside the enchanted holster, Lauren checked it was secure and a snug fit. Satisfied, she turned and surveyed the room one last time, double-checking she hadn't forgotten anything, before closing her eyes and disappearing with a loud pop.

OoOoO

**The Burrow Hospital, 07:00 6 July**

Poppy Pomfrey looked up from her paperwork as the door to the private room opened, she smiled in greeting as Emma Granger entered. Placing a finger to her lips, Madam Pomfrey indicated the petite red headed figure curled up asleep in a chair across the room, with a nod of her head.

Emma nodded in understanding and slowly eased herself into one of the two free seats; Emma did it with a wince and a heartfelt groan. The woman was extremely pale and her eyes had dark rings around them indicating a level of exhaustion that went far beyond a mere deprivation of sleep.

Emma Granger, for all the fact she was a muggle, had given her all to help the magical wounded, even after her own daughter had arrived as a casualty she had continued treating the injured. Several of the wounded undoubtedly owed their lives to the woman and her husband's medical training.

Poppy sighed heavily, only too aware that she probably appeared to be in no better condition than Emma, they were all suffering from far too little sleep. None of the healing staff had stopped working since the casualties had started arriving at the culmination of the battle of Azkaban as it was now being called.

It had only been thirty six hours, but those hours had felt like days to the overworked healers. Nothing she had seen in fifty years in the medical profession, thirty of those years of service to Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry, had prepared her for the number of casualties that had flooded into the first aid tent in the first few hours following the end of the battle.

Some, the former prisoners, were suffering from mistreatment, both physical and mental abuse, at the hands of their captors, which although terrible and painful would heal over time. A few, Percy Weasley among them, had taken very severe beatings, and needed admitting for treatment.

But it was teenagers of the D.A. and certain members of the order of the Phoenix that had led the charge to Azkaban, they had taken the brunt of the initial casualties. Indeed of the eighteen that had gone into first skirmish of the battle, only Charlie Weasley, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley and Katie Bell had so far been released from the hospital, and then only because the staff needed the beds.

The losses had been heavy. Nine of Marcus' Aurors had died, fifteen goblins, a further half dozen Order members and a member of the D.A. And the death toll could yet rise further, there were at least three dozen humans and Goblins still listed as critical, including Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.

There wasn't a single Auror that had returned uninjured, and the Goblin Company had not fared much better, over half the Goblins were unfit for duty. For the moment the faculty of Hogwarts, along with a few volunteers from among the parents of the students involved that had gathered at the Burrow to await the arrival of their children, was all the security that the burrow could muster. Compared to the force available to them before Azkaban it was a shadow of its former strength.

But it could have been so much worse, if the Goblin engineers had not finished the new hospital in record time, if the excellent facilities offered by this new building had not been available? Who knew how many more may have died. Harry had been the first patient to be transferred, by the old fashioned method of a stretcher carried by two strapping male nurses, since magical transportation would have interfered with his ongoing treatment.

"Has there been any change Madam Pomfrey?"

Emma's quiet question snapped her back to reality with a jerk. She looked over at her patient and frowned. She was so tired now that it took effort now just to recall all the injuries her patient was suffering from, let alone what medication and treatment he was receiving for the injuries.

Harry lay on his back, unconscious. His body was suspended two inches above the hospital bed by a complicated and more permanent version of the Wingardium Leviosa charm. His entire body was encased in a swirling vortex from his neck down, it was soft blue in colour, and strange patterns could be seen swirling occasionally inside the vortex.

It was a medical null field, similar to a shield charm in that it was designed to keep things out, but instead of hostile spells, the null field kept out germs and anything else that could be counter productive to the patients healing. When a healer was working on the patient the field was expanded to encompass the healer as well, ensuring there no chance of an infection.

In some ways the magical world's medical practises were far beyond those of the muggle world, in others they lagged far behind.

"No I'm sorry Mrs Granger, no change, he still has a high temperature, a magical fever that is sapping his remaining strength, and the healers are off now discussing what to do next, nothing they have tried to break the fever has been successful so far."

His injured shoulder, neck, side and chest had all already been operated on, with varying degrees of success, his shoulder was the most serious injury, because the curse had utterly destroyed his shoulder joint on its path through its body, causing multiple complications.

One of the many bone fragments had pierced his heart, coming to rest lodged in his lung, although one of the potions he was being fed was to repair the damage to the heart, this was just one of the many internal injuries he had suffered but without doubt the most serious.

Normally the healers would have just used a potion to dissolve the piece of bone, but with everything else happening to the youth it had been decided to leave the fragment where it was until the youth was stronger and in a better condition to handle the treatment.

"How's Miss Granger?"

Poppy enquired gently. Emma's face clouded with emotion for a moment, before she sighed heavily and regained some measure of control.

"Dan and Ron are sitting in with her at the moment, she's sleeping peacefully now, rather than unconscious. Healer Shacklebolt says that despite the seriousness of the injury and the fact her heart actually stopped at one point, she will make a remarkably quick recovery. For which I'm told I have to thank that giant red bird that never leaves her side, it cried over Hermione's wounds and they seemed to begin to heal almost immediately, and now every so often it sings to everybody in the room, and it somehow just makes everybody feel better."

"Him"

"Huh?"

Emma Granger said intelligently.

"Him, Fawkes is a male. He used to be the familiar bonded to Professor Dumbledore…"

Poppy Pomfrey still had a catch in her voice whenever she mentioned the former headmaster, his death was still too recent for his memory to elicit anything but pain.

"…a Phoenix is a very special magical creature and very rare, they are attracted by the selfless acts of those pure of heart and noble of purpose."

Poppy left out the fact that she believed that Fawkes had bonded himself to Hermione Granger, from the descriptions of the actions of the Phoenix upon its arrival that was the only explanation. Having spent so much time around Dumbledore and Fawkes over the years she was very familiar with the actions and the benefits of those joined in such a way. There was plenty of time for the family to discover what a unique gift a bond with a Phoenix could be.

Emma smiled and nodded, that pretty accurately described her daughter. Stretching to ease the ache in her joints, the woman stood and crossed to Harry's bedside, through the blue swirling field she could see his injuries, wrapped in white anti-septic dressings.

Harry was so pale he was almost transparent, and his lips had a slight tint of blue. His scar stood out bright red against the pale skin of his forehead, and there was a thin sheen of sweat that covered all the exposed areas of skin. Every now and again his body gave a uncontrolled little jerk, almost like a involuntary nervous twitch, and a small moan escaped his mouth.

From her perch on the headboard Hedwig made a little hoot of welcome to the woman. Emma smiled and reached up and absently stroked a hand down the back of the sorrowful seeming Hedwig, the snowy owl had been keeping a vigil over the youth ever since he had been transferred to the hospital, Hedwig, along with Ginny had not left Harry's side for a moment since that time, and just like Ginny, Hedwig had lost weight because of her vigil.

No one was sure how the owl had known of Harry's condition, for the bond shared by wizard and a magical pet was not normally so wide as to allow such information to pass along it. Ginny had explained it away by saying she believed Hedwig to be unusually intelligent even for a magical mail carrier and that the snowy owl had always been very receptive to Harry's feelings.

Emma thoughts were interrupted by a small pop from the foot of the bed, straining her neck to look, she found a small male house elf she didn't recognise staring up at her in shock, the elf, dressed in a dirty pillowcase with holes cut for its head, arms and legs, made a small whimpering sound and disappeared as fast as he had appeared.

"They have been doing that ever since Harry was brought in, it's always a different elf; they only stay long enough to check Harry's still alive before leaving again. I asked Dobby about it but he just shook his head and mumbled something about 'Elf council know of Harry Potter's greatness.'."

Poppy answered Emma's raised eyebrow.

"What can you tell me about Harry's condition?"

Emma Granger gave the beautiful white owl a final stroke before turning back to the nurse.

"One of Harry's main problems right now is that he has lost a large quantity of blood and his blood pressure is still dangerously low. I can only put so many blood-replenishing potions into him before his internal organs begin to fail, potions are fine in the short term but they are not supposed to replace the majority of a patient's blood, they just don't contain the necessary ingredients to keep a body functioning."

Emma looked up with a thoughtful expression on her face, her eyes narrowed in concentration.

"So what you are saying is that he needs more blood?"

Madam Pomfrey nodded.

"That's right. Normally when a witch or wizard is injured, the magic stored inside their magical core acts to speed up the repair of any damage, which is why with the aid of a healer, magical folk recover from serious injuries so much faster than muggles."

Madam Pomfrey indicated Harry.

"Mr Potter unfortunately nearly completely drained his magical core during battle with Voldemort and before. This would not be a problem normally if he had been uninjured, because it's the magic in our blood that replenishes the level of magic in our core, he would have felt extremely tired but suffered no other ill effects. But with the loss of blood Harry has suffered combined with his magical exhaustion, his remaining blood does not have the required magical power to both replenish his core and to help heal him at the same time."

Poppy Pomfrey looked over at Harry with fondness, of all the current Hogwarts pupils, Harry had spent by far the most time in her care, and she had in some part taken the disadvantaged youth to her heart.

"I believe it's this lack of blood, and hence the lack of magic that is the main reason for the fever, his body does not understand that it has no magical core to call upon and that it has been so terribly injured, it is still trying to heal all the injuries he has suffered and refill his depleted core all at the same time, despite the fact there are very little resources to call upon. Its one of the reasons the healers are debating whether or not it's worth even trying to do anything more to save his arm, they are saying his body is trying to fight a war on too many fronts, and is exhausting itself in the effort. In effect, the very fact Harry is so powerful magically may be what ends up killing him"

A ghost of a smile played across Emma's face and just for a moment Madam Pomfrey was reminded of the utter brilliance the woman's daughter often displayed, and that the girl had to get that from somewhere, and then she suddenly rose from her seat and moved across to the door.

"I have to find my husband. I have just had the wildest idea and I need to ask his opinions on it, I will be back shortly. Don't let the healers do anything that will affect Harry until I get back!"

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic**

The news of the attack on Azkaban was the only topic of conversation in the Auror crew room, and had been since the news had first broken. The fact that former colleagues of theirs had fought, and in some instances, died, to release prisoners they themselves had arrested seemed to have awoken the Auror community from its previous apathy.

So far the Ministry had not reacted officially to the actions of the group of Potter supporters, they were called in some circles 'vigilantes', by others, a slowly growing majority in fact, Harry and his friends were being hailed as 'freedom fighters'.

What wasn't known yet was why the Ministry Aurors had been withdrawn from the prison in the first place, and why they had been replaced by what was rapidly becoming the Ministers private army of goons. Information about the actual battle was sketchy, so as yet no word of Voldemort or his Death Eaters involvement in the battle had yet reached the ears of the Aurors.

With one exception of course, Nymphadora Tonks knew as much about the battle as anyone who had actually taken part, in fact she wished with all her heart that she had actually been there. She had received the news when she had picked up a message in Diagon Ally, along with a set of instructions of what to do should she become compromised.

She had seen Shacklebolt moving around the Ministry on several occasions, but had carefully avoided any sort of contact with him, anything that could give her away as an informant. So she continued to play her role of dutiful ministry foot soldier, but despite the importance of her mission she wanted nothing more than to join the growing rebellion

So far her information, smuggled out on lunch breaks and at the end of each day, had allowed six Wizarding families to evade Ministry capture teams, she had also managed to 'mislay' a shipment of Auror issue wand holsters and a small number of issue sets of body armour that she was sure were going to be put to a better use.

Tonks was already at the stage where if she was given the go ahead, she could quite easily recruit nearly an extra thirty Aurors, the dissatisfaction was spreading quickly among the ranks, there were even mutters of outright rebellion.

She had also identified a handful of Aurors that were possibly working against her, spying for the Minister and his goon squad. It hurt her to think that Aurors she had known since her career had started could be allying themselves with Death Eaters, unwillingly or not, but she was being particularly careful to avoid attention, especially since one of the suspects was in her own capture team.

"Tonks, come on, stop day dreaming, we have a briefing to attend."

Tonks spun around to find Andy Dawlish leaning up against a wall behind her desk, his usual arrogant sneer in place upon his features.

Andy Dawlish was a tall, lanky man with a sharp face that suited his mean temper, he had short grey hair and his most distinguishing feature was a scar that ran from his right cheek and ended in the mangled remains of his right ear. The man didn't approve of women in the Auror force, and of her in particular, and he made his feelings plain at every available opportunity. He was a skulking weasel, always on the edges of groups of Aurors, listening to their conversations. Tonks knew she would have to be very careful.

Despite his faults, Dawlish was an extremely capable and self assured Auror, in fact he was good enough that for several years he had served on the Close Protection Detail of Cornelius Fudge during his tenure as Minister of Magic. When Scrimgeour had taken up the post Dawlish had asked for a transfer back to the regular Auror forces, in effect taking a demotion back to street Auror. This was highly suspicious behaviour as far as Tonks was concerned.

"Alright Dawlish, I'm coming."

Tonks rose and placed her wand inside her wrist holster, slipping the emergency portkey into her pocket, the portkey would deliver her immediately to the burrow should anything happen requiring her immediate escape.

OoOoO

**The Burrow Hospital, 11:00 6 July**

"This is called a what?"

Augustus Pye bent down and closely examined the arrangement of tubes and cylinders that sat on the desk with the wonder of a small child on Christmas morning, anything to do with muggle medical equipment and practices fascinated him. It was like watching Arthur Weasley when you mentioned the word 'batteries' to him.

Dan chuckled at the man's excitement.

"The process is called blood transfusion, basically we identify those individuals whose blood is compatible with a victim and pump the blood out of the donor's body and into the victim's, in this case Harry's."

The eyebrow's of every magical healer in the room rose dramatically in astonishment. Dan tried to control the grin on his face, but failed terribly, his good humour had been brought about by the news that his daughter was expected to make a full recovery.

The healers were a very diverse bunch of individuals, recruited not for their medical skills but for their political and social beliefs, they were all making a stand against the current Minister and his policies regarding Voldemort.

There was a medi-wife, a rotund woman in her eighties with a tongue as sharp as a whip, but whose skills and experience had already saved several lives.

An expert in exotic magical diseases, who until this recent crisis probably hadn't been hands on with a patient in thirty years, but who was as tired as the rest of them after thirty six hours of trying to rebuild the bodies of those injured in the battle.

The three male nurses in the group were all huge, big hairy armed gorillas, but Dan had seen one of them taking care of little Helen Bell in the hours after Draco, Thomas and Katie had all returned injured, the nurse had been holding the crying child and gently rocking her back and forth, his singing voice surprisingly good. Still, Dan didn't want to ever have to argue with one of them on any subject.

The two female nurses were completely different, young and attractive, seemingly barely older than his daughter, their quiet professionalism and obvious skills had impressed all they had come into contact with.

The potion and poisoning expert had taken over the manufacture and issuing of the correct medication to all the patients as soon as he had stopped spinning in the fireplace. A large jovial Welshman, the man had an inexhaustible supply of jokes, most of them too rude for children, Dan had already taken great joy in teaching the man several new ones.

Madam Pomfrey, the Hogwarts school nurse, probably the most experienced of the lot in dealing with spell damage, intentional or otherwise. Her thirty years at Hogwarts, and twenty at St Mungos before that had made her indispensable in the aftermath of the battle of Azkaban. And because of her association with the school she was especially motivated to provide the best possible care to the number of wounded students currently in the hospital.

Added to this there were the two field medics, both fully trained Aurors that had taken on a further two years of study after graduating from the Auror academy to learn the skills of battlefield magical healing. Both however were Aurors first and foremost and had fought fiercely at Azkaban, both wore their bandages with pride, as if they were medals of valour, which in Dan's eyes they surely were.

And then there was the three who were the undoubted magical backbone of the group, the specialised trauma healers, Amanda Coombs, Emily Shacklebolt and Augustus Pye. Shacklebolt and Pye coming, like the majority, from St Mungos hospital. Coombs, the ministry trained trauma specialist that had thrown her lot in with Marcus and his renegade Aurors.

"I don't pretend to know Potter as well as some of those in this room, but I would have thought that the very idea that someone had to give up their life so he could live, would be abhorrent to him."

Amanda Coombs spoke softly, her voice still managing to carry to the entire group.

Dan laughed out loud at the suggestion.

"No, I don't mean we take all the donors blood, just a small amount, say a single pint, once a day. If we could locate several possible donors that would be better, both in terms of Harry's recovery and the strain placed on the donors."

"And how would you go about identifying donors in the first place?"

Poppy Pomfrey asked, showing her professional interest in such an idea, after all in severe cases of blood loss, the standard blood replenishing potions would cause more harm than good. A blood replenishing potion carried none of the nutrients and oxygen that blood carried around the body.

"Ideally muggle hospitals have a large stock of blood stored on the premises, so they do not have to locate donors for individual patients. In our situation I would take a sample from as large a cross section as possible, preferably everyone fit enough to donate, and here is where my plan falls down."

"And why is that?"

Emily Shacklebolt was studying him intently, she was not at all convinced about such a procedure.

"Because normally muggles send the blood to labs to test to see whether there is a match, but as you can see…"

Dan pulled his empty pockets out of his trousers until they were inside out and held up his empty hands.

"…I'm fresh out of labs."

There was a titter of laughter from the assembled healers.

"So I find myself having to come to you wizards and witches to ask for your help to find a solution to the problem, I need to match someone's blood to Harry's for a successful transfusion, do you know any way of doing this magically?"

For several long moments there was only silence as the healers all bent their heads, brows furrowed in concentration, trying to recall some half forgotten incantation that might be of use.

Dan was starting to get a little concerned when a quiet voice spoke up.

"I may have a solution."

It was the potions and poisons expert, the welsh joker, the man flinched slightly as everyone turned to look at him, before taking a deep breath and continuing.

"There is a spell that might help, it's currently used to correctly identify poisons in the blood stream from a known sample we keep at the hospital. Now I'm no charms expert, but I see no reason why this spell cannot be adapted to use Potter's blood as the known sample to test another's blood, but as I say, I'm no charms expert…"

The man's voice trailed off as if he had run out of steam, Dan just grinned at him and turned to regard Poppy Pomfrey, she too was grinning broadly.

"That's alright, because we know a charms expert, don't we Poppy?"

The Hogwarts school nurse nodded, her face lit up with a small measure of hope, where none had existed before.

OoOoO

**Somewhere Else**

Voldemort hissed sharply in pain as Severus Snape carefully smeared the foul smelling ointment over the worst of his wounds using a metal spreader. As soon as the mustard coloured substance touched his skin it started to steam, knitting the flesh back together, giving off an even fouler smelling vapour.

Bella's face paled at the smell but she didn't move from where she stood at Severus' shoulder.

Sighing as the pain from the various spell burns and Goblin weapons eased, Voldemort casually rearranged his robes to hide the wounds and rose unsteadily to his feet. Only Severus and Bellatrix knew of the true scale of his injuries, his other followers were being kept in the dark, to maintain his air of invulnerability.

Any normal man suffering such wounds as he had would have been incapable of conscious thought he would be in that much pain, assuming he was still alive, but Voldemort was no ordinary man, in fact the argument could be made he wasn't even a man at all anymore.

His body had been constructed by powerful and dark magic, and could not be destroyed by normal means, it was hard to damage, it was however also proving hard to repair, and the salve that Snape had concocted had taken nearly twelve hours to carefully prepare.

Voldemort didn't want to admit it, not even to himself, but he had been completely unprepared for what had occurred at Azkaban, even though Potter's magical ability seemed to be growing all the time, he still wasn't an especially good dueller, nor did he yet possess even half the dark lord's magical power.

Potter's primary strength appeared to be his unique ability to persuade others to join him in his mad crusade, to throw themselves bodily in front of him. Even as a child people had been sacrificing themselves to keep the arrogant upstart safe, his parents, that idiot Black, Dumbledore, now a Goblin warrior and hopefully the traitor spawn of Lucius and the mudblood Granger had joined the list of those that had paid the ultimate price to protect Harry Potter.

Voldemort smiled at the memory of the mangled mess he had left Potter in, with any luck the boy had already succumbed to his injuries, allowing his plans to precede in peace. Even should the boy live he would be out of action for some considerable time.

"Thank you Severus, as always you have excelled yourself, how did your little trip to Europe go?"

Severus Snape brushed a lock of greasy black hair out of his eyes and regarded the dark lord.

"We made contact with the Russian crime lord and he has promised to look into our needs, the artefact you seek may prove difficult to locate, however both magical and muggle weaponry are available for a price, as are those who are experts in their field."

Voldemort smiled, which with his thin lipless lips resembled more of a grimace, and picked up his wand, sliding it into his robe pocket. He was pleased with his minion, Potter had somehow enlisted the help of some elements of Britain's muggle military in an effort to defeat him, and so Voldemort had been forced to seek outside assistance to stay on a level playing field.

He could of course have used the Imperius curse to set the British military upon itself, and that might still happen, but you got much better results from those acting of their own free will than those acting under Imperius.

So Voldemort had sent his envoys Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape to a man who had attended Durmstrang during the same period he had been enrolled at Hogwarts. The two teenage wizards had competed against each other in the last tri-wizard tournament to have been held until quite recently, Voldemort had won of course, leaving the Beauxbatons champion dead and the Durmstrang competitor fighting for life, but Igor Zuckov wasn't the kind of man to hold a grudge, he was however the kind of man that would kill you as soon as look at you.

They had never been exactly friends, but there had always been respect, one practitioner of the dark arts to another. The man was the closest thing to an acknowledged equal, perhaps not in power but certainly in knowledge of the Dark Arts. Zuckov had become a trafficker, in information, in weapons, in magical artefacts, and anything could be bought for the right price.

"Thank you Severus, you can go"

Severus bowed low and strode unhurriedly from the chamber.

"So what news Bella?"

Bella came around in front of Voldemort and dropped to one knee. She kept her head bowed, not daring to meet his gaze.

"My lord, our spy at the burrow has confirmed that nearly half the defenders of the burrow have been incapacitated by the recent actions, there are very few uninjured defenders. Potter is listed as critical, as are Malfoy's spawn and many of their friends."

"And what of Potter's new allies?"

There was a note of danger in Voldemort's tone now, he didn't like surprises, and Potter it seemed was full of them, pulling renegade Aurors out of his hat was one thing, but half a battle company of hardened Goblin warriors was something else entirely. The diminutive creatures had always kept their strict neutral status in the conflicts of wizards, this sudden change in policy was a dangerous new development.

"Our spies inside the MLE report the Auror support for Minister Scrimgeour's policies is waning quickly, however other than the initial renegades there hasn't yet been an organised swing to Potter, but I feel it will only be a matter of time."

Bella kept her head down, not daring to look up.

"And the Goblins?"

"Information is sketchy at best, but it would seem that the Goblin nation has now decided to swing its support behind Potter. We don't know what drove them to this decision, or whether it was purely a short term financial arrangement. If that is the case Potter must have promised them something of great value indeed to become involved."

Voldemort reached down and lifted Bella's face up by her chin, she was expecting him to be furious at the news, but instead she was surprised to find him smirking down at her.

"The Goblins have made a mistake making an enemy of me, and they will regret it terribly in the coming weeks. I am almost ready to take steps to ensure that we shall never be bothered by the Aurors again. Now, this spy of yours at the burrow, can she get at Potter, while he is at his weakest?"

Bella considered the question, there had been a time that Voldemort had forbidden any of his followers from attacking Potter, wanting to finish the youth himself, now he just wanted the annoying teenager dead and didn't care who did it.

"I'm sure something can be arranged my lord, is there anything else?"

Voldemort laughed, despite his recent defeat he felt in an unusually good mood.

"Send our agents in Europe word to begin our recruiting efforts there in earnest. Once Potter and his little band have been dealt with it will be time to extend our influence further a field. Oh and tell our French friend that he can begin work on his new prize, he should enjoy going to work on a countrywoman of his. Send word to Fenrir Greyback that I desire to speak with him, with the core of Potter's little resistance movement injured, I think its time we unleashed some of our more potent weapons on an unsuspecting muggle public."

Bella nodded and withdrew from the chamber, passing two Death Eaters dragging a struggling young muggle woman between them, it seemed the dark lord's appetite had recovered at the same rate as his body.

OoOoO

**The Burrow, 12:00 8 July**

"That should do the trick."

The friendly, high voice of Filius Flitwick was full of the excitement, as he somersaulted off the bench where he had been stood supervising the work of several of his brighter students from recent years, all newly released from Azkaban prison. With a casual wave of his hand levitated himself down to the floor.

Despite the students good work, the professor couldn't help but think that with Hermione Granger's input the work would have gone even faster, because although he tried desperately hard not to pick favourites out from the students, he had to admit to himself that Hermione was one of his favourites, it was just such a pity she had not been sorted into his house.

The work adapting the poison identifying spell so it could be used to match blood types had taken nearly forty eight hours of non-stop research and spell application, the students had split themselves into two teams, one purely research, the other practical spell casting.

The youths were all now exhausted, some of them still bore wounds from their time at Azkaban, but the professor had proved his small stature hid remarkably large reserves of energy by staying awake to guide and motivate both groups.

"Well done everybody, now I want you to all see Madam Pomfrey and get a dreamless potion to help you sleep, you all deserve a large pat on the back for your work."

On cue Fred and George Weasley immediately began pounding each other on the back until there were tears in their eyes.

"Yes, quite."

Flitwick had never for one moment been fooled by the twins and their lack of academic achievements, their intelligence had always shone through in the quality of the pranks they pulled, and the success of the products in their joke shop. Their wand work and charms knowledge was outstanding, and once they applied themselves to something they were a match for any Hogwarts had produced, except perhaps for miss Granger of course.

Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnston both stifled large yawns at exactly the same moment, causing Fred and George Weasley to burst into a fit of laughter at the girl's confused expressions.

The four, along with Lee Jordan and Parvati Patil made up the practical spell craft team, or 'team Gryffindor' as they had labelled themselves. The research group consisted of Sarah Fawcett, Penelope Clearwater, Edward Carmichael, Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil, or 'team Ravenclaw' as they had become named.

At first Flitwick had worried that the two houses were being singled out for special attention, but the Hufflepuff students were all helping the healers restock the recently depleted supplies under Pomona Sprout's direction, although there were several less critical patients left, nobody for a moment believed that this was the last time that the hospital would be required. And the only Slytherin pupil currently at the burrow was still a patient himself.

Flitwick had always been a supporter of the house system at Hogwarts, believing that the sorting of students because of their characteristics benefited all of the students, each house being almost a separate school in its own right. But he was now less sure of his beliefs in regards to the house system, having seen the divisions it placed upon the children.

The fact that Gryffindors and Ravenclaws had been forced to work together on such a project had caused no small amount of concern to the diminutive professor. He needn't have worried, the two groups somehow complemented each other perfectly, and it made him think about what the students could have achieved if they had been working together from the start.

"So now what Filius?"

Emma Granger had waited until the tired but ultimately triumphant group of young people had left the room, on their way to some well deserved sleep, sleep that even after nearly four days was still being denied to the healers.

"Now my dear we have to start screening all those present for a possible match for Harry's blood, and hope that at least someone here is compatible for your transfusion thingy."

Emma smiled as the small professor used the unfamiliar term, at the same time wondering if he now felt the same way she often did whenever she was confronted by something unknown in the magical world.

"Well you'd better start with me then I suppose."

Emma started to roll up her sleeve before a quiet voice from the back of the room startled them both.

"No, it should be me that goes first."

Looking around quickly Emma was surprised to find Ginny Weasley stood in the doorway. The girl was dressed in a much patched pair of jeans and a multi coloured woollen top. Her arm was now in a simple sling instead of being strapped tightly across her chest.

"Besides, meaning no disrespect to you Emma, but even if you were a match, what good would your blood do Harry? As I understand it, he requires a boost to his magic more than he requires the blood, and you're a…"

"…a muggle."

Emma finished for her with a tired grin, a small hesitant smile crossed Ginny's face briefly, the first that had been seen there since Harry and she had arrived at the burrow four days before. It suddenly struck Emma that many times when people were discussing Harry's condition in his room they completely forgot about the red head asleep in the corner, and that sometimes Ginny wasn't as asleep as she seemed to be.

Emma herself had been present when several healers had been quite frank and dismissive in their views on Harry's survival. It must have been hard for the girl to hear those things said about her boyfriend.

"Yes, but if most muggles are like you and Dan, that isn't such a terrible thing."

Emma smiled at the young woman. Ginny seemed much calmer than she had been before, much more together than she had been at any point since her and Harry's arrival.

"How's Harry?"

Emma asked softly. The sadness in Ginny's face warred with the hope that the blood transfusion plan had given her.

"He's dying."

Ginny had sat at Harry's bedside for the four days since his arrival, more often than not with the company of a family member or friend, hoping against hope that Harry could pull off one more miraculous deed, pull himself back from the brink of death by sheer determination and strength of character.

But it wasn't happening. Rather than his condition improving, his bodies continued attempts at healing all his wounds was itself killing him, eating up the few resources his body had left. Harry had never had much meat on his bones, due mainly to his shameful upbringing at the hands of the now dead Dursley's, but now he was starting to resemble a living skeleton as the magical fever consumed his body from within.

Ginny's face clouded for a moment as she struggled to keep her emotions buried, desperately trying not to become a hysterical wreck in front of this woman, her best friend's mother, and Professor Flitwick, one of her favourite teachers.

That plan went out the window when Emma placed her arm around Ginny's shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze.

"Its not a crime to be upset about a loved one being hurt Ginny, Dan and I have cried plenty over Hermione being hurt, and now she's getting better I still find myself crying without warning sometimes."

The walls Ginny had tried to build against the world collapsed without virtually any resistance and she found herself in the arms of the older woman, crying deep wracking sobs, tears she had denied herself since the battle of Azkaban, tears she had tried so hard to bottle up, to be strong for Harry's sake all exploded from her at once and didn't seem to show any signs of stopping.

OoOoO

**The Woods Surrounding the Burrow 01:30 9 July**

The young stag's head snapped up suddenly from where he had been idly grazing, and for a long moment he stood rooted to the spot, his legs trembling slightly ready to flee at the slightest threat. Trying to identify what had alarmed him so. However the woods remained dark and quiet, there was no sign of a threat of any kind, and with an unconcerned toss of his antlered head the stag snorted at his own stupidity and trotted on his way.

For a minute or so after the stag had left nothing stirred in the forest, then from a position less than twenty feet from that formerly occupied by the stag, a tree trunk seemed somehow to twist and split in half down the middle, and a dark shape melted slowly from the shadows, claiming its own identity and cautiously moved into the open of the woodland glade and knelt down.

On closer inspection the figure appeared to be wearing a strange unworldly garment that covered him from head to toe, made up of individual strips of material coloured black, dark green and dark grey. Only when the figure moved could he be picked out from the wooded background, and as soon as he stopped moving, like a chameleon, he somehow faded completely from view.

A device that ended in a single dark lens covered the figures eyes, and his face, overshadowed by a deep hood, seemed to be covered in black and dark green paint. In the figures arms was a black weapon that was also covered in material strips to break up its angular shape.

Satisfied that he was now alone, the figure made a quick hand gesture over his head, behind him, spread out in a wide arc, six similarly dressed and equipped figures rose into view. The first figure quickly regarded a small compass attached by black tape to the inside of his forearm for a moment and then indicated a direction with his whole arm.

Without hesitation the first figure stood and moved off in the direction he had indicated, and without a sound the other six fell into line behind him. They moved as silent as ghosts through the woodland, making no sound and leaving no sign of their passage.

Suddenly the first figure stopped and held up a closed fist up level with his shoulder to those behind him, all six immediately froze to the spot and waited. The first figure ever so slowly turned his head from side to side, scanning the forest with both the device that covered his eyes and his ears.

His hand signal changed, it went from an upright closed fist, to an open palm held down at his side, with the palm facing downwards. With an astonishing ease and speed, the six trailing figures seemed to just blend into the foliage around them and within seconds managed to disappear completely from sight.

The first figure, rather than sink to the floor into the foliage, just took a sideways step towards a tree and immediately the chameleon like clothing he wore allowed him to blend into the contours and shadows of the tree trunk.

The four ex Aurors moved forward slowly and silently with a stealth that was uncommon in the magical community, with their dark grey cloaks pulled over their bodies and the silencing charms cast on their boots they appeared to float soundlessly from shadow to shadow like Dementors.

Something had triggered the carefully placed boundary ward in this area and although it was probably just a wild animal, they were alert and careful. The events of the last several days were still fresh in all their minds and they were prepared for any trouble, wands clutched ready in their hands.

One of the Aurors paused in the shadow of a particularly large tree and slowly turned his head from side to side, he remembered his lessons at the academy, at night you had to rely on more than just your sight.

Just for a moment he thought he had heard a sound, like metal sliding on metal. But all he could hear now was the sounds of the nocturnal denizens of the forest going about their business. Pointing in a new direction, his partners nodded and with the same level of skill the four men moved off.

For a minute nothing stirred in the forest, and then the shape of the tree trunk where the Auror had paused subtly changed and the dark figure once more detached itself from the shadow of the tree. There was the slight glint of moonlight off the razor sharp edge of the black blade he carried in his hand, before the blade was quickly and expertly sheathed.

Raising his hand, open palm upwards, he indicated it was safe to continue, and the other six figures appeared, each with their weapons pointed in the direction the four Aurors had travelled in. The four Aurors would probably never know how close they had come to a very sudden and violent death.

The British Army had arrived at the burrow.

OoOoO

**The Burrow Hospital, 02:30 9 July**

Hermione's eyes flickered open, and she blinked several times to clear the grit of sleep from her eyes. She had the sudden thought that she had over slept and missed her first lesson of the day, until she remembered it was the summer break from Hogwarts.

From the amount of light in the room and the view from the large window that was looking out over an ornamental garden and a forest beyond, it was some point during the night or early morning. But which night, and where was she?

She felt decidedly groggy, more so than could be explained by her just waking up, as she turned her head she found the room was spinning around her making her feel more than a little queasy.

The room reminded her somewhat of the magical hospital St Mungos, she had last been there while recovering from the effects of the curse that Dolohov had cast upon her in the battle of the department of mysteries. This room however appeared much newer, and had a friendlier atmosphere than the large ward she had been in at St Mungos, plus none of the wards in St Mungos had a window showing the view she could see or indeed had private rooms attached.

So she assumed she was in some other hospital, why? No matter how hard she tried, none of her memories made any sense; it all seemed to be just a jumble, patches here and there with large blank spots in between. Had she had a relapse of her coma, how long had she been asleep for this time?

"What will I do if I have missed my exams?"

From somewhere at the back of her mind she could feel something that resembled amusement, and she was fairly sure it wasn't hers. Missing exams for Hermione Granger was nothing to be amused about, it was a personal dread of hers, a fear nearly as terrible as taking exams and doing badly in them!

There it was again! Amusements, tickling at the back of her mind, like the gentlest of Ron's touches. It was if her mind was a room, and she knew there was someone in the room with her, hidden deep in the shadows.

_That is a very good analogy actually, welcome back fledgling._

Hermione heard a soft trill and tipped her head back on the pillow. Perching on her headboard was a large, regal looking red feathered bird. The Phoenix was peering down at her, upside down from her point of view, this image made her giggle out loud, but she had no idea why, she wasn't normally someone that giggled.

"Hello Fawkes, what are you doing here?"

Now she could feel real amusement in her mind, and somehow she knew it originated from this magical bird, although she didn't know how that was possible. Before, in the headmaster's office she had been able to hear the bird in her mind and it had somehow been able to read her thoughts, but now it seemed this link was working openly in both directions.

She could not only hear Fawkes, she could 'feel' him in a general sort of way, like a comfortable warm presence at the back of her mind. Hermione was immediately reminded of the conversation she and the bird had shared in her third year in Dumbledore's office.

"You were at the headmaster's side when he fought Grindelwald?"

_No, I became his familiar after the battle had finished. I was attracted to his nobility and his self-sacrifice, Old white beard knew that the duel with Blackheart would be the death of him, and yet he fought anyway. _

"But he didn't die!"

_He would have fledgling had I not bonded with him and helped to heal the worst of his wounds. _

Hermione suddenly knew with total clarity exactly what had happened, why the Phoenix was there now in her room, why she could hear and feel him, and it made her feel very small and unimportant for such a thing to have happened to her. Harry was the hero of the Wizarding world, as much as he hated the title 'hero' it was quite evident to everyone else that was what he was. If anyone deserved to be bonded to a Phoenix it was Harry.

"We have become bonded haven't we?"

Hermione asked in a small voice.

_Yes fledgling, at the terrible place you stood in front of the soulless one in order to protect your friends despite the risks. It was a very brave act, worthy of recognition._

"How badly was I hurt?"

Hermione wasn't at all sure she wanted to hear the answer.

_You died._

"Oh"

Hermione whispered softly. There wasn't an awful lot more she could say after that statement.

"I guess I have you to thank for still being here then?"

The Phoenix ruffled its feathers, and Hermione could detect the puzzlement and annoyance in the creature.

_Only in part, when you died your mother began to pound on your chest and your father blew into your mouth. I had thought you of muggle birth, but what I saw was powerful magic!_

Hermione giggled uncontrollably again at the image presented. Fawkes had perfectly described Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation, a muggle technique to preserve and save life, her parents had made sure she knew CPR by the time she was twelve. They had both been taught it in their army years and kept up to date with modern techniques by enrolling on civilian courses.

That such a technique, well known, at least by sight to nearly all muggles, could be considered magic by this wise and magical bird was very funny indeed, nearly as funny as imagining her parents as a witch and wizard.

"Never underestimate the power of muggles Fawkes, they might surprise you."

_Obviously_

Replied the bird with a tone of dry irony in his voice.

With a flash Hermione remembered the sudden pain of being struck by Voldemort's curse, and how the world had seemed to pinwheel around her as she was flipped over. She shuddered as a sudden chill ran through her as she realised how close she had come to death.

"How did Harry get on against Voldemort?"

_The chosen one was grievously injured by the soulless one, he now lies close to death somewhere in this building. From what I have overheard those with the healing skills are not overly confident they can save his life._

Harry! He had fought on after her injury, trying to buy more time to rescue the prisoners, despite already being hurt, despite having already nearly exhausted himself in the opening rounds of the battle. Hermione felt so helpless, her friend, to who so many owed their lives, lay dying and she too was laid up in bed unable to help him.

"Fawkes, can you help him?"

The Phoenix skipped nimbly off the headboard and landed with some grace upon the bed beside her, the bird looked into her eyes for a long moment and Hermione could feel the concern the bird was feeling for her, worried that she still required his presence.

"Really Fawkes, I'm alright, just a little sore, and very tired, go help Harry, and as many others as you can, I'm just going to roll over and go to sleep for a while."

_I shall do all I can, but even my powers have limitations, his wounds are such that I may exhaust myself treating him, and there are many others here that require my help, it could force me into a premature burning day. If you need me, concentrate hard on my name, I will come._

The Phoenix launched itself from the bed with a powerful stroke of his wings, he only got a body length off the bed before he disappeared in a bright flash of flame. Hermione settled back into the bed and smiled slightly, knowing for the moment she had done everything she was capable of doing to help her friend and the other wounded.

Settling her head back into the pillows she shut her eyes and was asleep before she was able to finish counting to ten.

OoOoO

**Aviemore, South of Inverness, 08:30 10 July**

Aviemore was a small picturesque town nestled at the foot of the cairngorm range of hills in Northern Scotland, the town depended almost entirely on the tourist trade for its survival. There was a never ending flow of hill walkers, cyclists and canoeists wanting to explore the wilds of the rugged area, and the local industry capitalised heavily on these brave souls and their money.

The sun was just beginning to burn away the early morning mist when the first dull rumbles from the hills could be heard by the townsfolk, at first the sounds were disregarded as a training sortie from one of the local Royal Air Force bases, the fighter pilots used the rugged and mountainous terrain to practise low level flying, much to the annoyance of the locals.

Then the boulders started to land in the town, large boulders the size of cars smashing without warning out of the sky, levelling everything they hit. The towns people ran for cover, only there wasn't any, no building in the town could possibly withstand an impact from something that heavy.

One boulder struck a pump on the forecourt of the petrol station, causing fuel to flood across concrete and into the gutter unnoticed as the townsfolk ran about in panic and confusion. Another boulder struck the church, caving in the roof, killing and injuring those that had gathered inside for protection.

After a ten minute onslaught that claimed over two hundred lives, the boulders stopped falling, and the shocked and stunned survivors slowly began to pick themselves up and look around at the devastation that had overcome their town.

The morning would have been bad enough if things had stopped there, but the giants, sixteen of them, now having run out of boulders to throw, came stomping into town to retrieve them, flattening buildings, cars and people in their way.

A new giant game developed that morning, 'humie' bowling, a giant would wait until a crowd of humans was running before it in fear, the giant would then pick up a handy object such as a boulder or car and see how many 'humies' he could knock over in a single cast.

Several of the town's inhabitants owned firearms and it was inevitable that some would try what was in a muggles eyes the answer to everything. Several locals produced shotguns and fired on their attackers, but the small pellets that made up bird shot had very little effect upon the full blood giants except to make them angry.

Something at this point set off the gallons of fuel that was flowing down the towns gutters from the petrol stations smashed pumps, and the resulting explosion was of epic size and shattered every window in the town that had to that point remained intact.

The fireball grew rapidly in size to envelop the petrol station and the local Tesco's supermarket, spreading quickly until it was an inferno, out of all possible control, it claimed many more lives, not to mention three of the giants.

But perhaps more importantly it had two further effects, it forced the giants to pause in their assault, to stand about in disarray not understanding what was happening, and it attracted the attention of a small convoy of Army vehicles that had been passing on the main A9 trunk road running nearby.

The small convoy of Army trucks had been returning to Cameron Barracks in Inverness after a weeklong live firing exercise, the trucks carried the 120 soldiers of B Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Highland Fusiliers.

While their main job was undoubtedly to fight and kill their nations enemies, another lesser-known task the army occasionally was called upon to fulfil was providing disaster relief and emergency medical response, and seeing the fireball, the senior man present, the Company Sergeant Major or CSM made a snap decision to offer his and his men's assistance.

Upon their arrival at the edge of the fire ravaged town, the soldiers quickly debussed from their trucks, weapons slung across their chests and crowded around the CSM's Landover where the totally unflappable man with 21 years army service behind him began to issue his orders.

Under the CSM's orders, four of his men pulled ammunition boxes sealed at the end of the exercise from the trucks and began quickly distributing it to the waiting soldiers, the men began to charge their magazines without question, four magazines per man. He didn't know what had happened, terrorist attack, natural disaster or terrible accident, but after 21 years in uniform, the man believed in being prepared for just about anything, in a short space of time he was going to find out how wrong he was.

The soldiers, nearly all of them veterans of Kosovo, Bosnia and the Gulf war had seen much of what man could do to his fellow man, but what they encountered that day was outside of all their experience ranges.

A giant, disorientated by the explosion and seeking more humies to stomp arrived at the edge of the town, and seeing such a large collection of the small figures stood in a nice tight group decided they would be easy pickings. It was a very bad mistake for the giant to make.

The sound of the giants approach was as unmistakeable as the sound of an avalanche on legs, and the soldiers all turned around to look in amazement as a creature from out of their childhood fairy tales lumbered towards them.

To their credit not one of the men moved, but such was their shock that not a single weapon was brought to bear. But the very fact that these humies were not running screaming before it seemed to penetrate slowly into the giant's small brain and it slowed to a walk and finally the giant stopped out right.

The two sides paused frozen in the moment, staring at each other at a distance of less than twenty feet, the soldiers blinking in astonishment at the creature, the giant puzzled why no one was running away from it.

Fusilier William Boone was six days short of his eighteenth birthday, and as such was the youngest man in the Company, he had completed his ten week basic training at the Army Training Regiment at Glencourse, then completed the Infantry arms training at the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick, North Yorkshire, and now he had just finished his first Company live fire exercise.

He was easily the least experienced man present, but he was also the first to act.

Slamming a freshly loaded magazine of thirty rounds into his SA80 rifle, Fusilier Boone cocked the weapon with a single smooth assured movement and without hesitation raised the rifle to his shoulder. Peering through the completely unnecessary x4 magnification optical sight, the youth took a moment to control his breathing, and fired.

The 5.56mm round slammed into the giants chest, eliciting a bellow of anger from the giant, the huge club carried in its hand raised and came smashing down into the side of the CSM's Land Rover. The large all terrain vehicle, now nothing more than a collection of tangled bodywork and mangled engine parts, span through the air into a gaggle of stunned soldiers, killing four of them outright.

Fusilier Boone didn't notice any of this, he advanced on the giant without any thought for his own safety, and he fired a single aimed shot with every step he took forward. There were tears in his eyes and his lips formed a silent unspoken scream.

William Boone had been a resident of Aviemore for nearly all of his Eighteen years, he had gone to school there, played football in the park there, kissed his first girlfriend there, and his family lived there still, and now the town, his town, burned, and this creature was obviously responsible. It would die by his hand, this he swore.

The actions of one man, barely out of childhood, spurred his vastly more experienced colleagues into action and within ten seconds the majority of the remaining soldiers were pouring fire into the giant.

The 5.56mm rounds were like bee stings to the forty foot creature, just seeming to enrage it further, it flailed madly about with its club, tossing soldiers into the air with every blow, seeking to put an end to the annoying stabs of pain, but just as a human can be humbled if stung by enough bees, so to was the giant brought low by the amount of rounds hitting it.

The final straw was when the Companies heavier support weapons were brought to bear, the belt fed General Purpose Machine Gun, firing 7.62mm rounds was not an overly accurate weapon, but at that range there was no need for it to be. The rounds tore great furrows into the now stumbling giant.

But it was the use of a LAW that finished the creature. LAW stood for Light Anti-tank Weapon, it was a single shot disposable tube containing a high explosive shaped warhead designed to penetrate armour. It was designed to give lightly equipped infantry the ability to engage enemy armour, but none of its designers in their wildest dreams had ever thought the weapon would be used to kill a giant.

Lance Corporal David McNicolls, a gulf war veteran, calmly stepped out from behind the last truck, which had been carrying the support weapons, pulling the weapon tube to its fully extended firing position as he did so.

With a well practised flick of his wrist, he released the catch on the flip up sight reticule and hefted the weapon casually onto his right shoulder. Sinking down onto one knee and taking up a more sturdy firing position, McNicolls' right hand slipped around the moulded plastic pistol grip, while his left braced the weight of the weapon under the tube. He settled the sight picture on the Giants chest.

Ignoring the screams of the wounded men and the bellows of the giant, the soldier seated the weapon securely into position, aware of the savage recoil the weapon possessed and without taking his eye from the sight picture of the giant he flicked off the safety.

"Duck and Cover! Missile out!"

Yelling the traditional warning to those closest, the veteran soldier braced himself and pulled the trigger, with a roar and a kick in the shoulder like that from an angry donkey, the round leapt from the weapon and travelled the hundred feet to its target. When it had reached a distance of fifty feet from the launcher the warhead armed itself, before slamming into the giant's chest.

The Giant had just enough time to register pained amazement, before the high explosive charge detonated and vaporised the majority of its internal organs, dramatically opening its ribcage to the elements and showering those men closest to it with gore. For a moment the giant remained upright, before the creature toppled slowly over backward to the ground with a thunderous impact.

For a long time the soldiers just stared at the smoking corpse in disbelief, shaking their heads in stunned silence only broken by the moans of the wounded.

"Right you lot, don't just stand there! Medics, see to the wounded. Refill your magazines, and then fill your pockets with as much loose ammo as you can carry! Each section is to carry a LAW, as that seems to do the trick."

The Sergeant Major's voice cut through the silence, he was as shocked as the rest of them, and a little ashamed because he hadn't even managed to fire a single round from his service pistol, which he was now loading. One of his men handed him a rifle, sadly now a spare, its previous owner one of men levelled by the giant, and the experienced soldier loaded a magazine and cocked it, grinning evilly at his men over the weapon.

"Let's go hunting!"

The battle of Aviemore as it would later come to be known as, was a milestone, it was the first time in recorded history that a pitched battle had been fought between an element of a professional muggle standing Army and creatures of the magical world, and it would shake the very foundations of the secrecy that the magical world had so long enjoyed.

The battle itself was only stopped from being a total bloodbath by the unstinting bravery of a hundred men, as the dozen remaining giants played hide and seek with the British Army among the burning buildings of the ravaged Scottish town. In the end, with only five creatures remaining, the Giants were driven off back into the mountains from whence they came. The Infantry Company suffered fifty percent casualties and by the end of the battle had lost twenty five men killed and another thirty four seriously injured.

The prompt actions of the soldiers that day saved many lives, but despite their efforts the civilian death total still rose to over 900, and when the Ministry Obliviators arrived at the scene they found carnage on a scale not seen in the magical world in nearly seventeen years.

The muggle emergency services had reacted much quicker than the Ministry of Magic, and the town was crawling with soldiers from the local garrisons and members of all three of the emergency services. The approaches to the town were locked down tight by armoured vehicles, and medics, both military and civilian were trying to deal with the aftermath of the attack.

The Obliviators knew there was now no possible way to contain this situation, there were simply too many people that required their memories modifying, surrounded by far too many muggles carrying firearms. Any attempt would undoubtedly lead to more bloodshed, the Ministry men apparated away at a loss of what to do next.

The war was heating up.

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic**

"Ah Diggory, good of you to finally join us, come in and take a seat."

Amos Diggory let the Minister of Magic's sarcastic comment slide off of him without eliciting any response, the man simply wasn't worth the effort of getting worked up about. Looking around the room, Diggory saw that nearly all the chairs around the conference table had already been filled by the various department heads. Pulling out a chair, he slid into the vacant seat between those of Gawain Robards the head of the DMLE and Edward Croaker the department head of the department of Mysteries.

His recent promotion to the position of head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures had once more provided the Order of the Phoenix with an invaluable source of information. Department heads were privy to knowledge not widely distributed inside the Ministry, and the Order had missed the level of intelligence available since Arthur Weasley's resignation.

Amos Diggory was not a patient man, even less so since the death of his oldest child Cedric. Despite the misgivings of Dumbledore and his own wife he had joined The Order of the Phoenix in the summer after the death of his son, wanting to play his part in the downfall of the monster responsible for the death of his son.

However, despite his willingness to do anything in the name of freedom, his sole contribution to the efforts of the Order in that time had been to show up at Arthur Weasley's house and help scare off the attacking Death Eaters, he hadn't even fired off a spell in anger. Because of his Ministry position he had not even been called on to fight the night that Harry sprang Wormtail from custody and rescued Arthur's youngest child.

All he wanted to do was go wand to wand with a Death Eater, but instead he had found himself to suddenly be the highest placed member of the Order inside the Ministry and as such an indispensable source of information.

Diggory let his eyes wonder around the table, briefly resting in turn on each of the department heads present at the meeting, other than Robards and Croaker there was Ludo Bagman head of magical games and sports, still cashing in on his reputation as a Quidditch player for his country, the man was in Diggory's opinion an incompetent fool, but not clever enough to be a highly placed Death Eater. As one of those who organised the triwizard tournament, Diggory held Bagman partially responsible for the death of his son Cedric.

Next to Bagman sat Tiberius McLaggen who had taken over from Barty Crouch as the head of the department of international magical cooperation, while he was not as incompetent an individual as Bagman, McLaggen was known to be a personal friend of Scrimgeour and one of his closet supporters, Diggory was not expecting any dissent on the Minister's policies to come from that direction, nor could there be any hope for a request of foreign help while such a man held the position.

Another supporter of the Minister and his policies was Miriam Edgecombe, the head of the Magical transportation department had backed Fudge and her loyalty seemed to have carried over to his successor. The harsh faced woman had a mean, vindictive streak and her promotion to Department head worried Diggory no end.

Arnold Peasegood, the good natured and mild mannered former obliviator was the head of the department of Magical Catastrophes, Diggory didn't know much about the retired obliviator except that he was rumoured to be better at memory charms than Gilderoy Lockhart who had once been one of his star pupils.

The youngest department head present was the head of Health and Education, Bronwyn Edmunds, who at the age of 26 was the youngest witch or wizard to ever hold such a post, even Gryffindor himself had only assumed power in his thirty-fifth year. The pretty brown haired Welsh witch had inherited her position only after her predecessor was killed on the night of the Death Eater attacks that seemed so long ago now.

Diggory had immediately been suspicious of the woman, with the death of her boss she had been thrust so conveniently into a position that had a small measure of oversight over both St Mungos and Hogwarts. But the woman's total lack of a personal agenda and fresh faced optimism had eventually won him over. While she wasn't exactly an ally, she certainly wasn't an enemy.

The last department head sat at the table was the man other than the Minister himself that Diggory trusted least of all. Norton Yaxley, head of the Department of Security and Justice, was a Death Eater plain and simple. He had escaped punishment, like so many others at the time of Voldemort's fall, by claiming he had been forced to commit acts of terror and torture under the duress of the Imperius curse.

But just as in the case of Lucius Malfoy, the man's loyalties were obvious and clear for all to see, and the fact he was sat at the Minister's right hand, a position normally reserved for the head of the DMLE, showed to those who knew what to look for just how far from the light the Ministry had fallen.

"I have called this meeting to discuss what is to be done to counter the latest attacks on the muggles, we must move to contain the situation before the muggles take it upon themselves to sort out our mess."

Diggory frowned at the Ministers words, up until now he had virtually ignored the acts of Voldemort's Death Eaters, letting them have free reign to carry out acts of violence against muggle and magical folk alike. As much as Diggory might wish otherwise he couldn't see a radical change in policy on the horizon.

"The international statute of secrecy has never been under such threat, our entire world stands on the brink of discovery, to do nothing, to stand idly by while the muggles strip from us everything which we have built is more than I can stomach."

Diggory suddenly had a very bad feeling about what was about to transpire in this room, Scrimgeour, like the skilled political operator that he was, was going to use the attacks on the muggles to further tighten his grip on the government. Before too much longer that grip would be so tight that none could shift it.

"What I propose is the formation of a new unit, organised along the lines of the fabled French SMOG teams I keep hearing so much about, a group specially equipped and trained, dedicated to striking at those who threaten our very civilisation. A group of handpicked Law Enforcement specialists with new powers of arrest and detainment…volunteers of course. Oh don't pull such a face Gawain, this group shall of course be made up entirely of Aurors!"

Diggory breathed a small sigh of relief, he had been afraid that the Minister was about to give even more power to Norton Yaxley's thugs, something that would have been terrible news for just about everybody in the Wizarding world.

Gawain Robards must have been having similar thoughts because his face had taken on the expression of someone that had eaten something that had disagreed with him as he assumed he was about to witness more of his Aurors influence being stripped away. Now the chief Auror looked so confused at his change of fortunes that Diggory wanted to laugh out loud, and only with the strongest amount of will power was he able to remain quiet. Diggory had no idea what Scrimgeour was planning, because as sure as night followed day increasing the power and influence of the Aurors played in direct contrast to his actions thus far.

"I have long wished for us to have such a force under strength, I have many talented Aurors that would leap at the chance to join such a team. But these men will not be your men Minister, it would be a falsehood to state otherwise, these men and women will be servants of the law!"

If Diggory was any judge of character at all, then he knew that if Norton Yaxley had his wand in his hand at that moment, then Gawain Robards would have been dead from an unforgivable curse the instant the words had left the Aurors mouth. But it was Scrimgeour's expression that caught Diggory by surprise, rather than be outraged by the words of the chief Auror it seemed as if the Minister expected them, even welcomed them.

"Of course they must Gawain, servants of the law indeed, I would expect nothing less. Pick your men, the finest you have, a dozen should be enough to start off with, we shall put all the resources of the Ministry behind them to allow them to carry out their tasks."

Gawain sat back in his seat with a satisfied smile, no doubt already reviewing the personnel files of his best Aurors in his head, already making decisions about which dozen would be selected for the team. Diggory wasn't sure what Scrimgeour's plan was, but the man was a born politician and had more than enough cunning to go around.

Once the information was delivered to the Order it would be poured over by some of its smartest members, perhaps something could be gleaned from his pensieve memories of the day.

"So I put it to the vote, the raising of a new Auror strike force to help combat the growing levels of disorder. First, all those against the motion."

Diggory looked around the table, unsurprisingly no department head wanted the reputation of being against law and order. No hands were raised in opposition, although Bronwyn Edmunds and Edward Croaker both looked troubled by the vote.

"Now those for the motion please raise your hands."

The Minister sat back and smiled as every hand around the table was raised into the air.

"Brilliant, unanimously passed. Now Bronwyn, we need to discuss the new security arrangements that have been put in place at St Mungos, I understand you have concerns about the number of Ministry personnel currently stationed at the hospital."

Amos Diggory sat there, helpless to intervene as the inexperienced Bronwyn Edmunds was expertly manoeuvred into not only agreeing the security was necessary in the current environment, but increasing the numbers of guards. This would not have been such a bad thing if those involved had been Aurors, but they were Yaxley's men, the Minister's private thugs.

What was happening at St Mungos that the Minister felt the need to have the hospital so heavily guarded? Diggory knew there wouldn't be so many men stationed there unless there was a reason, another small piece of the puzzle to pass onto the Order.

OoOoO

**The Burrow Hospital, 23:30 10 July**

Harry had drifted in and out of consciousness since his arrival at the burrow, it was a bizarre pain-filled journey that carried with it strange snatches of memories that almost had the quality of his dream visions, where they had come from he couldn't explain.

An unfamiliar dark haired woman leaning over him, biting her lip in concern, her wand tip glowing bright blue.

Ron, tears falling down his cheeks, holding his hand and telling him how much he valued Harry's friendship, and missed his company.

Emma Granger sat at his bedside telling him he had to get well because Hermione needed him, needed his support and friendship.

Fawkes the Phoenix standing on the bed trilling encouragement to him, dripping tears into a gaping wound in his neck.

Ginny gently using her hand to caress his cheek, trying so very hard not to cry as she told him again and again how much she loved and needed him.

As he struggled back to consciousness Harry tried to make sense of all these images and many more that lay in his mind like the jumbled pieces of a puzzle. He didn't understand what his body was experiencing, it wasn't that he was in a lot of pain, there was an absence of any sensation at all, there was just a strange numbness throughout his body, as if there should be pain but he was being stopped from feeling it.

Harry felt extremely weak, felt as if something important was missing, and it was with some shock that he finally realised what it was that he was missing. His magic, he couldn't feel it at all, normally it lay like a warm comfortable layer, just below the surface of his mind waiting to be called upon, but now there was nothing, and that scared him somewhat.

Once upon a time, a long time ago now, before the half giant Rubeus Hagrid had come to inform him of his heritage and take him away from his abusing relatives, Harry would have openly scoffed at the idea of being a wizard. But for so long now he had relied on the magic, to play the wonderful sport of Quidditch, to learn all he could at school, to keep himself and those he cared about safe.

Being without magic was something he had never considered, however would he make the adjustment back again to being a muggle. Thomas Bell had made the adjustment somehow, although he had not lost his magic, he had been banned from using it.

What could have happened to strip his magic away from him, how would he defend himself from Voldemort? Would Ginny still care for him if he was a squib or a muggle?

Ginny! He had to fight hard to wake up, for Ginny's sake, she would be so worried, so scared that he might not recover. It would only take a smile from him to reassure her, but to do that he had to be awake.

It was like being at the bottom of the deepest well and being able to see a pinprick of light far, far above him, without any way of getting there. Sounds carried to him down the well shaft, muted by the distance, someone was singing softly, a beautiful voice that plucked at his heartstrings.

It was Ginny's voice he could hear and she sounded so sad, the tune was familiar but he couldn't say where he had heard it before, the only other time he had heard Ginny sing with such passion and feeling was one Christmas he had been at the burrow, when the entire family had listened to the Wizarding wireless network.

Harry focused on the sound of Ginny's voice and concentrated as hard as he could on his feelings for the girl and how much he wanted to see her, let her know things were going to be alright.

The walls of the deep well he found himself in began to move slowly past him as he forced his way towards the pinprick of light, towards the singing, but the speed began to slowly increase until the walls were zipping past him as he shot upwards towards the pinprick of light and Ginny's voice.

With a struggle Harry forced open his eyes, it took much more effort than it should have, and this simple action left him feeling exhausted and cold. His eyes ached as if he had been studying transfiguration texts for hours, it was a kind of prickly feeling that was very uncomfortable.

He was in a dimly lit room, that as far as he could determine without having his glasses on, he had never seen before, the ceiling was white, and the walls a muted pastel that reminded Harry an awful lot of St Mungos. He knew it wasn't St Mungos however, the room had a feeling of newness about it, and because of the view of woods afforded by the large window that took up nearly the entire wall at the foot of the bed.

The blinds were drawn back on the partially open window, showing a night-time scene of a forest, but without his glasses, Harry couldn't tell if it was really night or merely an enchanted image.

When he tried to turn his head he found he couldn't move and he guessed he had been placed into another 'medical body bind' one that wouldn't allow him to move in case he injured himself further.

Harry felt very tired, like he had been awake for days rather than just seconds, he also felt very groggy, and knew he must be on a lot of medication, because instead of the pain he knew he should have been experiencing throughout his body, all he felt was a dull ache in his limbs and an artificial stiffness from where he remembered getting hit.

The sound of Ginny singing was coming from his left, and for a moment he was just content to lay there listening to the soothing sound, it brought a small smile to his face.

From somewhere above his head came a soft welcoming hoot that told him his snowy owl familiar was very pleased to see him awake, and told Ginny that her boyfriend was once again in the land of the living.

"Harry you're awake!"

"Ginny?"

His words came out muffled and indistinct, as his swollen tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, just speaking seemed to have the effect that an hour long Quidditch game normally would. It felt as if he could sleep for a week.

With his eyes as far over to the left as he could go, Harry could just make out a shape curled in a chair against the wall an impossible arm's reach away, a shape topped with long red hair. The blurry shape unfolded itself gracefully and catlike from the chair and moved closer, until he was looking up into Ginny's extremely pretty, yet pale and worried face.

"Hi Harry"

She gently brushed his hair back from his forehead, pleased beyond belief to note that his temperature had finally dropped. She caressed his forehead with her fingers, the simple contact was enough to cause him to close his eyes and smile with pleasure.

"Hi"

Harry was shocked at the sound of his own voice it sounded raspy and weak, barely even audible, his throat felt as if he had swallowed sandpaper at some point in the recent past.

"You shouldn't try to move, you have been badly injured, you really need to rest and recover."

As she spoke Harry could tell that she was struggling to hold back the tears, she had been so scared about his chances of recovery that it had all gotten too much for her.

"Just lie back and sleep, I shall be here when you wake up, I promise you…."

Harry felt his eye lids getting heavier as she talked, he let himself stop fighting the exhaustion, letting the sound of Ginny's soothing voice send him off to sleep.

"I love you Harry Potter"

OoOoO

Ron sat on the bed by his sleeping girlfriend's side and stared at the blank wall in a state of shock. What he had just witnessed in the mess hall had left him stunned and shaken, and he really didn't know how he was supposed to react.

He had only popped out of Hermione's room to grab a bite to eat, the kitchen ran a twenty four hour a day menu delivered by house elves that just seemed to have appeared without anyone's prior knowledge. But it wasn't the strange little creatures that had shocked Ron into silence.

There had been a large number of people inside the mess hall, off duty Aurors and Goblins, members of the Order, DA and even the parents of many of those held at Azkaban, all watching silently a moving image.

Ron who had never seen a muggle film had barely given it any attention until he realised what it was that was being displayed.

It was the duel between Harry, Draco and Voldemort.

Somehow, using an amalgam of the memories of all those present in the Azkaban prison yard, and utilizing one of the special evidence presentation pensieve, some creative Aurors had managed to capture a large portion of the duel and were displaying to a packed and silent mess hall.

Ron had seen Harry duel before of course, in the department of mysteries, in the battle of the tower, and other times. But this was the first time he had seen his friend go up against Voldemort directly.

The speed and power of the spells was terrifying, Voldemort you really expected to be powerful, he was the dark lord after all, but Harry, Harry was like a force of nature that refused even in the face of crippling injury to be beaten.

From the numbers watching and the rapt audience Ron knew this display was sure to spread and Harry would get the reception due a hero once he was back on his feet, and for once Ron knew he would not be jealous of his dark haired friend in the slightest.

Turning to Hermione he gently brushed his fingers across her cheek seeking some form of reassurance that all would be right with the world, the girl stirred slightly in her sleep and Ron froze worried about waking her.

To his immense relief the healer Emily Shacklebolt had told Hermione's parents and him that despite the initial extent of her injuries, the young woman should make a full recovery.

But seeing Hermione injured so badly twice in such a short space of time had focused his feelings for her in a way that he had never experienced before, and now for the first time he began to understand the level of the bond that seemed to exist between Harry and his sister.

While it had taken him longer to wake up to his feeling for her than he would have liked, Ron now knew without a shadow of a doubt that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Hermione. And despite her constant exasperation at his emotional depth and his occasional bouts of stupidity he knew she felt the same way about him.

Her parents had been incredibly supportive, perhaps sensing that the lanky red head had already won over their daughters' heart. Just as Ginny had barely left Harry's side, so Ron had barely left Hermione, and as such he had come to know Emma and Dan that much better.

Ron was stirred from his thoughts by a flash of light and the sweep of powerful wings. Fawkes had just appeared in the room from within a ball of fire and gracefully landed on the end of the bed apparently completely unphased by his unique style of entry.

The Phoenix had been spotted on several nights, by sharp eyed Goblin sentries, far aloft, riding the thermals above the burrow. Ron wasn't sure what the magical creature was doing, but he liked the think the bird was keeping a close watch over what was happening below.

"Nice flight?"

Ron asked, knowing he wouldn't get an answer. The phoenix looked over him and cocked its head regarding him for a moment, before dipping its head in a rough approximation of a nod. The bird then settled down on its perch and its vigil over its injured mistress. It had become a nightly routine, Ron would watch Hermione while Fawkes patrolled the skies, and Ron would catch a few hours asleep upon his return.

"I will be back in a few hours, if you need me before then, you will know where I shall be."

The Phoenix nodded once and trilled a soothing sound before resuming its focus on Hermione. Ron was aware that he and the Phoenix had struck up some form of strange partnership centred on both their devotion to Hermione, and that both acknowledged that the other had nothing but her best interests at heart.

OoOoO

Harry snapped awake, suddenly afraid he was supposed to be doing something important, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what. For a disorientated moment he didn't have a clue where he was or why he couldn't move. Then all the memories came flooding back.

Azkaban.

Voldemort

He found himself in the same room he had been in before, and as before Ginny was sat in the large stuffed chair over to his left, she hadn't moved so he assumed she was asleep. Hedwig was again perched atop the head board, her head nestled under one snowy white wing, It sounded as if the owl was actually snoring, the sound made Harry smile.

Looking to his right the smile quickly fell from his face, there was another person in the room, sat in a chair pulled up close to the bed, their head resting upon the bed and long black hair falling down to cover their face.

But that wasn't what worried him, it was the fact he could see a transparent tube emerging from his arm and disappearing under the bedcovers, that and the fact there appeared to be blood flowing through the pipe.

"Harry?"

Harry turned his head and smiled up at Ginny's concerned face.

"Hi"

He tried to move his arms, to take Ginny in a hug, to hold her tight. But he had completely forgotten that he was unable to move, and attempting to do so sent sharp spikes of pain shooting through his body.

With an effort, he forced back the pain he was feeling and smiled tiredly up at his girlfriend. Seeming to understand, Ginny lent down and planted a soft but passionate kiss upon his lips. Closing his eyes, Harry savoured the taste of Ginny's lips and made the most of the contact, knowing that it was a brief escape from the pain that was beginning to make itself known throughout his body as the medication began to wear off.

"I hope you are the first thing I see every time I open my eyes from now on, even feeling the way I do, like I have just been run over by the knight bus, you are very pleasing to the eyes miss Weasley."

Ginny smiled, her eyes still closed from the kiss that had rocked her world.

"You say the nicest things oh boyfriend of mine."

"Yes, Its one of my little failings."

Harry was interrupted by a monster yawn that threatened to dislocate his jaw. He still felt utterly exhausted, but he was determined to fight the tiredness that seemed destined to engulf him for as long as he could. He didn't know how long he had lain unconscious, but he knew he couldn't afford the time to spend too much longer laid on his back. Because as sure as night followed day, Voldemort would not have been sitting around doing nothing. Besides he wasn't in that much pain, not compared to how much it had hurt facing Voldemort at any rate.

Ginny chuckled, gently running a hand through his hair. Harry grinned weakly at her and closed his eyes, sighing with contentment. Despite the fact she was no longer wearing a sling, Harry could see Ginny was still favouring her injured arm.

"How's the arm?"

Harry asked, his voice still weak and feeble sounding to his own ears. Ginny just looked at him in amazement.

"You're incredible, you know that right! Here you are, hospitalised yet again, daring the reaper to claim you, and you're asking me how I am! Unbelievable."

"You didn't answer the question Gin."

Ginny sighed heavily in exacerbation.

"Well since you asked, it hurts a lot, with the numbers of injured being treated, the skele-grow potions are running in pretty short supply and there are others who need it a lot more than I do. I already took something that makes the bone heal faster. Apparently the break had been partially repaired already, I have you to thank for that."

Harry frowned, he remembered removing some of her pain by numbing the nerve endings, and that had involved pouring some of his magic directly into the wound, perhaps he had started the healing process by accident.

Harry felt suddenly guilty that he had let this young woman, not even yet sixteen, get dragged into the battle at the prison in the first place. The very fact that she had been injured weighed heavily upon his mind.

"I'm so sorry Ginny, I didn't mean to get you hurt"

Ginny opened her eyes wide and looked puzzled for a moment, and then she twigged onto what he was talking about. She bent down and gently pressed her lips to his, the kiss was gentle but succeeded in conveying the depth of her feelings for this very special youth.

"We will talk about what happened at Azkaban when you're feeling better, but for now believe me when I say you have nothing to be sorry about. I love you Harry Potter."

Harry looked up into those adoring bright brown eyes, and not for the first time he wondered what he had done to deserve those people that he had managed to gather to him, he felt especially unworthy of the love Ginny showed him, he did nothing but lead her into trouble and get her hurt.

"I love you too Ginny, and once I am healthy enough you and I are going to take some time off, just the two of us. It will be good for both of us to get away for a while, what do you think?"

Harry was left under no illusions of Ginny's opinion on the matter as she attempted to suffocate him to death using only her mouth. Laughing silently he finally gave into the attack and started to enjoy being conscious again, despite the pain there was a lot to be said for it. When the kisses finally finished he was left gasping for breath, he felt utterly exhausted but somehow invigorated at the same time.

There was a groan from the other side of the bed, and Harry was most surprised when it was Katie Bell that lifted her head from the bed. The Dark haired girl grimaced as she tried to stretch the kinks out of her neck, it took her several moments to realise that both Harry and Ginny were awake and grinning at her.

Katie sat bolt upright in her seat and her eyes widened as she looked from Harry to Ginny and back again.

"Harry! You're awake!"

Harry smiled.

"I thought I was the one that always stated the obvious around here?"

With a cry of delight she stood and threw her arms around him, the embrace worthwhile that it was, caused him to grunt in pain as Katie squeezed his injured shoulder.

"Oh Harry I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

Harry grinned weakly up at her.

"S'ok, was worth it Katie, I needed a hug, how are you?"

Despite her claiming she was well, her appearance told a different story, she looked terrible, she was pale and had dark circles around her eyes and in short, looked exactly like he felt. Now that her head had moved away from his arm, Harry could see that the other end of the tube was sticking out of Katie's arm, she had rolled one sleeve of her jacket up to leave her arm bare for the tube.

Looking over at Ginny, it warmed his heart to see her beaming at both him and Katie, there would have been a time when she would have been jealous of Harry having a good friendship with any female other than Hermione.

Ginny took hold of his left hand and squeezed it tight. Harry was glad to see the most important witch in his life safe and in reasonably good health, but now he needed to know about all the others, all those he led to Azkaban, and those he was able to bring home from that terrible place.

"Ginny, there's something I need to know, what of the others, how many were hurt?"

Katie and Ginny swapped a look of concern, one he didn't miss, he knew they would try not to tell him, try and protect him from the number of wounded caused by his actions but he needed to know.

"Look just tell me, how many are hurt?"

Harry let a little of the anger and frustration at his situation that he normally kept locked up deep inside spill out into his tone, the two young women took a step back, their faces blank with shock. He immediately felt guilty, none of what had happened was their fault, and they were utterly undeserving of his anger.

"Please Ginny, just tell me, I need to know."

His voice was softer now, begging almost.

Ginny took a deep breath and nodded as if coming to a very tough decision.

"Thirty one Harry, we have lost thirty one."

Harry just blinked at her for a moment, sure he had misheard her answer, she must have meant there were thirty-one injured, she couldn't possibly mean…no that wasn't possible.

"Nine of Marcus' Aurors died, fifteen goblins, a further half dozen Order members and of course you already knew about Lavender."

It came out in a single rush as if Ginny wanted to get it out of her system as fast as possible. Her eyes filled with tears, she knew him so well, and knew what this information was doing to him.

Thirty-one. Dead because of him, because he had led them to Azkaban without much of a plan, because of his saviour complex! He always had to be saving everyone. It was Sirius all over again, what had he done!

Tears came to his eyes, as he tried to get his head around the fact his decisions had caused such an unmitigated and bloody disaster. His decisions had cost the lives of thirty-one people.

"Don't you dare try to pin the blame for this on yourself, you didn't actually kill any of them yourself, and because of you three hundred or more innocent people are still alive and safe here."

Ginny snarled, her brown eyes flashing angrily, mainly angry not at him, but at Voldemort and his supporters for forcing Harry to feel this way. A more caring, sensitive man she had never known, and that he had suffer so much and be forced to feel this way tore at her heart.

Throwing her arms around him, Ginny leaned in close, feeling more than hearing his sobs as they wracked his weakened body, she told him how much she loved him, how proud she was of him, how glad she was that he was her boyfriend, she told him how much his friends wanted to see him when he was better. Anything so that he could hear the sound of her voice.

They might have stayed like that for an hour, Harry had no idea, all he knew that despite everything that had happened Ginny still loved him, everything else paled into insignificance after that. He would grief over the dead later, but for now he had to concentrate on the living.

He smiled sadly as Ginny wiped the tears from his eyes, he looked up into her face and smiled in gratitude that she was willing to put up with him.

"Thank you Ginny, I really don't deserve you."

"Shut up you idiot"

Ginny playfully slapped his cheek, a little embarrassed and quite pleased at the adoration she could see in Harry's eyes

"Hi Harry, it's really good to see you awake, you gave us all a scare, how do you feel?"

Emma Granger appeared from behind Katie and placed her hands gently on the dark haired girl's shoulders, she smiled down at Harry with genuine affection.

Harry hadn't noticed until that moment how much Emma and Hermione looked alike. The same strong classic bone structure, the same bright brown eyes filled with incredible intelligence, the same cheeky grin, only the hair differed. Emma's hair was blond and straight.

"I'm fine"

Harry lied through gritted teeth, as his body woke up from its long sleep, all the pain receptors throughout his entire body began to fire randomly, and it took every bit of will power he had to stop from crying out in pain.

He felt almost as if he deserved the pain he was feeling, for the crime of still being alive when so many others no longer were.

Katie and Ginny swapped a look of concern and then the red haired witch looked over at her best friend's mother and raised one eyebrow.

"I told you that was what he would say! It's what he always says."

Emma laughed, and bobbed her head in submission to Ginny's wisdom.

"How do you really feel?"

Ginny asked, in tone that brooked absolutely no prevarication from Harry. He looked sheepish for a moment, but then he should have known that Ginny would see right through him, she had always been able to read him like one of Hermione's books.

"Very tired and everything hurts, what's with the tube?"

Harry was staring at the tube linking him and Katie together.

"You lost a lot of blood at Azkaban Harry, much more than we could safely replace with blood replenishment potions, we had to fall back on a tried and tested muggle treatment, which as you can imagine healer Pye was absolutely thrilled about. Our only option was blood transfusion, and it turns out that only, Katie, Helen and Thomas are a good match to you."

Harry blinked at Emma, not sure he had really understood what she was telling him.

"You took Helen's blood?"

Harry had a sudden image of the five-year-old girl that he had grown so fond of being drained completely dry of blood to keep him alive, it made him feel slightly ill.

Emma laughed at the look of concern on his face.

"Don't worry Harry, we only let her give a little drop, she just wanted to feel useful, you should have seen her face, she was so proud of herself for helping when she had finished. Katie on the other hand has given you two transfusions, talking of which…"

Emma moved to Katie's side and turned a valve off at her end of the tube, then with gentle care, Emma removed the tube from Katie's arm, giving her a dressing to hold over the wound site. Emma then repeated the process with Harry.

"Katie…I don't know how to thank you."

Harry found himself choked with emotion, his friend had literally given up her lifeblood for him, and he would never forget it. Katie, now free of the tube leaned over and kissed his cheek and brushed the hair from his forehead.

"I know you would have done the same for me Harry"

Harry closed his eyes against an unexpected blast of pain, his control lapsed for a moment and his legs felt as if they were on fire as those pain receptors flared suddenly. He didn't cry out, but the effort of staying quiet brought sudden tears to his eyes.

"Harry?"

Ginny cried out in concern, but the unflappable Emma Granger just placed her hand on his cheek.

"Its ok Harry, Madam Pomfrey knew you'd be in pain, she left a dreamless sleep potion for you to take, and I want you to take it. You are no good to anyone if you are in this much pain, we all need you to get better, ok!"

Emma held out a container to his lips, Harry regarded the potion with distaste, he knew he had to take it, but he didn't have to like it. Giving in to the practicalities of the situation, Harry opened his lips and let the liquid spill down his throat.

Harry throughout his life he had experienced the dreamless sleep potion on several occasions, but they never figured out how to make the potion taste any better. He gagged on the taste and shivered slightly.

Almost immediately Harry yawned so widely that he thought his jaw must have dislocated, Ginny, Emma and Katie must have gotten a good view of his tonsils.

"Just lay back and relax Harry, now you should get some sleep, don't worry, there will always be someone here when you wake up. Mrs Weasley was in here earlier, and we cannot get Ginny to leave!"

Harry glanced over with concern, Emma was right, Ginny did look pale and tired now that he thought about it, and she was actually neglecting her own health for his sake.

"Ginny, I want you to go and get some food and some proper sleep, you know that I need you, and you will be no good to me if you have made yourself ill."

Ginny opened her mouth to protest but Harry stopped her.

"I love you, please do what I ask."

Ginny seeing that familiar determination in his drowsy eyes, just nodded slowly.

Harry smiled tiredly. His eyelids seemed to close of their own accord, his eyes had really started to hurt now, his eyelids had grown so heavy that he could no longer keep them open. He smiled slightly as he felt the touch of Ginny's lips upon his own, he hoped she knew how much he loved her.

"Sleep well Harry"

Ginny's voice was the last thing he heard before the effect of the dreamless sleep potion engulfed him

OoOoO

**HMS Nelson, Portsmouth Naval Base, 06:30 11 July**

_**HMS Iron Duke**_ slowly approached the dockside under her own power. Standing off to seaward, waiting to be called forward was one of the civilian tugs ready to render assistance to get the warship alongside the dock.

Owen Jackson had ignored the tug, he had never needed any assistance to get a vessel he commanded alongside the dock, despite current naval policy stating all Captains were to make use of the tug. He had absolute belief in his seamanship and wanted to make this, his final time into port as the warship's Captain, to be a memorable one.

The signal had reached the ship the day after the shooting incident in the North Sea, _**Iron Duke**_ was to **expedite** her return to port and her Captain was to bring himself to the attention of the base commander upon his arrival for immediate reassignment.

In Naval terms, expedite meant the ship had to haul arse back to port at flank speed, and immediate reassignment meant that her Captain had just been sacked from his post.

Owen Jackson surprisingly didn't feel bitter at all, he was an old style seaman, and didn't fit at all well into the constraints of the modern Navy, it had been only a matter of time before his enemies in the 'new navy' reached out for him to end his career. He would however miss this ship, commanding her and her crew had been the pinnacle of his term of service.

But he was determined to go out in style, his ship's company lined the rails as was customary for a return to a ship's home port. All along the dockside were the families and friends of his ship's company, somewhere out there was his daughter and the granddaughter he had never met. His last gift to his crew was to give the waiting families something to remember.

"Port and starboard screws, half ahead, stand by mooring parties to port."

Andrea Charles nodded in acceptance of the orders, and the 'rightness' of what he was doing, it was only right that the 'old man' be allowed his last moment of glory.

"Port and starboard screws, half ahead, stand by mooring parties to port, Aye aye sir!"

The ship began to slow its forward momentum, starboard side facing the dock, which was odd considering the Captain had just ordered the fore and aft mooring line crews to the other side of the ship.

"Port screw back full, starboard screw half ahead, helm hard to port."

Owen Jackson didn't take his eyes off the dock and the stretch of water separating it from his ship. Slowly, steering mainly by the speed of water in the channel and the slow rotation of the twin propellers, the ships bow began to swing out into the main channel while the ship's stern remained rooted in place.

As the ship came to a position where she was stern onto the dock, Jackson calmly crossed the bridge and peered out the glass on the port side, his voice remaining calm.

"Port screw back half, starboard screw back full, helm amidships."

The bow continued to swing around, but now the vessel was also slipping slowly backwards towards the dock, if the manoeuvre was mistimed, then the ship's stern could strike the dock as they came around.

"Port screw back half, starboard screw back half, helm to starboard, mooring parties lines away."

The warship completed the slow turn, facing now in the opposite direction to her approach, and was drifting slowly at half walking pace broadside on towards the dock, the mooring details in the bow and stern threw the lines to the dockside party who slipped the lines over the stanchions. Winches onboard quickly took up the strain and gently pulled the ship along side the dock.

"secure from manoeuvring stations, well done everyone."

It had been a master class in vessel manoeuvring, turning the ship 180degrees inside her own length right in the middle of the crowded military port without the use of a tug boat, those on the quayside that appreciated such delicate things were applauding the expert handling of the vessel.

Andrea Charles came to attention snapped her hand up, saluting her Captain for the last time before he disembarked, more than likely for the last time ever, without hesitation the other crew on the bridge snapped to attention and saluted.

"I'm going ashore. As per admiralty orders, Lt Charles, the ship is yours."

Owen Jackson took one last around the bridge and smiled slightly, before stuffing his battered sea cap onto his head, returning the salutes and striding from the bridge with the gait of a man who would never be happy on land.

OoOoO

**Gringotts Wizarding Bank**

Deep under the shops and institutions of Diagon Alley, accessible only via a long white knuckle cart ride was a Goblin vault unlike any other. This high security vault didn't belong to a Wizarding family or business, no large amounts of money or precious possessions were stored within it cavernous confines, yet it was the most heavily defended vault of all.

This vault was one of the Goblins best kept secrets, and rightly so for if the pureblood wizards knew what went on inside the vault the likely outcome would be another Goblin/wizard war.

To the small number of Goblins that even knew of its existence the vault didn't have a number, it was only ever referred to as the blood vault, and with aid of powerful ancient magic, the casting of which had been long forgotten, it was where the Goblins were able to accurately record the bloodlines of every Wizarding family in Britain.

Every birth, death, marriage and divorce was magically recorded automatically onto a particular families parchment, using an ancient more powerful version of the spell that allowed those born with magic to be automatically enrolled into Hogwarts.

When wizards accessed their vaults for the first time a drop of blood was taken to verify their identity, and unlock the vault, this blood was also used to update the family parchments. These records, some dating back over a thousand years, hung down from the ceiling in long rows, each marked by a family's coat of arms if the family was old enough to have one.

The oldest families had their parchments all grouped at one end of the cavern, including those families whose bloodlines had now died out completely. The newer bloodlines, including those whose magical family trees had only existed for a single generation, in other words the muggle born, stretched away into the dim vault.

The very fact that that the Goblins were keeping tabs on the purity of Wizarding bloodlines using magical means would cause outrage in the pure blood community, for the information available inside the chamber would utterly destroy the credibility of many claims made by supposedly pure blood families.

Director Ragnok indicated his two heavily armed bodyguards should remain outside the vault and with a wave of his clawed hand the vaults doors swung open and he stepped inside. He paused just inside the threshold and looked around him in curiosity, it had been many decades since he had stepped foot inside this particular vault.

The rows of parchments containing the family trees of every wizard in Britain stretched out before him in four neatly arranged rows into the distance.

Ragnok spared a quick glance at the first four parchments nearest the door, each stretched almost from floor to ceiling, filled with names. Right at the top of the parchments, under the four famous coats of arms were the four names that no matter who they were, everybody in the magical world would recognise, those of Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor.

It amused Ragnok no end that just by standing here at the vault entrance he was privileged to have more information at his claw tips than any wizard still living, the simple fact that the bloodlines of all four of the founders still existed to this very day. Only one of the current heirs knew of the connection of course and Ragnok felt himself drawn to the parchment in question where he carefully touched the name recorded there.

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

Ragnok occasionally debated with himself whether he should tell the other three heirs of their heritage, level the playing field as it were, but up until quite recently he and the Goblin tribal council had only thought in terms of financial benefit, and there had been absolutely no benefit to relinquishing the information.

But now with the future of the entire Goblin nation at stake, Goblins could no longer use financial benefit as the only means of making their decisions, they had involved themselves in a war that if it was lost could spell doom for them all.

"Ah Director Ragnok, thank you for responding to my summons so quickly."

Ragnok turned, and bowed his head with respect to the Goblin elder that had spoken. Limbtearer held a position of reverence in the Goblin culture, in English his title translated as 'honoured keeper of blood'. The Goblin was responsible for the upkeep and security of this unique vault, and another one similar to it that performed the same function for Goblin bloodlines.

Limbtearer had been ancient when Ragnok had been in his teens, no one really knew how old the archivist actually was, some said he had been a signatory and witness at the introduction of the statute of secrecy, which made him over six hundred years old.

The Goblin limped slowly out of the darkness, leaning heavily on a withered staff that looked almost as ancient as he did, his wiry white hair fell past his shoulders. At his belt hung a small double headed axe, and under his archivist's robes Ragnok detected the gleam of armour. Limbtearer had, a long time ago commanded the armed forces of the Goblin nation, and someone would only underestimate the old Goblin the once

"Come this way, see for yourself what has happened."

Ragnok nodded and fell into step alongside the older Goblin, passing deeper into the vault, but not very far from the entrance, indicating they were dealing with one of the older family blood lines.

Ragnok found himself stood in front of a parchment belonging to a bloodline that was gaining more prominence in Wizarding society almost daily, the heir to this bloodline was not only personally known to Ragnok, but was actually liked and respected by the head of the Goblin nation.

Limbtearer just waved a clawed hand at the parchment, Ragnok frowned in confusion and studied the last lines of the bloodline, there were several more names on those lines than there should have been.

"I don't understand…"

"That makes two of us then director, this change occurred only yesterday, I have spent the intervening time trying to validate this bloodline, but no mistake has been made, either before yesterday or now. To my knowledge this is the first time that such a change has ever happened, and I don't know what it means."

"Could it have occurred through marriage, I know human teens can be quite headstrong at times, acting without thinking."

Limbtearer shook his head.

"No, if a marriage had indeed taken place then only the bride and groom would have been in the bloodline, not all the siblings. Somehow and I have no idea how these four now share the same blood!"

Ragnok shook his head in puzzlement. He knew for sure that this particular bloodline had only a single survivor, yet now there were four names displayed on the parchment, not just one.

Taking a step back, Ragnok looked up at the coat of arms hanging over the parchment and smiled. Above him hung the family coat of arms belonging to the noble and ancient house of Potter.

Three new names were now inscribed beside Harry James Potter, Katherine Bell, Helen Bell, and Thomas Bell. What this meant he had no clue, but Ragnok had a feeling this was a good thing.

OoOoO

**The East Coast Line, South of Grantham, **

The intercity 125 high-speed train had just finished accelerating, having reached its maximum speed after the brief stop at Grantham station, and for once it was running to schedule. The carriages were packed full of commuters and families all heading to London, either to their places of work, for a days shopping and other things that families did during school holidays. None of them could possibly know they had only minutes to live.

The Death Eater that had been placed in charge, Amycus Carrow was someone who revelled in causing others pain, in many ways he was the perfect Death Eater. He wasn't ambitious for himself in the slightest, his sister Alecto had enough of that quality for the both of them. He was only interested in hurting people, he was a weapon, a tool to be used to bring death and destruction to the masses, and he knew that lord Voldemort considered him as such.

He already had experience in de-railing trains, having caused widespread destruction in Suffolk, so rather than do anything fancy he stuck with what he knew, and vanished a section of the track just after a bend, leaving the driver no chance of stopping in time.

The fast moving train hit the missing section at over ninety miles an hour. The engine slid down the bank and hit the ground with such force that it crumpled like an empty can of coke, behind it the passenger carriages were scattered like so many matchsticks.

When the twisted and tortured metal came to a halt there was a long moments silence before the first cries of the injured and trapped began. Those who still could, slowly clambered from the wreckage, searching about themselves for loved ones and thanking their lucky stars they had survived.

But that morning none on the train were to be lucky. The survivors, stood around in a daze, shocked at the carnage, never noticed the drop in temperature. It was the sound of screams that suddenly erupted from the rear of the crumpled train that first got everyone's attention. There were animal snarl and growls and barely seen shapes moving in the morning dark.

Before it crossed the minds of anyone to run, the Dementors were upon them. The muggles couldn't see their attackers of course, just people fighting some invisible force, then falling slack jawed and limp to the floor. A few tried to escape, and ran straight into the waiting arms, and mouths of the werewolves that had been working their way up the train.

It was over quickly. More than six hundred men, women and children killed, or kissed and then killed in minutes. When the emergency services arrived at the crash site, they found scenes of carnage that would haunt their dreams for the rest of their lives, and no explanation for what had occurred, other than a strange menacing mark hanging in the sky.

OoOoO

**The Burrow Hospital, 23:30 11 July**

Healer Amanda Coombs enjoyed working the nightshift in the new hospital, she enjoyed the slower pace of the night shift than that suffered by the day shift workers. On the night shift she got to spend more time with each patient that really needed her help, rather than rushing from bed to bed and from one emergency to another.

The number of patients on the critical list was steadily falling, and mainly due to the combined skills of the gathered collection of healers, the numbers were falling for the right reasons.

It was the seventh night since the battle and the majority of the patients with minor injuries had been released either to return home or take up residence in one of the two accommodation blocks that had been built.

The Goblin engineers had performed miracles in finishing the hospital and it's out buildings so quickly, in fact they were still installing furnishings when the first patients had started arriving. The facilities were outstanding, every bit the match for what was on offer at St Mungo's.

Amanda Coombs, like most of the other healers had fallen in love with the hospital. It was all built on one level around a series of hollow squares, these areas contained seats, plants and water features to provide a relaxing environment for recovering patients.

The hospital had four wards, each of the wards had a dozen beds, which in an emergency could be doubled up. Each ward also had two private rooms leading off from it, the private rooms had a window view of the forest, which was enchanted to also show whatever view the patient requested.

There were rooms in the outbuildings for physiotherapy, surgery and treatment theatres, there was also a large medical library and even an indoor swimming pool.

Having just taken over from the senior dayshift healer, Amanda Coombs reached up without looking and lifted the clipboard from its hook on the wall, attached to the clipboard was the up to date list of critical patients that required checks, or medical treatment during the night.

Quickly checking down the list for any additional patients that might have arrived during the day shift, Amanda quickly satisfied herself that she only had to attend to the patients she knew about. Sliding out from behind her desk, she began her first round of checks on the patients in her care.

The first name on her list was that of Fleur Delacour. The French woman had been completely unresponsive since being freed from Azkaban. Physically, apart from suffering from mistreatment and abuse at the hands of her captors there was nothing wrong with her, there was nothing to explain her catatonic state.

Amanda pushed open the door into the private room, all those still on the critical list now had a single room to themselves to allow for their individual courses of treatment.

There were the usual two occupants in the room. Bill Weasley sat curled up asleep in the bedside chair under a blanket, he had refused to leave Fleur's side even to have his own injuries treated, his physical wounds had been much more serious that the those of the woman he loved, but still he refused to leave, forcing the healers to treat his wounds next to Fleur's bed.

Fleur Delacour lay in the bed staring up at the ceiling, completely unresponsive to Amanda's approach. The healer laid the clipboard with the names of her patients and their room numbers down on the bed and withdrew her wand from her pocket.

Scanning the blue glowing wand tip over the French woman's body revealed nothing new, the woman was awake and had no serious injuries, but still for some reason she seemed to be unaware of her surroundings.

Sighing deeply, Amanda Coombs made a notation on the woman's chart, picked up the clipboard and silently left the room. Amanda looked down at the next name on the list and grimaced slightly.

Dean Thomas had suffered greatly at Voldemort's hands, his body and mind had been tortured to the very edge of sanity, perhaps even beyond that edge. Yet despite what his body had been put through the youth had maintained a very positive outlook.

He had received plenty of visitors, his friends had gone to great pains to make the youth feel that he was appreciated and missed, Seamus Finnegan had even managed to get a West Ham football club poster, signed by the entire first team, to put on the wall, where he had got it from Merlin only knew.

Amanda crept into the room, trying not to disturb the tall youth. She quickly ran the standard tests, running her wand over the sleeping form. His vitals were improving daily, and the damage to his body was slowly being undone.

Quickly making a notation on his chart, Amanda quietly left the room and continued on her rounds, where it was required she delivered medication to the patients that needed it, changed bandages, reassured those still awake, in short did everything that came naturally to her, the skills so vital to a successful healer.

In her relatively short professional career Amanda had always managed to maintain an emotional distance from her patients believing it made her a better healer, until now that is. Ever since she had fallen in with this crowd of young reprobates and alleged criminals everything had changed.

She had abandoned her promising career in the MLE because it had been the right thing to do, joined a group of rebels acting in direct opposition to her former employers, and she found herself now the personal physician to some of the most wanted fugitives in the British magical world, but most importantly for the first time in a long time she had friends she could trust.

Amanda began to move down the darkened corridor lost in thought. The downside to her emotional involvement was that in this war her friends were right in the middle of the fighting and they were getting hurt.

The next patient on her list was an enigma. Thomas Bell confused the young healer greatly, in more ways than one. He walked a fine line, somehow balancing between the muggle and magical worlds, but he never seemed wholly to fit into either. At times it seemed as if he was desperately searching for somewhere to belong.

Thomas had two distinct faces he showed to people, there was the side she had seen him display whenever he was around his youngest sister, the kind, caring and gentle man that could reduce the girl to fits of giggles without even trying. And then there was the cynical and hard-bitten warrior with the cold eyes that had seen far too much and the dark sense of humour that seemed to surface at all other times.

For some reason Daniel Granger, whose muggle medical training had already shown its considerable worth, seemed to hold Thomas Bell in some considerable awe, which considering the age difference between the two was a little strange. Amanda knew nothing of the muggle military, and didn't understand the significance of how a wizard could serve in such a profession.

Pausing outside the door, Amanda schooled her features into her neutral healers mask and opened the door. She paused on the threshold puzzled, on first appearances the room was empty, the covers on the bed had been thrown back but the bed was unoccupied.

From a corner of the room came a harsh metallic click, and Amanda could just make out a small movement in the shadows in one corner of the room.

"Lumos minima!"

Thomas Bell was sat upon a chair in the corner of the room, dressed in a blue hospital gown, in his lap was a small black muggle weapon, which Amanda had no doubt had been pointed at her the moment she had entered the room.

Thomas Bell obviously had trust issues with the people around him that he had to work through.

"What are you doing out of bed? You're not strong enough to be up on your own!"

There was a weak chuckle from the soldier, which broke suddenly into a coughing fit.

"Yes, I realised that when I didn't have the strength get back to the bed. I've been sat here for the best part of an hour contemplating what I should do about it"

The self deprecating humour in his tone was infectious and Amanda felt herself smiling despite herself, she did her best to reset her stern healer's visage back in place but it was no use, there was something about this man that got under her skin.

"You should have fired red sparks to summon help with your wand!"

"Knowing my luck I would have just ended up burning down the hospital."

Thomas just shrugged at that comment, and Amanda suddenly remembered some of the unique limitations placed on this wizard.

"Sorry, I forgot. Let's see if we can get you back to bed."

Amanda bent down and placed her arm under his shoulder around his waist, his arm naturally fell across her own shoulders, and for a moment Amanda found herself looking into his deep blue eyes from very close indeed. She felt her heart rate increase and felt her cheeks flush, it took a lot of effort to break herself free from those eyes.

"Are you ready?"

She asked, hoping that the heat she could feel in her face was hidden by the dim light from her wand tip.

"As ready as I can be, on three?"

"On three then. One, two, three"

With grunts of effort Thomas managed to get himself upright, he only got to take two steps before the strength in his legs began to fail him, and he found himself leaning more and more of his weight onto Amanda's slender shoulders. Even with her help it still took every bit of strength he had left to reach the bed.

Flopping back exhausted onto the mattress, Thomas closed his eyes and let out a shaky sigh. He had been injured in action before, three times quite seriously, but because of his inherent magic, the muggle injuries had always healed quickly. He had tried to do too much too soon, and now he was paying the price for it.

His eyes snapped open when he felt cool hands gently examining his side, it felt very good, very relaxing. He smiled up at the blond healer, seemingly completely oblivious to the effect that his smile was having on her.

"So what's the verdict doc?"

Thomas asked with teasing humour. Amanda frowned and looked down at him. His injuries were severe, and he shouldn't have had the strength to get out of bed, in fact given how close to death he had been, he should by all rights have still been unconscious. He was healing extremely quickly, faster than even the magic in his blood could explain away.

"You'll live"

Amanda retorted, trying to sound stern.

Thomas grinned up at her. Amanda felt her heart suddenly beat rapidly in her chest, she noticed that when he grinned the years seemed to fall away from his face and he suddenly seemed the handsome teenager again, she wished he would show this side of his personality more often, she preferred it to the soldier that more often than not surfaced.

"That's very good, dying right now could prove to be quite inconvenient"

"And why is that Sergeant Bell?"

"Because Healer Coombs, if I died right now I would never get to find out if you felt the same way about me that I find myself feeling about you?"

Moving down the corridor sometime later, as she headed down towards her next patient, she was smiling so much that she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, she never saw the door to the private room open behind her, or saw the pale arm extend from the darkness inside.

"Imperio!"

Katie Bell looked up from her book on arrest procedures and smiled as Amanda Coombs opened the door to Harry's room, the healer had a slightly distracted look on her face, and she paused for a moment in the doorway as if surprised to see that Harry had company.

That was strange, because Harry always had company, members of his extended family had rallied around to support Ginny, to allow the red head to leave Harry in the company she trusted so she could get some sleep.

"Hi Amanda, not another night shift? You really are turning into a creature of the night aren't you?"

Amanda didn't reply, she entered the room and crossed to Harry's bedside, it wasn't that she was ignoring Katie exactly, it was almost as if she didn't even see her. The blond healer studied the sleeping Harry for a moment before she reached for something in the pocket of her healer robes.

"Amanda are you ok?"

Katie stood and touched the young healer on her shoulder, she was concerned at this odd behaviour being displayed by someone she considered her friend, the Amanda she knew was normally chatty and outgoing.

The blow came out of nowhere. It struck Katie without warning on the side of her temple with more force than just a fist could generate, snapping her head back and making her see bright lights and feel blinding pain, propelling her savagely backwards into her unoccupied chair.

Katie windmilled her arms in a vain attempt to keep her balance, as her sudden weight tipped the chair back onto two legs, but despite her efforts, her momentum flipped the chair over backwards. Katie cried out as her head struck the wall with a dull crack on her way down to the floor.

She lay there stunned, on the floor, sucking in great mouthfuls of air and moaning, fighting to stay conscious against the feelings of shock, pain and nausea. Katie could feel the sensation of wetness down the side of her face as she bled onto the floor.

There was an awful lot of blood, it was already pooling around the back of her head, soaking into her long black hair and spreading down her neck. It had all happened so quickly that she hadn't even managed to shout a warning.

With her vision spinning from the double hammer like blows to her head, and already feeling weak from the sudden loss of blood, Katie was only dimly aware of what was happening above her in the most general terms, but she knew something was terribly, terribly wrong. She tried to focus and concentrate, and make some sort of sense of all the thoughts rushing about inside her head.

Amanda had attacked her! But only because Katie had managed to get in the way of whatever she was doing to Harry, but whatever it was, with Harry pumped full of dreamless sleep potion he couldn't exactly resist or fight back.

Katie frowned and tried to shake her head in an attempt to clear the dizziness and nausea, it was up to her, because no one else would be awake in the hospital at this hour of the night. Putting her hand into her pocket, Katie grasped the reassuring texture of her wand and pulled it clear.

Above her she could see three different Amanda's leaning over the bed and taking hold of a pillow and moving it until the pillow was over Harry's face. Amanda's face was completely lacking in expression as she forced down on the pillow starving Harry of air.

Screwing her eyes tightly shut Katie tried to concentrate, tried to shut out the growing pain in her head. Opening her eyes, Katie raised her wand and made her best estimate of where her target was.

"Stupefy!"

Katie lay back breathing hard and stared at the ceiling, she had heard the sound of a figure hitting the floor and knew she had hit Amanda, but her work wasn't done yet, there was still a pillow over Harry's face. Knowing her friend's life was in her hands, Katie forced herself to remain conscious for a little while longer.

"Accio Pillow!"

The pillow shot off the bed and landed beside her and she sighed in relief, but now she had to summon help, for herself just as much as for Harry, and was unsure how to do it, she doubted very much that she had the strength to go very far in her present condition.

From her position on the floor Katie's eyes fell upon the obvious solution to her immediate problem.

"Hedwig!"

The snowy owl shook herself awake on her headboard perch above Harry's bed and unfolded her head from under one of her wings, she had been maintaining a vigil on her young master since his return.

"I have a message for Ginny Weasley"

The snowy owl by rights should have ignored her, she was Harry's owl and under no obligation to carry mail for anyone but him, his family and whoever replied to that mail, but Hedwig was an extremely intelligent bird, even for a magical messenger creature, and she knew something was wrong, and somehow knew that Katie Bell was someone she was now supposed to respond to. With a single flap of her wings she glided to the floor.

Katie tried to move, but found she couldn't. She lay on her back, spread-eagled on the floor alongside Harry's bed in a growing pool of her own blood. She couldn't write a message for the owl to carry, so she did the only thing she could, she gave the owl her wand.

"Take this to Ginny Weasley."

The owl hooted in agreement and picked up the wand in her talons. Leaping into the air, Hedwig ghosted out of the open window.

Katie lay back and closed her eyes, she knew that help would be coming, Ginny would be able to recognise her wand and would know something was very wrong. Having done all she could, Katie finally let herself lose the battle to stay conscious, and passed out on the floor of Harry's room.

OoOoO

**No. 10 Downing Street, London, 06:00 12 July**

Kingsley Shacklebolt entered the Prime Ministers private office without knocking, at this time of the morning the muggle leader was still tucked up in bed on the second floor with his wife. The richly decorated room was silent except for the quiet ticking of the clock on top of the mantelpiece.

Placing the daily intelligence briefing folder down upon the desk, Kingsley turn and regarded a certain portrait in the corner of the room, at the moment there was nothing different about that portrait from any of the dozen that lined the walls of the room, but at any moment that was about to change.

It had been decided by the leadership of the MLE that due to a rise in the threat level to the muggle Prime Minister that his protection detail should be increased in size.

The Minister for magic had wanted some of his own men to take over the duty, but the head of the MLE Gawain Robards had, to everyone's surprise, stood up to Scrimgeour and fought to keep the protection detail within the purview of the Aurors. No one trusted the thugs that the Ministry had started hiring, and especially not for a job this important.

Scrimgeour, furious a being so openly defied, had very spitefully tried to have the last laugh by insisting that all the new members of the detail were newly graduated Aurors fresh from the Academy. But in Shacklebolt's opinion this plan had utterly backfired, because it had allowed him to go shopping for the very best he could find, and he had found the very best.

He had chosen two of the most recent graduating class from the academy, not necessarily the two with the highest scores, but the two he thought were the best suited to this important task. With the two 'newbies' the number of Aurors on the detail was now six, including Shacklebolt, and there was always at least a pair of Aurors near enough to the Prime Minister to portkey him to safety should some crisis strike.

"Auror Connor is on her way"

The wizard in the portrait announced grandly. Shacklebolt sighed deeply, wondering if the new arrival knew what she was letting herself in for. The recent magical attacks on muggles up and down the country had increased tensions to such a point that the Prime Minister was considering introducing a state of emergency.

Shacklebolt wasn't sure how much help such an action would be when the organisation supposed to be maintaining order was in fact doing nothing to stop the attacks, and was in fact helping those carrying them out. He had kept such information to himself so far, knowing the Prime Minister already had very little confidence in how the magical world was handling Voldemort. Such knowledge would likely force the muggle leader to act against the magical community as a whole.

The fireplace flared suddenly green and Lauren Connor spun to a halt and stepped catlike into the room, her balance not thrown off at all from the Floo journey. She was holding two containers from the muggle café chain Starbucks, she immediately held one out to him.

"Strong black coffee, two sugars"

Kingsley took the proffered cup and cocked an eyebrow at her, he was trying to remember when he had ever drunk coffee in front of her, and he'd only met her twice before this morning, once at the Academy where he had tested her duelling and magical skills, and a formal interview at a muggle hotel to test her grasp of the muggle world she would be mixing in.

"Alright Auror Connor, I give up, how do you know how I like my coffee?"

Lauren smiled sweetly, and Kingsley had to admit to himself she was very pretty. He inwardly chuckled to himself as he imagined his wife hexing him and calling him a 'dirty old man' if she knew. He briefly wondered how his wife was coping at the burrow, neither he nor Rachel had seen her in four days, and they both missed her.

"It was when you visited the academy to select me, after you left I questioned the house elves how you had your coffee, you can never have too many details, plus it also never hurts to suck up to the boss"

Kingsley laughed, he had liked this young Auror from the moment he had met her, she had a relaxed manner and a confidence seldom found in one so young. Lauren Connor had graduated from the Auror Academy very nearly at the top of her class, with some of the highest scores seen in twenty years, she had in fact beaten many of his own records.

Her profile said she was driven to succeed and had excelled at every task placed in front of her, she had outstanding reflexes, top scores in duelling and her attention to detail was top notch, and she had been the perfect choice for the protection detail. Her only failing, according to her records was a lack of patience and a volatile temper, at the time Shacklebolt had grinned, wishing he could get Lauren and Harry Potter together, they had a lot in common.

"Well if that's the way I get greeted every morning you won't find me complaining."

Lauren Connor considered herself extremely fortunate to have been chosen for this detail, Shacklebolt had a reputation of being a hard yet fair taskmaster and an extremely skilled Auror, he was renowned as being one of the protégés of 'mad eye' Moody, she wanted to learn everything she could from the man. The detail was possibly the most important detachment of the MLE, and she was determined to do well at it.

At this moment the Prime Minister, Tony Blair entered his office, he nodded in greeting to Kingsley and took the seat behind the desk. Kingsley was amused to note that Lauren had suddenly come over all nervous in the muggle leaders' presence.

"Prime Minister can I introduce you to Lauren Connor, she will be joining your protective detail from today onwards."

Tony Blair looked up, as if seeing the young witch for the first time, he blinked at her, surprised at her youth.

"How old are you Miss Connor?"

"I am 23 years old Prime Minister, and before you ask I am fully qualified to hold my position."

Lauren Connor had quickly gotten over her nerves and now exuded her normal confidence. Tony Blair looked at her for a moment, appraising her before he nodded, he stood and shook her hand.

"Very well, welcome to No. 10 miss Connor"

OoOoO

**The Burrow Hospital, 12:00 13 July**

Harry awoke to a numb arm and a wonderful feeling of warmth and comfort that stretched down the entire left side of his body, and there was a familiar and welcome scent of flowers close to his nose. He smiled to himself as his sleep-addled brain correctly identified the scent as 'Ginny'.

Cracking one eye slowly and carefully open, Harry found he was now able to turn his head freely, albeit stiffly and not without discomfort, and quickly managed to confirm his suspicions. There was a long mane of fine red hair resting a short distance from his nose. Ginny was laid upon the bed on her side, facing him, her head on his shoulder, one arm lay protectively over his chest.

For a long time Harry just looked into her peaceful face, watching her sleep. When Ginny was asleep, all the worry and responsibility that were hers when she was awake fell away from her face, what was left behind was nothing short of breathtakingly beautiful, like the pictures of angels seen on festive greeting cards.

There was nothing Harry enjoyed more than watching Ginny these brief moments before she awoke, there was no feeling in the world like knowing that this beautiful, talented and powerful witch wanted to be with him more than anything.

Harry suddenly realised something had changed, he could now sense his own magic again, it was a weak presence, but it was there. He smiled, he had hated the very idea of spending the rest of his life being without his magic.

"Welcome back Harry"

Harry shook his head in slight puzzlement at that choice of greeting. Reaching out with his free hand, Harry called his glasses to him and slipped them on one handed.

"Why, did I go somewhere?"

From over by the door came a familiar deep chuckle, Harry turned his head and saw that Marcus was stood leaning against the wall alongside a second, much younger male Auror. It was Matthew Hobart, the Auror that had helped him rescue Susan and Terry from Kings Cross.

"Very nearly Harry, very nearly. You were at death's door, in fact truth be told, you took several steps beyond the door, all I'll say is that you are blessed beyond measure by your choice of friends."

Harry turned and looked into Ginny's sleeping face for a long lingering moment.

"I know"

Harry turned his full attention back to the two Aurors by the door, Marcus was stood leaning up the wall acting nonchalant, but that's all it was, an act, there was something slightly off about his body language. He was coiled, like a spring, ready to move at a moments notice.

Matthew was stood at such an angle to give him an uninterrupted view of the door and anyone coming through it. The man had an untidy mop of dirty blond hair and an open honest face, with a nose that looked as if it had been broken once or twice, he also had his right arm in a sling.

Harry got the impression that this man, who could have only been about the same age as Bill or Tonks, was guarding him, it was the way his hawk-like deep blue eyes kept flicking around the room and then back to the door, and the fact his wand hand hovered close to his sling, where Harry assumed his wand was stowed.

"So Marcus, why the Auror bodyguard?"

Marcus cocked his head at him and grinned.

"Can't slip much past you can I? You were attacked two nights ago, while you slept…"

"Attacked…by who?"

"Amanda Coombs. She had been placed under the Imperius curse and had her memory altered. If not for Cadet Bell's prompt action and quick thinking I doubt we would be having this conversation."

Harry shut his eyes and shook his head, it was never ending, one attack followed after another with no time to recover between.

"Is Katie ok?"

"She had a severely fractured skull and a fractured cheek and eye socket, but if you're going to get hurt, picking a hospital for it to happen in is probably the way to go. In a few days all she will have is a sore head and feel a little sorry for herself. Right now she is heavily sedated for the pain otherwise she's fine, she's one very tough young woman!"

Harry smiled at the truth of that statement, Katie Bell had almost as bad a record for visits to the hospital wing as he did, just last year there had been the enchanted necklace incident.

The twins had also put her in the infirmary when one of their new products had gone wrong and her nose had refused to stop bleeding. And then there was the amount of punishment Katie had taken playing Quidditch, between them Katie and Harry had accrued probably the most infirmary hours of any twenty other Hogwarts students.

"We have checked the wands of all those in the hospital, searching for the one that cast the Imperius, but so far we have had no luck. We are considering charming the hospital to raise an alarm if anything other than healing spells are used, we have also upped the physical security in the hospital, and around you especially, it seems that you have seriously pissed someone off!"

"Yeah, three guesses who!"

Marcus laughed at the tone of Harry's voice.

"Well whoever it is that wants you dead, they are going to find it a much harder proposition now. There are two Goblins and two Aurors on every entrance to the hospital, the Goblins are carrying out roving patrols of the corridors at night and there will be always be two guards outside your door round the clock. Plus young Matthew Hobart here, he will be your protection detail commander, so don't give him too much of a hard a time of it! While I have yet to finalise the details, he or another will be inside the room with you whenever you are alone, no one is getting near you again!"

"Other than me that is! You see what happens when you force me to go away and leave you alone!"

Harry turned his head and smiled over into the now awake face of his girlfriend. He had to struggle hard not to laugh out loud, Ginny had a serious case of 'bed hair' going on. She was looking up into his eyes with deep concern, as if she was trying to reassure herself he really was ok.

"You Ginny Weasley are under strict orders from now on to stay near me, at all times."

Harry bent down and gently and passionately kissed her lips.

"Sir, yes sir!"

Ginny somehow managed to mumble between the kisses.

"You know what Marcus, I do believe he's feeling better."

The young Auror spoke deadpan, Marcus could only nod his agreement as he tried valiantly to contain the laughter welling up from inside him.

OoOoO

**Moscow, 01:30 14 July**

"Ah comrades, welcome, please come in, I am sorry for the early hour of this meeting, but you did say to contact you when I had found the specific item that you sought after did you not."

Severus Snape nodded his head sharply just the once and regarded Igor Zuckov carefully, the man was renowned in the criminal underworld as being a man not to be trifled with, someone who punished inattention or stupidity with a bloodthirsty ruthlessness, he had a fearsome temper when crossed and controlled his criminal organisation with an iron fist.

Zuckov although nearing his seventieth year, looked no older than forty, he was short, with broad shoulders and powerful arms, and he physically resembled Goyle snr, with an overhanging brow and deep set eyes. But the eyes were what stood Zuckov apart from the Death Eater, a malevolent, hateful intelligence shone brightly behind those grey eyes.

"Here is the very artefact your master requested, it is to the best of my knowledge a one of a kind, unique item. An item that the original owners will not be happy to discover is still in one piece!"

Zuckov lifted a long, thin item wrapped in velvet material from the desk and handed it to Snape, who carefully took it and pulled the artefact from under the material.

It was a blade, sheathed in a scabbard skilfully made from a giant's thigh bone, the bone had been inscribed with runes he couldn't read. Those facts alone made the weapon of ancient Goblin origin. In the times before the supremacy of wizards, the magical world had been split by wars between the various races. The Goblins and the giants had waged almost continuous war for centuries, the wars had never really ended, just taken a long deep breath before the next round.

Snape pulled the blade from its scabbard and examined the dark metal, the blade was four feet long which made it a long sword in a Goblin's hands, as thin as a rapier and made out of a dark metal he didn't recognise. Around the hilt several more runes were inscribed, but these he could read, these runes were of human origin and contained ancient magic of the darkest kind.

It was undoubtedly a cursed demon blade, Severus could feel the subtle vibration of the demonic creature bound inside the weapon as it lay in his hands. The blade would inflict terrible wounds on those it came into contact with, wounds that would cause such extreme pain in the victim that they would eventually wish for death. The wound would also be resistant to all forms of magical healing.

The very existence of such a blade would be a severe embarrassment to the Goblin nation, for it proved that rather than always maintaining their neutral stance when dealing with wizards, they had in fact at some point in the dim and distant past interacted with some very dark wizard. In fact one of the markings on the hilt was a signature rune, left by the wizard that had created the weapon, and Severus felt a sudden chill as he realised he was holding a blade created by Salazar Slytherin himself.

Severus wasn't sure, because he wasn't always allowed into his masters confidence in such matters, but knowing who the blades creator had been, he suspected the dark lord had plans for the blade that went beyond just embarrassing the Goblins.

"Who is this!"

Lucius Malfoy sneered, indicating the fourth man in the dimly lit room, Severus realised with shock that he had been concentrating so much on the blade that he hadn't even noticed the grey haired man.

He was dressed in rugged muggle outdoor clothing and he had been sat silently in the corner, arms folded across his chest, his feet propped casually up on Zuckov's desk. That fact alone should have given Malfoy pause for thought, but of course it didn't.

"This man may be the solution to some of your masters problems gentlemen, may I present to you Gregor Ivanovich, formerly Major Ivanovich of the Soviet Army."

"You mean he's a muggle!"

There was something about the seated man that was distinctly unsettling to Severus, he somehow projected an aura of utter confidence in himself, as if he honestly and truly believed without a shadow of a doubt that he was the most dangerous man in the room.

Severus pushed the blade back carefully into its sheath and inwardly smiled as Lucius began to dig himself a very deep hole. The man and his blind prejudices were becoming a liability, maybe that's why he had been sent, so Voldemort could finally be rid of the incompetent.

"Not really, I suppose I am what you would call a Squib, which quite frankly old boy I find a little insulting"

Severus smiled at the expression on Lucius' face, the man spoke English with the same upper class intonation as he had, and there was no trace of a Russian accent anywhere in his tone. There was nothing outwardly exceptional about the man at all, he was the very epitome of average, except perhaps for his gun metal grey eyes, they were in constant motion, flicking around the room and those in it, constantly searching for a threat.

"You stated you wanted men that were experts in muggle weaponry, who were not particularly fussy who they used it on, and who were reliable, well Major Ivanovich commands such a group of very…talented men. My part of the deal was to provide the introductions, and that I have done, tell Lord Voldemort I will be in touch regarding payment for the artefact."

Zuckov bowed his head to the wizards and left the room.

The seated man was regarding the two wizards with an intensity that Snape found to be a little off putting.

"So, what is it you need doing, where and when?"

Severus smiled, admiring the man's directness.

"My colleagues require the Government and the security forces of Great Britain to be …distracted and inconvenienced for a period of time to allow us to put various plans into play."

The man leaned forward his full attention now directed at Snape.

"Ambitious, and costly, very costly. Before my men and I declare war on a very well equipped and well trained opponent, I have to ask are you sure you can afford me?"

"We have a very generous backer, I'm sure that arrangements can be made that will be agreeable to all parties..."

The seated man smiled and rose to his feet in one smooth graceful motion, Severus was stunned, the man moved like a cat, controlled and efficient, he moved like only some of the best trained Aurors could.

"What makes you, a mere squib, think you are qualified for this task?"

Lucius sneered again. Ivanovich just smiled, and suddenly he was moving forward, almost faster than the eye could follow. Somehow he had crossed the intervening space between them before either of them could react, and he now stood beside Lucius with a long thin blade pressed against the side of the blond haired wizard's neck.

"Because my dear wizard, I am very, very good at what I do!"


	18. 18 The Calm Before the Storm

**AN/** Sorry for the long wait but i needed a holiday, and then there are the thousand and one things you have to do before shipping out. I deploy tomorrow morning (27/10/08) but will have sporadic internet access so hopefully will continue to bang the chapters out.

* * *

It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

* * *

Chapter Eighteen: The Calm Before The Storm

**The Burrow, 04:00 14 July**

Stood on the firing step of the carefully concealed troop hide, David Wilks peered intently through his weapon sight at the shape that had ghosted silently out of the early morning darkness. His breathe quickly settled into the smooth rhythm of the professional shooter. His finger rested lightly on the trigger and his thumb pressed against the weapons safety catch. To fire an aimed shot would only take a slight upward movement of his thumb to disengage the safety, and then apply a slight pressure with his trigger finger.

The figure, somehow almost supernaturally aware he was being observed, dropped to one knee and raised an arm above his head and pumped the fist in the air twice. Wilky let his breath out in a long sigh and slowly lowered the assault rifle from his shoulder. After a few seconds the figure stood and moved forward again until the figure coalesced into the SAS trooper Wilky was expecting.

"You planning on shooting me there boss."

Wilky grinned up at his fellow member of Red Team, William 'OZ' Tapper was part of a long term exchanger program from the SAS' sister regiment the Australian Special Air Service Regiment.

"You planning on showing me the respect I deserve OZ?"

The tall, blond Australian sniper grinned in the darkness, his white teeth standing out in sharp contrast against his face, which although naturally dark was also covered in camouflage cream. It made the man appear to grin like a Cheshire cat in the darkness.

"Nah, what would make me want to go and do a crazy thing like that?"

Lifting the cover, the soldier slipped inside the hide, and silence and stillness settled once more onto the forest.

Inside the hide, Red team's radio operator and technical wizard, Trooper Kennedy 'Doc' Wring was bent over a stripped down radio, his head torch casting eerie shadows on the earthen walls of the hide.

"Anything?"

"Nope, the radio is still clapped out, same for the night vision equipment, I wish the Army would buy some decent kit for once."

Shaking his head, Doc placed the parts of the radio down on top of his pack.

"I just don't understand it Oz...I mean I know kit breaks, but all of it at the same time! I have a hard time believing in that sort of coincidence."

"You are one paranoid bloody Pom, mate. Luckily for us we still have the Mk1 eyeball, and Bessy of course."

Sgt David Wilks stood there in the dark on the firing step with his eyes scanning the forest and listened to the whispered discussion going on between the two other members of his Red Team, a few short feet away. Although he wasn't going to say anything to his men, he thought he had a pretty good idea why all of the electronic equipment the patrol carried had suddenly ceased to work when they had got close to the ruined buildings.

Magic.

At first Wilky had suspected some form of Electro Magnetic Pulse had damaged the equipment , but after examining the radios carefully none of the seven soldiers could discover any damage at all, they just refused to work. Then there was the number of people that seemed to be living and working in and around the series of ruined buildings that made up the compound, they had identified over a hundred different individuals in the five days since the covert insertion had taken place.

Normally they would have taken video footage of each person, but as the camera was also one of the items 'malfunctioning' they had been forced to do the surveillance 'old school', to write down the description of each person. And not one of those people had been the man that they had been sent here to find.

Wilky was a patient man, to be a successful special forces soldier you had to have an over abundance of patience, but he also knew the time was fast approaching when he would have to take more active steps to discover Thomas' location.

He was not looking forward to the moment when he would have to take such steps, this wasn't just any fugitive they were after, this man was one of their own, a man with the same training as they had, the same knowledge they had, and then there was the magic.

Wilky had no idea what would be used against them, of what even Thomas was capable of, but he trusted his instincts, and they were telling him that this whole extraction was going to turn messy.

"I swear you love that rifle more than your girlfriend, Oz."

"Too bloody true mate, Bessy here is everything you could want in a woman, she knows her place, never answers me back, and when I want her to she can reach out and touch someone, bliss mate, pure bliss."

"You are a sick sad individual Oz, and if we knew anyone that could shoot half as well as you can Wilky would replace you in a heart beat."

"Jealousy will get you nowhere mate."

Wilky listened to the banter between the other two member of his team. His team's sniper, William Tapper, was part of a long term exchange program. His weapon of choice was an Accuracy International L96A1 sniper rifle, it had been heavily modified by the sniper, and few of the original parts of the rifle remained. Oz Tapper treated the sniper rifle better than his English girlfriend.

Tapper's partner in crime was Kennedy Wring, a Londoner and a veteran SAS trooper who had started out in his Army career as a Royal Engineer rather than the infantry where most other SAS soldiers started. His Engineer background provided the team with a valuable resource, his outstanding skill with explosives had become something of a legend in the Regiment. He also had an affinity with technology that made him the perfect choice for radio operator.

What the two men thought about the mission they found themselves on was a mystery to the newly promoted Sergeant, neither man had commented on what they were doing, but Wilky wondered if they felt as unsettled at what they had been asked to do as he did.

Thomas Bell had been the team leader of Red Team for two years, his success was judged by his superiors on his ability to get the tough jobs done, by the rank and file he was judged on his ability to bring his men home safely after completing the tough jobs. In both regards Thomas Bell had shown a natural brilliance and a grasp of small unit tactics that exceeded even that required by the SAS.

But Wilky didn't really care how good the man he had been sent to capture was, deep down inside him all he cared about was the fact his friend was in some sort of trouble, and now here they were all ready to add to them.

OoOoO

**The Burrow Hospital, 05:00 14 July**

Draco lent up against the corridor wall and took a deep breath, trying to steady his ragged breathing and racing heart, he was slightly disgusted with himself that he had somehow exhausted himself just by simply walking down the length of a corridor.

But it was the first time he had been allowed by the healers to get out of his bed since his suffering his terrible injuries, and his body had been left considerably weakened from the 'purple curse' or at least that was what he and Terry Boot had now coined it.

Draco and the tall Ravenclaw, enemies at best while at Hogwarts, had been forced together by their enforced spell at the not so tender ministrations of the healers, and despite a brief initial spell of hostility, there were six years of nastiness to work past, the two men had found that despite what they had originally thought, they actually had a lot in common.

Draco had smiled slightly as he imagined his father learning his pureblood son had just called a muggle born wizard a friend, the shock alone could kill him. In fact for a moment Draco had considered somehow finding a way of letting his father learn the little titbit of information.

It wasn't just his present physical condition that had him leaning against that particular wall. He had been putting off going into the room ahead of him for some time, he found was actually dreading seeing the one person he knew he really wanted to see the most of all those at the burrow.

Taking a last calming breath, Draco summoned his newly discovered Gryffindor courage and pushed open the door to the private room. Stepping inside, he reacted instinctively to the darkened room and stepped to one side of the door to allow his eye time to adjust to the darkness and leave him as less of a target.

He only had eyes for one other occupant in the room, she was laid on her back in the bed, the top of her head encased in a thick white bandage, one side of her face was covered in a large multi coloured bruise.

"Katie?"

The girl opened her eyes and regarded him steadily for a moment.

"Dray you look like crap"

Draco just couldn't help himself. He burst out laughing at the unexpected bluntness of that comment. He knew he looked terrible, Azkaban and Voldemort had left his face horrifically pock marked by the stone splinters that had hit him and he wore a patch over one eye to allow the optical nerve a slim chance to recover. His days of being the handsome prince of the pureblood elite were now far behind him, and not just because he had Joined Potter's mad crusade.

He had been feeling very sorry for himself and had been utterly dreading speaking to Katie, thinking she would never want him now, not looking the way he did. But with just one casually uttered sentence she had wiped his fear totally away.

"Had a look in the mirror lately Katie? You're no fairy princess!"

Katie grinned lovingly up at him and held out her hand to him, he moved closer and took it, holding it in both of his.

"Oh what a pair we are, both so banged up we could keep Madam Pomfrey in a job for life."

Draco leaned into her and kissed her hard on the lips, Katie's lips parted slightly and the tips of their tongues touched. It was a tender moment he had been looking forward to for days, but when he stopped and started to stand up, a hand appeared behind his neck and roughly pulled him back down again.

"Who said you could stop?"

It was a little giggle from a corner of the room that finally snapped Draco back to reality. He pulled away from Katie with a questioning, almost fearful look on his face.

Katie just grinned and shrugged.

"I was just so happy to see you, I sort of forgot we had company."

As one, Draco and Katie both turned their heads to regard the little figure sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, the chair was so big that Helen's legs just swung in empty air. She was grinning madly at the two of them, not in the least upset by what she had seen.

"Katie and Draco sitting in a tree…K.I.S.S.I.N.G!"

Draco groaned loudly and buried his head in his hands, while Katie was laughing so hard she nearly fell out of bed.

OoOoO

It had taken an awful lot of persuading to get Marcus Washburn to tell Terry Boot where Susan Bones was staying, the protectiveness that this particular bunch of Aurors felt for Susan had not faded in the slightest. Amelia Bones had been a very popular head of the DMLE, and Aurors, more than most, tended to have very long memories.

Marcus had finally given up the information after fixing Terry with a last penetrating look, which Terry had correctly translated as 'If you hurt that young lady then by Merlin you had better run far and run fast'. The unspoken menace behind those normally soft eyes had made Terry tremble slightly.

The corridors of the accommodation block were deserted at this time of the morning, and as Terry made his way towards his destination there was no outward sign that there was nearly three hundred people now living in the two blocks.

Each room branching off each side of the main corridor running the length of the block had been heavily enchanted by Goblin magic in much the same way as a magical tent could be. Behind each door was in actuality a suite of rooms much bigger than should have been possible without magic, each suite included a small kitchen and enough bedrooms to easily house a family of four.

Terry paused outside the indicated door and took a deep breathe, he was more than a little nervous about what lay beyond, both beyond the door and beyond this moment in time.

From the instant he and Susan had admitted their true feelings for each other that morning in the park, events had spiralled out of control at such a rate they had not even been allowed five minutes alone to talk about their future, or if they even had one. What if Susan had changed her mind, what if she had decided it was better they remain as just friends?

Part of him scoffed at this stupidity, Susan had made her feelings quite plain on the subject, and he knew her well enough to know she wasn't fickle enough to have just changed her mind. Another part of him dreaded these next few moments enough that when he placed his hand on the door handle it was shaking slightly.

There was an unusual tingling sensation in the palm of his hand, and he smiled as he realised the door had already been individually keyed to allow him entry. The door swung open at his touch, he paused for another moment on the threshold before taking a deep breathe and entering. The door swung silently shut behind him and he found himself in the cavernous darkness of the suites main room.

"Lumos Minima!"

With his wand tip glowing dimly Terry crept silently across the living room, smiling to himself as he noticed the obvious signs of who lived in the suite of rooms, discarded clothes and random piles of books on a variety of subjects were piled everywhere. Terry cared deeply for Susan, but even he was forced to admit she wasn't the tidiest of people.

The bedroom door was ajar, and Terry slipped carefully inside. It wasn't the main bedroom of the suite, but it still contained a double bed, and in that double bed he could just make out a figure tucked up under the covers.

Terry Boot was not in any way a prude, he had the same thoughts and dreams of any healthy youth of his age, especially when it came to the figure in the bed. But he was also a decent upstanding man, who although very much in love with the girl in front of him, respected her too much to want to cheapen their first time.

He was just about to turn around and leave the room when a small muffled voice spoke from under the covers of the double bed.

"Are you going to stand there watching me all night, Terry, or are you going to come over here and give me a much needed hug?"

Susan sat up in bed, her long blond hair cascading down around her bare shoulders, she normally wore her hair in a tidy plait down her back, and this was the first time since they had both been very young that Terry had seen her hair down. Despite the 'bed hair' it was quite possibly the sexiest he had ever seen Susan look, and parts of his anatomy started to let their appreciation be felt.

"Oh Terry, the look on your face is priceless!"

Susan was laughing quietly as she threw back the cover and patted the bed beside her. Terry smiled shyly and dropped his robes to the floor, followed by his jeans and slipped into bed beside her, pulling the covers tightly over them both.

He found himself lying on his side facing Susan so close that their knees touched.

"Hi"

He spoke softly, unwilling, or perhaps unable to break eye contact with Susan's brown eyes.

"Hi"

She answered just as softly. Reaching up slowly Terry slipped an arm around her waist and moved in closer to her never taking his eyes from hers.

"I missed you."

Susan smiled and wrapped her arm around him in return.

"I missed you too, I thought I had lost you, you scared me so badly, when I saw your body arrive back from Azkaban I just wanted to curl up in a corner and cry."

Terry leaned his head forward and gently kissed her forehead.

"But you didn't, did you. You did your job, and did it very well from what the healers have said. I am so proud of you, your aunt would have been as well, and because you remained calm there are several people still alive that would have died otherwise."

Susan sniffed and buried her head in his shoulder and Terry responded by holding her tightly, wondering how he had lived his life up to that point with out this wonderful girl.

OoOoO

"You should really put some thought into suggesting your approach to 'bed rest' be considered as a more widely used medical technique, after all just look how well it's working for me."

Thomas Bell commented, as he lay on the bed on his back, his fingers interlaced behind his head, he was staring up at the ceiling with a huge grin on his face, stretching from cheek to cheek, which were both a little flushed.

"I'm not sure the General Wizarding Medical Council would ever approve such a controversial technique, but don't worry, I'll be sure to bring it up at the next meeting, I may even require help for a practical demonstration."

Thomas snorted in amusement as that image slid unannounced into his head.

Amanda Coomb's rolled from her back onto her side so she could face him, she smiled happily at the man laid in bed under the sheets with her, and lightly brushed her hand across his bare chest. She found herself tracing her fingers over a series of neat circular scars down one side of his ribcage.

"Gunshot wounds, from a mission in Africa that went particularly wrong, I took four rounds to the chest. Had I been a muggle I would have probably died, they could take away my wand, but not apparently the magic in my blood."

Amanda's hand moved up further, to the shoulder, there was a thick corded mass of scar tissue that ran in line with his collar bone.

"Caught a piece of shrapnel after the vehicle we were in took a rocket hit."

Her fingers found the slightly raised, thin white line running across his belly.

"Knife wound, at the time I didn't have a weapon, I had to take his."

It amazed Amanda that Thomas described every incident that had left a scar upon his body in such a matter of fact tone of voice, as if these sort of injuries were an everyday occurrence. Perhaps in his profession they were.

Placing her hand flat on his chest, she slid it across his body and down the other side, finding the mass of scar tissue under his other arm.

"Dark Wizard got me with a curse while I was attempting to aid an illegal breakout at a maximum security prison, but then I'm guessing you probably know about that one already."

Amanda laughed at the dry humour in his tone and raised herself up until she was level with his head, leaning over she kissed him hard on the lips, and his hands unlaced themselves and pulled her to him tightly.

When they breathlessly parted several minutes later Amanda rolled over and studied the man beside her.

"You know, if I'm to bring this matter before the Medical Council then we should perhaps run an exhaustive series of tests to discover any long term benefits or drawbacks of this technique….purely in the name of medical science you understand."

Thomas grinned and rolled his eyes to the heavens, as if what he was being asked to do was a hardship.

"Alright then, as long as it's in the name of medical science!"

He made a small mock groan before he rolled over and the pair began conducting in what Amanda's own words were 'an exhaustive series of tests'.

OoOoO

Of the three members of the D.A. (Draco had been awarded honorary membership status by Harry pending a full membership ballot) that had been struck down by the 'purple curse' at Azkaban, Luna Lovegood was by far the weakest.

Dolohov had been almost touching Ginny when he had unleashed the curse, and Luna had been stood the other side of the red head when the Death Eater had missed her. Luna had taken the full force of the curse and it had affected her worse than either of the other two.

While the potion used to counter act the curse's effects had been administered in plenty of time to save her life, it was not before the curse had weakened her body more substantially than either Terry or Draco.

Neville quietly entered the master bedroom of the suite he had requisitioned for the use of the Lovegood family. Luna's father Jonas although initially reluctant to allow anyone near his little girl, had given the couple his blessing once he had seen how they felt about each other.

Jonas Lovegood, once assured of his daughters recovery, had returned to the London office of the _**Quibbler **_and taken the paper underground vowing to ensure the truth would continue be told. Jonas had decided to try and get a special issue of the Quibbler published to detail the shocking events that had culminated in Azkaban.

Neville checked upon the still sleeping Luna, he stood for a moment regarding her sleeping figure with a lump in his throat. Turning away he started to leave the room as quietly as he had entered.

He had been up for hours already. Ever since returning from Azkaban and being released from the hospital he had taken to rising early and joining some of the junior Aurors to train. He had become a common sight in the Auror accommodation block, many of the older Aurors were more than willing to help him because of who his parents had been.

He knew deep down in his heart that the fight at Azkaban had only been the start, and although he didn't know where it would all end, he knew he would be called upon to fight again, if only to protect what few things he had left in the world he held dear. He also knew that at present he was a liability to his friends and allies.

It wasn't his magic that was at fault, with his own wand and his D.A. training he was nearly a match for any of the junior Aurors in knowledge and sheer power. No, it was his fitness that was his liability.

Although he had changed a lot in the past two years of his life he still carried a lot of the chubbiness around with him that had plagued him in his first years at Hogwarts. During the battle of Azkaban his speed, or lack of it, had led directly to his injuries, he just hadn't been able to move fast enough to avoid the curse that had slit his belly open.

If he had been fitter than maybe he would have still been on his feet at the end, he could have prevented so much pain just by his presence. What could have happened if he had faced Voldemort alongside Harry and Draco, maybe he could have prevented Draco nearly losing his sight, prevented Hermione nearly losing her life, perhaps even prevented Harry from his near death experience.

"And maybe you would have died in their place Neville. None of them would want you to exchange your life for theirs…well maybe Draco, no I suppose not even Draco would want that."

Neville froze at the door at the sound of Luna's sleepy voice and felt the warm comforting caress of reassurance as Luna's mind reached out for his. He had to admit her telepathic abilities were growing in strength almost daily, it made him feel slightly guilty about how she had been forced to bury her powers while at Hogwarts, how much would she have developed if those around her had understood what she had been going through.

Luna was now able to selectively scan the surface thoughts of everyone within a hundred meters if she could see them, and to talk to someone she knew over long distances, as she had proved with Harry at Azkaban. If she was close enough to someone, and concentrated hard enough, she could read a single mind deeply, although she had only tried this on him, and he had to admit to himself that he had not been really interested in keeping her out of his mind.

"Maybe, maybe not. But I don't intend to be in a position where I ever have to wonder 'could I have been faster, could I have been better' again, I want to get fitter, so when my friends depend on me I will actually be there!"

Luna's expression didn't alter despite the fact he had snapped at her, she knew from his thoughts that he hadn't intended her any hurt, therefore she didn't take any offence at his words, Neville knew his mind was so open to her now that he doubted he could hide anything even if he wanted to.

"Why would you want to hide something from me?"

Neville sighed softly, sometimes being in a relationship with a telepathic empath could be downright frustrating.

"Yes, but you love me anyway."

Neville began laughing, there was never going to be a time in this relationship when he would be allowed to get the final word in, how could he when his girlfriend already knew what he was thinking before he actually said anything.

"That's right buster, and you had better not forget it! Now come over here and give me a hug, for although my heart is full, my bed is empty!"

Neville, still laughing, slipped out of his robes and placed his wand on the bedside table, within easy reach.

"Yes dear, whatever you say."

OoOoO

Harry woke to find the room dark and empty, or at least he thought it was empty, as soon as he raised his head to look about, he heard the sound of movement from the corner of the room furthest from the door and in the darkest shadow.

"Here"

A hand emerging from the darkness held out his glasses to him, and Harry gratefully took them and slipped them on. The young Auror, Matthew Hobart was stood at the bedside, he was dressed in the grey Auror combat robes, and in the darkness, even stood this close to Harry, as long as he didn't move it was hard to pick his shape out of the darkness, his arm was no longer in a sling.

"Don't you ever sleep?"

Matthew laughed quietly at Harry's slightly grumpy tone and turned to pull his chair out of the shadows.

"Actually Mr Potter I have been off duty and come back on again twice since you were last awake, so yes, to answer your question I do occasionally sleep, besides I get more time off now we have a few new additions to the bodyguard detail."

Harry frowned in puzzlement and the Auror inclined his head towards the door. Harry turned and looked where the young man was indicating. Standing at attention to one side of the door was a heavily armed Goblin. It took Harry a moment to recognise him, he had only seen the creature once before when he had watched the Goblin duel one of his companions before going to Azkaban.

"Its Wendel isn't it?"

The Goblin jerked his head once in the affirmative. Harry realised this Goblin was barely in his forties, which for a Goblin was still in his early teens in comparison to a human. He was very young to have taken up arms in defence of the Nation, but then Harry knew war had a way of forcing people to do things they didn't really want to do.

"Why are you here?"

The Goblin cocked his head and regarded the wizard carefully for a moment, trying to decide how much to tell him, the Goblin then shrugged, a movement that only Goblins used to dealing with humans had adopted in an attempt to fit in.

"Lord Potter is the leader of the army of the light, Lord Potter's life is in danger, and Wendel will stand at Lord Potter's side."

"Then I owe you a debt of gratitude for your service."

The Goblin's lip curled slightly and he bowed from the waist.

"Lord Potter owes me nothing, I have finally been given the opportunity to take payment on a blood oath long owed, I feel confident that if I stay close enough to Lord Potter's side, it will only be a matter of time before such an opportunity arises."

"Voldemort!"

The Goblin nodded curtly and gave Harry a toothless grin. Harry remembered what Gutripper had said of Wendel's family, how Voldemort had killed them during his first rise to power and how he had given up his job as a Gringotts clerk to take up arms.

"Well that's something I can promise you, some up close and personal time with Voldemort at some point in the future. Either he will come to me or I'll seek him out."

The Goblin's lip curled again in the expression that Harry took to mean humour and the little warrior nodded his satisfaction at the situation. Although Harry knew he was the one destined to kill Voldemort, that didn't mean he had to face the dark wizard alone.

Thinking about Voldemort forced Harry to remember those last painful minutes that he had faced the dark wizard, and what had happened before.

"How's Hermione?"

The Auror smiled knowingly at him, it was obvious that someone had already tipped off the Auror that Harry would ask such a question soon after he woke up.

"While I don't pretend to understand all the fancy long words the healer used to describe Miss Grangers condition, the general gist of it was that she is on the mend. She still sleeps a lot, but the healers seem to think that's a very good thing."

Matthew shrugged, grinning, readily acknowledging that medical matters were way outside of his comfort zone. If Harry was honest, magical medics and how they did what they did were also beyond him, his only experience of such matters normally involved him being seriously injured in the hospital wing.

Talking about the hospital wing, he still didn't know where he was.

"Where are we by the way? This building, it isn't St Mungos?"

The Auror looked confused for a moment, as if Harry's question had thrown him.

"You're still at the burrow, this is the burrow hospital, part of the complex you and your friends designed. Somebody started calling it the 'Marauders Den' and I'm afraid the name has stuck."

Harry was amazed, they had only planned this building ten days ago, and yet the Goblins had completed it soon enough that casualties were being treated in it on the evening of the battle.

"Is it finished…all of it?"

Harry suddenly thought of Ginny's little addition, a little cottage where they could spend some time together, just the two of them, and the thought of being able to spend time with Ginny without the interruptions that his life had a tendency to throw up was very appealing.

"Most of the main buildings are up, along with a few additions you didn't include, such as the communal kitchens"

Harry raised an eyebrow, communal kitchens?

"What are you talking about?"

"The Goblins out did themselves on the building project, they have built everything you asked for and much more. With the numbers staying here so much larger than was predicted they built a communal kitchen staffed by house elves that is open around the clock."

Harry slowly shook his head, wondering what he had started the day he had defied the Ministry, but truth be told his path had been set long before that. And now he knew he had been in bed for far too long, he needed to see his friends and family.

Harry suddenly threw the covers back and with a grunt of effort, levered himself up into a sitting position, his shoulder and chest immediately protested at this movement, sending sharp bright spikes of intense pain through his body which Harry gritted his teeth at and dutifully ignored.

Harry was alarmed at the state of his body, he looked as if he had just spent the entire summer living at the Dursley's, his arms and legs had none of the Quidditch toned muscles he had developed the year before, in fact it looked as if his skin was hanging off of him in places.

Matthew moved to stop him, but the expression of utter determination on the teenagers face froze him in his tracks.

"Harry, I have orders from Marcus to keep you in bed until Madam Pomfrey gives you the all clear!"

Matthew tried to verbally restrain him, half-heartedly and without conviction. Harry turned to face him, frowning.

"How long since Azkaban Matthew? How many days have I laid here while the world turns without me?"

"Ten, it's been ten days."

"Well excuse me for saying this, but do you really think Voldemort…ITS HIS NAME! Do you think Voldemort has been sat on his arse for ten days doing nothing? Because I can assure you he hasn't, plots and schemes roll out of that monsters mind faster than you can probably cast a stunner!"

Matthew sighed deeply and against his better judgement stepped back to let Harry slowly and with great care swing his legs over the far side of the bed and placed first one bare foot on the floor followed by the other and slowly, almost gingerly placed his weight upon them.

There was no sudden stab of pain from his legs, just a dull ache in the background, his chest was another matter, it felt as if something inside his chest was being rubbed on sandpaper, a most painful and uncomfortable sensation.

Suddenly his knees gave way, as muscles that hadn't been used this way in too many days simply gave way beneath him. To the amusement of his watching bodyguards it was if he simply folded up and vanished from sight behind the bed with a clatter as he hit the floor, there followed a few seconds of utter silence, only broken by a small voice from the other side of the bed.

"Some help here please?"

Matthew moved quickly around the bed, placed his hands under Harry's armpits and lifted Harry from the floor as if he weighed nothing, and placed him back on the bed.

"You know something Harry? You might actually spend less time lying on your back in hospital beds if you actually listened to the healers occasionally."

Harry just grunted dismissively at the wisdom of this comment and allowed himself to be eased back on to the bed. He glared angrily at his own legs as if what had happened was a personal betrayal.

Then without a word he stood up again, holding out a hand to keep Matthew away. This time his knees didn't fold, although he did wobble alarmingly as he struggled to recover his balance after being in bed for so long.

He felt very stiff, but due to the medication he knew himself to be on, what pain there was had become a lot more easily manageable. Taking a few tentative steps, Harry slowly crossed the room and very tentatively, before he turned around and walked a little more confidently but no less slowly back towards the bed.

"Right, first things first, I think I'm going to need some clothes, I cannot go walking around the hospital like this all day. My dignity would never recover from the blow."

Harry indicated his pale blue hospital robes that only covered his front, he hadn't realised until it was too late what exactly he was wearing when he got out of bed, and was doing his best to hide his embarrassment.

Matthew coughed into his hand to hold back a snigger, Harry Potter the-boy-who-bared-his-arse, if only the _quibbler_ had this picture, it would be front-page news throughout the Wizarding world.

"I'll see what I can do, back in a moment."

Matthew slipped from the room, pausing for a moment just outside the door to exchange words with the unseen guardians standing out in the corridor.

OoOoO

**Home Ground of the Vratsa Vultures, Bulgaria**

The two seekers made slow circuits of the perimeter of the floodlit Quidditch arena, their eyes constantly moving, hoping for that first telling glimpse of gold that would give away the position of the snitch. Far below them the twelve other players wheeled and zipped around with mad abandon, dodging well-aimed Bludgers and each other with an almost ballet-like grace.

If his opposite number intimidated the seeker of the Sofia Sentinels, he gave no visible sign. But given who his opposite number was, it was very hard not to be intimidated, the man was undisputedly the finest seeker in the world, a title he had held for several years.

Suddenly the seeker for the Vratsa Vultures kicked his firebolt into motion and pushed over into a dive, the Sentinels seeker hadn't seen the snitch, but that didn't mean it wasn't there, he had no choice but to follow his fellow seeker into a vertical dive, pushing hard to make up the distance.

Both seekers were mounted on the finest brooms that money could buy, and they were still accelerating as they passed through the madly wheeling scrum formed by the other Quidditch players heading towards the ground.

The Vultures seeker reached out his hand for the snitch, which only spurred the Sentinels seeker to double his efforts to draw level. So intent on the other seeker was he that he wasn't paying attention to the fast approaching ground.

It took the man a second to realise that the other seeker was no longer alongside him, but that second was long enough for the Sentinels seeker to plough into the ground at full speed.

The Vultures fans went wild as their seeker pulled off a textbook perfect Wronski feint, a bluff that made the other seeker follow him into a dive and not pull out fast enough. As the seeker returned to his search altitude he smiled as far below he heard the crowd begin the familiar chant.

"Krum! Krum! Krum!"

Viktor Krum pulled his broom into a loop for the sheer joy of flight and was rewarded for his trouble with a flash of gold far below him, extending the loop into a full power dive, he was amused to notice that the newly arrived Sentinels seeker hadn't followed him this time, refusing to fall the same 'trick' twice.

Flashing between two Sentinels chasers, taking the time as he past to kick the Quaffle to one of his own team-mates, Viktor concentrated on the small golden shape below him. A well-hit bludger passed within inches, only missing because he performed a sloth grip roll while in the dive.

Over the sound of the rushing wind Viktor could hear the crowd cheering him on, and within moments he had the snitch between his fingers and had pulled out of the dive with moments to spare, he slowly cruised the pitch holding the snitch aloft acknowledging the support of the crowd.

It was only later in the locker room once the adrenaline had began to wear off that Viktor allowed himself to think of the conversation that had preceded the game, even now hours after, it still sent chills down his spine.

The two men had approached him as he had left his flat on his way to the ground, Viktor preferred to walk to the ground on the day of a home match, it helped him clear his head and focus on what had to be done. Viktor had thought at first the men were just fans, just wanting an autograph, to do which he was only to happy to oblige.

But when one of the men had started talking the hairs on the back of Viktor's neck had stood up straight, he had recognised the voice despite the black hooded cloak. The man had been part of faculty of Hogwarts during the triwizard tournament, one Severus Snape, a dark haired loathsome man.

"We want you to join us Viktor, think of the wealth and power that could be yours, my master would reward you well for your loyalty to his cause. You are the perfect choice to carry out a very special mission that will ensure your place in my master's service."

"And if I say no?"

The man drew back in surprise, it obviously hadn't occurred to him that Viktor might turn down his offer.

"You could of course say no, but I would not think that was a wise choice for you to make, you and your family are very exposed, they make quite tempting targets, and can you always be there to protect them? We will leave you to consider your options, we will be back soon."

Viktor sat back on the locker room bench and considered those words, despite the Durmstrang Institute's reputation as a dark wizard training camp, he had never dabbled in any dark magic, and neither did he want to get involved in it now.

The ever worsening situation that was brewing in England had of course been brought home to him during the events of the triwizard tournament, including the past history of his then headmaster. But it was only recently that Viktor had become aware of mutterings of pureblood dissatisfaction across the rest of Europe.

The disease that was eating away at British Wizarding society was spreading across the continent like a cancer, and Viktor wondered how long it would be allowed to continue before the other Wizarding governments took action to remove the cancer at its source.

Europe was a bush fire waiting to happen, and all it needed was a spark and unfavourable wind conditions to set the entire continent alight. Once that happened nothing would be able to fight the pureblood inferno, it would consume everything in its path, muggles, half-blood, goblins, centaurs, any creature or race that believed that it deserved its own place in Wizarding society, all would be swallowed up.

The Krum family line was as pureblood Bulgarian as the Malfoy's were pureblood English, but here the similarity ended, the Krum family had stood against the bigotry and elitism that had characterised Voldemort's first rise to power. His father had sacrificed much of his political capital in order to keep the Bulgarian Ministry neutral during that period.

And now history had come full circle, and Voldemort power was growing again, possibly already in advance of the level he had reached when he fell all those years ago. It was time for all those who believed in the freedom of choice for all creatures regardless of blood to stand and be counted, before all were swept away by the wave of hatred and violence Voldemort's victory would herald.

OoOoO

**The Burrow Hospital**

"Here"

Matthew re-entered the room after only a few minutes and held out a bundle of clothing, and Harry took it with some hesitation, expecting it to be the usual bizarre Wizarding mismatch of colours and styles. He was therefore surprised to find trainers, a decent pair of jeans and a jumper. He quickly dressed and examined the last item of clothing.

"I'm afraid your black school robes were beyond saving."

Harry looked up in surprise as he held out and examined the dark grey combat robes of an Auror, they had the two patches on the sleeves that he was familiar with, or nearly so, one of the patches was different, it had the addition of one new word.

_POTTER'S MARAUDERS: UNTIL THE DEED IS DONE_

"Potter's Marauders?"

Harry asked in surprise. Matthew shrugged.

"After Azkaban it just seemed to be the right thing to do."

Harry frowned, not sure he was comfortable with this new addition to the uniform, he really didn't want to draw any more fame and attention to himself.

"It's my spare set, you're welcome to them, and you'll look good in them."

And he did, he still had dreams of pursuing a career as an Auror, and perhaps one day he would wear a set of robes like this that he had worked for and earned himself.

Dressing slowly, still feeling very stiff, Harry slipped into the robes, Harry found they were more comfortable and lightweight that he had expected and gave him a surprising freedom of movement and had plenty of pockets. There was something inside one of the larger pockets. Harry quickly fished it out and examined the strange item.

"It's an Auror issue wand forearm holster, you strap it to your arm like so."

Matthew pulled up the sleeve of his robe and showed Harry an almost identical holster attached to his right forearm, with a slight twist of his wrist Matthew suddenly had his wand pointed directly at Harry's heart, the movement had been too fast to follow, another twist and the wand disappeared.

"Once it's fitted correctly, it becomes enchanted to the wearer, it won't come off unless you want it to, has an inbuilt cushioning charm so that it won't rub on your arm, it also protects the wand from wear and from being summoned by an enemy, put it on see how it feels."

Harry strapped the holster to his forearm, with his free empty hand he called his wand out of thin air and placed it carefully into the holster, he heard a slight click as a hidden catch engaged.

"Now, twist your wrist, like this"

Matthew demonstrated with his wrist several times slowly, making his wand appear and disappear, gradually building up speed until the movement was just a blur.

Then Harry tried. His first attempt propelled his wand a good fifteen feet right across the room, where a completely relaxed Goblin bodyguard calmly snatched it out of the air and tossed it back to him under arm. Harry grinned with embarrassment as he refitted the wand to the holster.

It took only a few more attempts to get the motion correct, but Harry carried out the motion at least a dozen times until he felt confident he could perform it right every time, Harry retracted the wand one last time and grinned at Matthew.

"Thanks, I have to buy one of these for everyone."

Harry turned to face his two protectors, the goblin had remained silent for a long while, and Harry got the impression that the diminutive warrior didn't speak until he had something worth saying.

"Right, now I need to go and see a few people, I take it neither of you have any problems with that?"

From the tone of his voice it was clear that they had better not have any problems with it. The two bodyguards swapped looks, Matthew shrugged and Wendel just twitched his lips slightly in amusement. The two of them had obviously had enough time to develop this quite strange relationship, the Goblin seemed happy enough to let his human counterpart do the talking for him.

Historically Goblins and Humans had never had a particularly easy or peaceful relationship, not aided by pureblood wizards and their smug belief of racial superiority. It seemed that the war was having an unexpected affect on the two groups, actually drawing them closer together, rather than forcing them apart as Voldemort must have hoped.

If this was how two such normally opposed groups reacted together in a crisis, then it boded very well for a future after Voldemort.

"We are sworn to protect you Harry, nobody said that had to happen just inside this room, where you go, we go!"

Harry nodded and moved slowly to the door. Throwing the door open, Harry was confronted by two other young Aurors, they appeared younger than Tonks, only a handful of years older than he was, possibly newly graduated from the academy. They both bore wounds they had suffered at Azkaban.

Matthew made brief introductions and Harry shook both of their hands, they both seemed nervous and a little in awe of him. It was a response he had experienced at Hogwarts but he hadn't expected it among adults as well.

"So where to first Harry?"

Matthew asked brightly.

"First I could really do with seeing Hermione Granger…I need to see her with my own eyes."

Matthew placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and nodded in understanding, he indicated to the left down the corridor, he moved off first, and Harry noticed his wand was suddenly in his hand now his 'principal' was in plain sight. Wendel and one of the Aurors dropped back into a trail position behind him. The second Auror remained at his place, on guard outside Harry's door.

Harry felt slightly silly as the procession moved slowly down the corridors of the hospital, although they passed only a few people he still felt the eyes on him. He wondered if this was a how pop star and muggle movie stars felt, being followed by large entourages and bodyguards, or perhaps the president of America, being escorted everywhere by secret service agents.

OoOoO

**The Ministry of Magic, 08:00 14 July**

Rufus Scrimgeour paced his office in short angry strides, such had been his temper for days that his staff knew better than to interrupt him. He had been betrayed, betrayed by his own Aurors, men and women from the department he had once run, people he thought he could trust.

With the aid of Washburn and his rebels Potter had managed to escape the trap set for him at Azkaban, he had also managed to free all those that had been detained for conspiracy and sedition. Potter's numbers had increased to a point now where he was a serious threat to the stability of the Ministry itself.

What was worse was now Scrimgeour had found he could no longer allow himself trust his own Law Enforcement department, how many of his Aurors harboured divided loyalties, or were already on Potter's side without his knowledge?

Under Norton Yaxley's advice he had suggested the formation of an Auror strike team, as far as Gawain Robards was concerned the first of many. He knew that by the man's very nature he would form the team out of those Aurors most likely to join Potter's rebels, it had seemed a good idea to have those most likely to cause trouble in one place where people he trusted could keep an eye on them, and make it easier to take action against them should it come to that.

"Rufus your pacing is starting to give me a headache, sit down. We need to talk."

Rufus spun around to find Voldemort once again sat on his couch, as if he had been there the whole time, which he hadn't.

"One day you will have to tell me how you get in here like that"

"No Rufus, I really don't, some secrets are best left as that, secret. Now tell me Rufus, what has caused your anger this morning?"

Scrimgeour dropped into the armchair and faced the dark wizard.

"I cannot trust my own Aurors anymore, not after some have sided with Potter, what if more of them have divided loyalties, are providing him with information. How can I restore the peace if I cannot trust my own policemen?"

Voldemort kept his face straight, with some considerable effort. Events were proceeding almost as he had originally planned, of course he would have preferred Potter to have fallen at Azkaban, but plans had to be flexible and easy adaptable, and now all he had to do was reach out with his hand and the entire muggle government would now be his. He already had Scrimgeour in the palm of his hand, with a number of Death Eaters or supporters highly placed in the Ministry.

Add to that the fact that he now had an agent snuggled very close to Potter at the burrow, ready to strike for the youth's weak points at an opportune moment, all in all Voldemort was feeling quite pleased with himself.

"I'm sure that you are over exaggerating the seriousness of the situation Rufus, the majority of the Aurors are loyal to you, only a small number could possibly have been swayed by Potter's lies and deceit, and how much damage can such a number really do?"

Scrimgeour frowned, as he began to envision worse case scenarios. What if the disloyal Aurors were in key positions, or on important details, how much damage could they do? The answer was a considerable amount, he had to act quickly, and he had to replace the Aurors that he suspected were up to no good, anyone that had previous contact with Potter.

Who did that include? Scrimgeour mentally ran down a list of every single Auror that had met or associated in any way with Harry Potter over the years. Tonks, Savage, Dawlish, Proudfoot. Peter Deacon, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Shacklebolt!

"Oh sweet Merlin!"

"What is it Rufus?"

Voldemort asked calmly, already knowing the answer, he had hoped he wouldn't have to prompt the man again, but it had taken him an age to make the connection and Voldemort's patience had been about to run out.

"One of the Aurors that has had contact with Potter over the years, he is in charge of the detail protecting the muggle Prime Minister!"

Voldemort leaned forward, carefully schooling his expression as one of concern, rather than the glee he was feeling. So close now, just one more gentle push.

"But if Potter can gain access to this muggle…"

"He can control him! It will be the end of everything! The statute of secrecy would be in ruins! I have to do something, but what…what can I do?"

Scrimgeour was pacing again, as he tried to see a way out of this mess, he had to remove the prime minister from his protective detail for his own safety. Potter would have nearly unlimited power if the muggle were to fall into his hands!

"I need to send a group I can trust, to take the muggle into protective custody for his own good. I cannot let Potter get to him. I cannot trust Shacklebolt or any of the others, in fact to be safe I need to remove all the Aurors and replace them, at least temporarily!"

Voldemort could have danced with glee, the man had been steered to the decision exactly as he had planned, now all he had to do was sit back and let the plan play out.

"I think I can help you there Rufus, lend you some manpower, at least in the short term, until you can get things under control. But you have to act fast, take the Aurors by surprise before any can put together an organised resistance or get word to Potter."

The look of gratitude on Scrimgeour's face was enough to want to make Voldemort want to collapse in fits of laughter. It was all going to be his, handed to him on the Minister's own silver plate, and no one, not even Harry Potter could stop him.

OoOoO

**The Burrow Hospital, 08:30 14 July**

Harry paused outside the private room, he placed a shaky hand on the wall and tried to steady his erratic breathing. The short walk down the corridors of the hospital had made nearly every muscle in his body scream in protest. If he hadn't felt such a pressing need to see his friend he would have possibly have surrendered to his bodies need to lie down somewhere.

Taking a final deep breathe, and ignoring the worried glances Matthew Hobart kept sending him, he straightened up, squaring his shoulders against the burdens he carried and pushed open the door to the private room and peered inside. He didn't need to see the red head sitting beside the bed to know he had the right room, the large red Phoenix on the headboard was all the clue he needed.

Fawkes raised his head and trilled a joyous greeting to the young wizard, Harry smiled in genuine affection and nodded his head in respect to the magical bird as he entered. Ron looked up at the sound of the Phoenix, and the grin that lit his face up left Harry in no doubt that Ron was enormously pleased to see his friend up and around.

But just in case he didn't know, the lung busting hug that Ron gave him was probably enough of a hint, Ron was a true Weasley, capable of immense generosity and possessing a hug that in the wrong hands could kill. After a moment of utter pain, during which Harry thought he might actually pass out, Ron stepped back and coughed with embarrassment that his emotions had gotten the better of him again. He held out his hand to his best friend and Harry gripped the hand, surprised to find Ron was shaking ever so slightly.

"Er…it's good to see you back on your feet mate…er, Hermione was worried about you."

There was a quiet chuckle from the bed and both of them span to find Hermione shaking her head and grinning weakly at the both of them.

"Really. Boys! Its ok to show a bit of little emotion sometimes you know!"

Harry took her advice to heart, wrapping his arms tightly around her shoulders and burying his head in her bushy brown hair. He found himself laughing and crying at the same time, Hermione was doing the same thing, he could feel her laughter from the vibrations coming through her chest.

"I have no way of thanking you enough for what you did at Azkaban Hermione, but if you ever do anything so utterly…"

"Like Harry?"

"I was going to say sodding crazy actually, but I take your point."

Harry replied dryly. He held the woman in his arms for a long time, partly to reassure himself that she was really ok after what she had been through, and partly because Hermione didn't seem inclined to want to let him go either. It was like they were drawing strength from each other. For someone, who for more than half of his life had not had a single hug, it still amazed Harry how comforting that single act could be.

"Oi Potter that's my girlfriend your hugging!"

"Yes Ron, but she's also my sister, and to be honest, I owe her much more than a simple hug!"

Ron paused, considering Harry's words for a second.

"In that case, by all means hug away, Hermione just remember to save some for me."

Hermione chuckled and Harry finally pulled away and sat back on the bed and watched as Ron bent down and tenderly kissed the bushy haired witch, his large hands gently cupping each side of her face. Hermione, oblivious to the company moaned softly, Fawkes picking up on her soaring out of control emotions through their link, started humming quietly to himself.

As he watched the pair Harry realised that something had changed, something deeply profound. They had cared for each other since the second year but because of the constant bickering they had been possibly the last in the school to actually know about it.

Ron had been described unkindly in the past by some as an emotional cripple, Harry knew that wasn't the case, but in a large family of extroverts Ron had learned to carefully guard his emotions, as it was the only way he felt he could keep them private.

He had never indulged in public displays of affection with Hermione, not like he had during the short time he had been dating Lavender Brown. Harry felt a tug of the usual guilt at the thought of his dead housemate, and the anger at Voldemort for what he had done to her.

It wasn't that Ron didn't care for Hermione, just the opposite, he had wanted to keep what he had with her a private thing, just between the two of them. But now having Hermione hovering so near to death Ron's barriers had come tumbling down, it was obvious to all that he worshipped the ground Hermione walked upon and he no longer cared who knew it.

OoOoO

**Pappa Deli's, Enfield, North London, 09:00 14 July**

The small magical family run restaurant on the fairly ordinary high street in North London was not exactly the kind of environment where highly placed members of the Britain's magical law enforcement community normally conducted business, and that was exactly why it had been selected.

Gawain Robards looked up as the bell above the small restaurant's door tinkled to admit the three men, he smiled in greeting and waved the men to his table at the back of the eating area. All three men took seats that gave them an unrestricted view of the entrance.

"Gentlemen, thank you for coming this morning, I know this place is hardly on the Ministry approved list."

Kingsley Shacklebolt raised an expressive eyebrow with an amused expression on his face and looked about himself. The restaurant had a Greek feel that made it feel homely, and while small, the eating area was sparkling and the owner obviously cared a great deal about the place.

"I have a feeling that if this place had been on the approved list we would not have been meeting here."

Robards nodded his agreement and turned to look at the second man, Peter Deacon was frowning mightily at him, which of itself was nothing particularly out of the ordinary, after all the man had spent half his life frowning at people.

There was a rumour circulating in the ranks of the Aurors of an interrogation that Washburn and Deacon had once conducted, the suspect, a hardened career criminal with a violent and sadistic nature had confessed to a double muggle murder, and all Deacon had had to do was frown at the man for half an hour.

The third man at the table in contrast was sat there without any expression on his face at all, Richard Bendrik, head of the Auror academy and with Dumbledore's death, the honorary presiding member of the Wizengamot, was not a man to waste any effort on social niceties. He had been old when all three of the other men had been Auror cadets, and they all remembered receiving vicious tongue-lashings from the man.

"I've asked you here, because what I need to discuss with you cannot be overheard, to be honest I cannot even believe I have been forced into a position that I have to think it, let alone speak about it."

The other three men remained silent, Deacon increased his frown but Bendrik's face remained impassive and blank, while Shacklebolt smiled slightly, waiting for Robards to continue.

"We have to remove the Minister of magic from power!"

If he had expected the men to be surprised by his statement, he was to be disappointed, none of men's expressions so much as flickered at all.

"His lack of action and his very questionable decisions I believe have led directly to the attacks on the muggles these last few days. By tossing me a bone by forming an Auror strike team he thinks has bought my loyalty and my continued silence, so if we are to have a hope in stopping the bloodshed before it escalates out of control and the muggles are forced to act against us, of stopping you-know-who, Scrimgeour has to go!"

"Its not that I disagree with you Gawain, but how are you proposing to carry this out?"

Bendrik's voice was calm and steady, you would never know from his tone that they were talking about overthrowing their own government. He could have been discussing the weather.

"The Wizengamot needs leadership Richard, and if you can apply any influence on them to give a vote of no confidence in the Minister, then maybe we can remove him without any bloodshed."

Peter Deacon snorted.

"Gawain, you are living in cloud cuckoo land if you think he will go without a fight, his bully boys now outnumber us Aurors by two to one, especially since more and more Aurors either stay at home or flock to Potter's banner every day."

Bendrik lent forward slightly and place his forearms on the table.

"Peter is right Gawain, Rufus Scrimgeour is many things, ambitious, short sighted, obsessed with Potter, he is not however an idiot. He has spent a lot of time loading the Wizarding council with his supporters and those too weak willed to protest, and no amount of influence will sway their decision."

Robards sighed heavily and sank back in his chair, he had so wanted to do this without having to spill any blood, the only blood he wanted to spill was that belonging to Voldemort and his followers.

"Then there is no other course open to us, we must leave ourselves open to a possible civil war to remove him from power, that path only helps you-know-who."

"There is always an alternative."

Shacklebolt's voice was soft and full of confidence, sounding almost melodic.

"Richard, how many members of the Wizengamot have to be assembled in the meeting place for any vote to be considered a legal and binding council ruling?"

Bendrik frowned and regarded Shacklebolt carefully, the man had been one of the Auror Academy's finest graduates, and he had set record scores in many subjects, many of which still stood. One of those subjects was problem solving, the man had an uncanny knack of finding solutions that no one else had even considered.

"Half, why?"

"The Wizengamot is made up of two groups, the appointed and the hereditary, correct?"

Bendrik nodded, still not seeing where Shacklebolt was going with this. When the British wizards had finally agreed to become subjects of the British crown, a decision the purebloods still regretted to this day, the oldest, pureblood families were given hereditary seats in the Wizengamot, so they could still influence the decisions that would affect their lives.

Although pureblood families had hereditary seats in the Wizengamot, the Ministry appointed members made most of the decisions on the day to day running of the council. The families only taking up their seats if a particular decision was important enough, or they were interested for a personal reason.

"And there is nothing laid down in law that states a Wizengamot meeting has to include one group or the other, correct?"

Bendrik shook his head.

"No, just as long as the correct numbers of members are present, they can belong to either group."

Shacklebolt smiled, a chilling predator's smile that had been known to put the fear of Merlin into criminals that experienced it firsthand.

"Then our problem may be solved. Consider if you will some of the families that by blood hold hereditary and seldom if ever used seats on the Wizengamot. Weasley, Longbottom, Bell, Bones, Diggory, Black, Malfoy and of course Potter, to name but a few. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this."

For a long moment the three other men just starred at Shacklebolt in shock, as if he had suddenly sprouted a second head. The moment was only interrupted when Peter Deacon slammed his fist onto the table and started roaring with laughter, his entire body swaying with barely controlled mirth.

The other two began to chuckle, but that rapidly built into full belly laughs as the political ramifications of what Shacklebolt had just said began to sink in. Albus Dumbledore before his death had commanded a large voting block of seats in the Wizengamot, large enough to be able to slow or stop the worst of the policies bought and paid for by Death Eater money. In payment for using their votes The Bells, Longbottom's, Diggory's, and Weasleys had gotten free education for their children. The Potters before their death had controlled their own seats, but since that tragic day the votes had been left in the hands of the current headmaster of Hogwarts until Harry reached his majority.

OoOoO

**The Burrow Communal Kitchen, 09:30 14 July**

Harry smiled to himself as he slipped from the room, leaving Ron and Hermione to the privacy they so richly deserved, not that they had noticed his departure. Harry had nodded his head in respect to the Phoenix as he departed, and he was convinced the bird had rolled its eyes at the continuing antics of his bond mate and her lover.

Matthew Hobart nodded to him, and his bodyguards fell in around him as he moved down the corridor.

"Where next?"

Harry thought about it and with a little bit of a hint from his stomach he suddenly realised just how hungry he was, he couldn't even remember the last time he had eaten a solid meal, it must have been before Azkaban ten days ago.

"I don't know about you guys, but I could do with some breakfast. Matthew, you mentioned a communal kitchen?"

The young Auror nodded, he turned his head and indicated a double door that seemed to be an exit from the hospital, and the small group made its way outside. The hospital had been skilfully crafted so that from the outside it appeared to be nothing more than a collection of small hills, each main ward covered in turf and the occasional tree.

It was only then that Harry understood when Ragnok had mentioned 'growing' the buildings, it truly did seem as if they had sprung up from the ground.

A path led towards a larger, less well concealed structure and it was towards this that they now headed, although it was only about thirty metres away, by the end of the walk Harry was breathing heavily and sweating freely, his chest felt as if he had a serious stitch in his side, a most uncomfortable feeling. His legs felt as if he had weights strapped around his ankles, and he had to pause briefly at the doors to the building to get his breath back.

Harry pushed open the doors to the kitchen and entered. For several seconds the quiet murmur of voices he had heard from the outside continued as he stood in the doorway unnoticed by the very large number of people congregated around the benches. There must have been nearly three hundred people crowded into the hall.

He could see students, members of the D.A. Aurors and Goblins mixing freely together, there was also a large number of adults that he didn't recognise, but he assumed that these were the parents that had either been freed themselves from Azkaban or had been brought to the burrow to be reunited with their children.

For a brief instant Harry considered quietly turning around and returning to his room, but with his bodyguards filling the corridor behind him, they had pretty much forced his hand. He had to stand now and face all these people, far more than he had been expecting for this early hour of the morning.

"Why are there so many people here Matthew?"

There was a moment of silence in which Harry turned around to see his protection detail swapping guilty looks.

"You have to understand Harry that you were terribly injured and no-one knew If you would ever wake up."

"Get to the point!"

Harry replied indignantly.

"Today is the remembrance service for those who died at Azkaban, that's why there are so many people here."

Harry glared at his detail.

"And just when was someone going to tell me about it."

Matthew just smiled.

"We weren't even sure you would be well enough to attend, Madam Pomfrey and healer Shacklebolt might still say you are not well enough and make you stay in bed."

"Over my dead body!"

Harry's growing anger was instantly cooled by a shout from inside the hall.

"Harry! Hey look everyone, its Harry!"

The excited, high pitched voice of Colin Creevey rose from out of the background murmur. Suddenly the noise in the room died away and as he turned back around he found himself the sole focus of attention from a sea of upturned faces.

He was suddenly struck hard in the chest by a fast moving, very familiar red headed missile, he staggered backwards at the force of the impact, his balance still not quite what it should be. But luckily, before he could topple to the floor, he felt a steadying hand in the small of his back from one of his bodyguards.

Ginny had wrapped her arms tightly around him, burying her head in his chest. Harry smiled, and hugged her just as tightly back, enjoying the feeling of having her body pressing hard against him, and him being upright and actually being in a fit state to appreciate it.

"Hi Gin."

Harry said in a soft voice, inclining his head down and gently planting a kiss on the top of her head. She tipped her head back and grabbed hold of the sides of his head with both hands, pulling his face down to hers. Their lips met and it was if Ginny suddenly moulded herself to him, as if they just fit together.

Harry found one of his hands in her hair, another in the small of her back, pressing her body firmly to his, as is she needed any encouragement, Ginny moaned so softly that only he could hear it. The moment could have stretched into eternity as far as Harry cared, but the kiss was prematurely ended by a loud wolf whistle, emitted from a pair of identical mouths, the sound snapped Harry and Ginny back to the reality of their location.

Ginny released him reluctantly and stepped back, blushing furiously with embarrassment as she suddenly registered the huge audience that had grown quiet at her spur of the moment actions. She looked up and started grinning madly at him, quickly overcoming her embarrassment.

"Hi Harry."

The room suddenly exploded in a wave of sound as everyone began to shout greetings and good wishes at once. Nearly all the faces had smiles on them and it was all aimed at him, there was a general migration towards him from the younger members of the audience, and just for an instant he thought he and Ginny might get trampled in a wild stampede.

The two humans in his detail solved that problem by quickly forming a wall in front of him, not to stop his friends from reaching him, but to slow the charging mass down to manageable proportions. Matthew was only too aware how off balance Harry was still.

Harry found the air suddenly crushed painfully out of him as he was hugged around the waist and lifted bodily into the air by an overjoyed Neville Longbottom who was making loud, crazy whooping sounds. Luna, although still pale, was stood beside him, hugging Ginny and grinning wildly at the both of them. For a moment his vision swam and he bit back a cry of pain as he chest burned suddenly.

He had barely been placed back unsteadily onto the ground by Neville, when he was suddenly surrounded and overwhelmed by a mass of enthusiastic red heads. Charlie and the twins were trying to crush the life from him, showing that it wasn't just Ron that had mastered the Molly Weasley hug, Percy was slightly more restrained than the others, but no less happy to see him.

George looked up suddenly and noticing that someone was missing from the group, reached out with a long arm and a huge grin, dragging Alicia Spinnet into the huddle, Harry wondered if anyone else in the group had noticed the fact that Alicia seemed only too willing to wrap her arms around George. Fred frowned at his twin for an instant before dragging a not quite so willing Angelina Johnston into the huddle too.

Harry thinking it was a very good idea, did the same to Ginny, the brothers had a tendency to omit the youngest Weasley from such group hugs, and Harry was determined that this was one Weasley family tradition that was going to change.

Ginny in turn dragged a giggling Luna Lovegood into the ever expanding huddle, while Harry reached out and snagged an embarrassed looking Neville. And for a moment a large extended family took comfort in each other, then the huddle broke up, but it wasn't over for Harry yet.

The twins grabbed him and lifted him bodily onto their shoulders before he had a chance to protest and began parading him around the room as if he had just won the Quidditch house cup for Gryffindor again single-handedly, the others followed shouting and banging their feet, screaming his name.

By the time they had placed him down on top of one of the tables he was laughing so hard the tears were streaming down his cheeks, he looked down at all the faces looking up at him and realised the majority of the D.A. and the Auror force had been in the kitchen.

"Alright you lot calm down"

His voice went completely unheard in the overwhelming din in the kitchen. The twins jumped up either side of him and each sucked in a great lungful of air and bellowed for quiet.

"Er, yeah thanks guys."

The twins beamed back at him.

"No problem Harry for you…"

"Mate anything, besides while they…"

"Are watching you we can…"

"Prank the crowd unnoticed"

The crowd laughed and a dozen wands appeared in the hands of students, aimed in the twin's general direction. The two red heads held up their hands up, proclaiming their complete and utter innocence, to which most in the crowd just scoffed at, one thing the twins could never be accused of was innocence.

"Hello you lot."

The crowd went wild again as everyone shouted out greetings. Harry felt himself blush at all the praise and attention, he had never experienced anything like it in his short life. Winning the house cup had been a team effort, but this acclaim was all for him, whether he deserved it or not.

"I just wanted to take this opportunity while most of you are all gathered here to say thank you, to all of you, from the bottom of my heart. To those who were arrested because of me, and to those who came with me to Azkaban to break the rest out, I have never had chance to just say how much it means to me that I have your trust and support."

Harry paused for a moment and found himself looking directly at Luna and Neville, they stood in the doorway next to Ginny, they had stayed put near the entrance after the twins had grabbed him. Luna cocked her head and grinned at him, and he felt the gentle tickle of her presence, nothing more than a reassuring touch, it was a world apart from the battering ram approach to Legilimency that Snape had practised.

He briefly wished he had known of Luna's skills before Sirius' death, everything could have changed if he could have learnt how to keep Riddle out of his mind from Luna instead of the mental assaults he suffered at Snape's hands.

"Friendship and loyalty are things I shall never take for granted, none of us should, they are qualities that set us far apart from those we seek to defeat, our bonds of friendship are seen by our enemies as our greatest weakness, I see them as our greatest strength. So my friends, are we going to win this war or not?"

"YES"

The volume of the answer shook the windows of the kitchen, causing many of the Hogwarts house elves working behind the hotplates to disappear in pops of fright. In the doorway behind Ginny and Luna, Matthew Hobart turned to Marcus Washburn and smiled.

"That boy has more natural leadership qualities in his little finger than most have in their entire bodies, if any of us actually live through all this I think I'm going to write a book on him."

Marcus chuckled softly.

"I think my friend you could find yourself facing stiff competition, I think there will be dozens, and perhaps even hundreds of books written about Harry, he truly is the-boy-who-lived."

OoOoO

**Thames Waterfront, London**

Tonks slipped silently from shadow to shadow, her eyes intently following the cloaked figure in front of her. She was well aware of her clumsy reputation and was concentrating fiercely on remembering all her instructors had taught her at the academy on stealth techniques.

The clumsiness she often displayed was a direct result of her Metamorphmagus abilities, whenever she changed her body shape it always took her a little while to get used to the new shape, with its altered centre of gravity and length of limbs, and even when she returned to her natural form she still managed to trip over things. She hadn't changed from the shape of her natural form now for several days and she felt she had finally adjusted to the form she was currently wearing.

When the new team had been announced it had caused a buzz of conversation in the Auror crew room, competition had been extremely fierce to be named part of the first Ministry twelve man strike team.

Tonks had known that her lack of experience would count against her and had mentally written herself out of the running for the team. But she had forgotten the one unique talent that stood her apart from her fellow Aurors, she was currently the only serving Metamorphmagus on the strength of the Auror corps, and this talent far outweighed any lack of experience on her part.

The pride and excitement she had felt at being chosen as the scout for the new team had been tempered slightly when she had realised that Andy Dawlish had also been chosen to be on the team. Although she had been pleased to find out the other members of her capture team Savage and Proudfoot were also chosen, the inclusion of Dawlish was not in her opinion, a coincidence.

She had had her suspicions about Andy Dawlish for a while, his furtive nature and the way he listened in on others conversations didn't exactly generate trust. But she had recently noticed that the man had a tendency of slipping away on his own after every briefing the newly formed strike team received.

Tonks had over a period of time become convinced that Andy Dawlish was a spy working for the Minister of Magic, spying on the rest of the Auror force and now the new strike team, she knew that sooner or later that she would have to either deal with the man herself or pass on information that would allow others to do it for her.

But for now her job was to gather intelligence, and when she had seen Dawlish slip out of the Auror crew room half way through their shift she had decided to follow him. He had led her via a very torturous route to the muggle warehouse alongside the Thames she currently found herself in.

Tonks had no idea what Dawlish was doing here, but she knew that whatever it was it hadn't been officially authorised, which meant it interested her and her 'friends'.

Looking up, Tonks frowned. The cloaked form of Dawlish had disappeared ahead of her, he had entered one area of shadow and not reappeared out the other side.

She froze in place, her senses stretching out for any sign of the man. Ahead of her were several offices, inside one of them could be seen a light source and the moving shadows of several figures. She could just hear the muted buzz of conversation from the office.

Dawlish must have slipped inside the office without her noticing, there was nowhere else the man could have gone, the warehouse floor was open plan except for three uniform rows of metal pillars supporting the roof far overhead. The pillars were not wide enough for a man to hide behind. That only left the shadowed areas that were not covered by the skylights overhead.

Moving forward, Tonks began to creep towards the office, trying to get into a position where she could hear what was being said inside.

A hand snaked out of the darkness behind her and covered her mouth before she could make a sound, she felt a wand tip press in behind her ear and knew that she could be dropped without a sound by a simple low powered stunner.

The door to the office was opened and a figure stepped out. Tonks felt her eyes grow wide as she instantly recognised the individual. Bellatrix Lestrange was known by sight to every member of the Auror force, as a confirmed Death Eater and a member of Voldemort's inner circle and a murderer, she was right at the top of the Most Wanted list right below Voldemort himself.

But Tonks had a special interest in the woman, they were after all related, her cousin Bellatrix had killed her favourite cousin Sirius during the battle in the department of Mysteries. It had always seemed to Tonks that it was to be her fate or destiny to be the one to bring the woman finally to justice.

Acting purely on instinct, without any conscious thought, her wand snapped into her hand from her hidden holster, every nerve and sinew in her body wanted her to move forward and make the arrest.

"Wait Tonks, just wait!"

Maybe it was the shock of seeing Bellatrix, or maybe it was the plea in Dawlish's low voice, but it was more likely because she saw who the second figure coming out of the office was that prompted her to retract her wand. If her eyes had widened at the sight of Bellatrix, then at the sight of the second figure her eyes must have literally popped out.

She let herself be drawn deeper into the shadows without any resistance, guided by the hand over her mouth, her eyes never left the two figures, stood perfectly framed in the open doorway, she saw them shake hands and swap small talk, acting as if they were best of friends.

The very fact that these two people were acting so friendly in each others company just proved to the young Auror just how important the task she had been assigned really was. How necessary the growing rebellion was to the survival of the Ministry of Magic.

For the second figure had been none other than the Minister of Magic himself, Rufus Scrimgeour.

OoOoO

**Heathrow Airport, London**

The British Airways flight from Moscow arrived at the terminal building twenty minutes earlier than scheduled thanks to a fortuitous tailwind mid flight. The two suited men in seats 20a and 20b were on their feet the very moment that the seatbelt sign was extinguished and the cabin door opened.

They moved fast, with practised ease down the isle of the plane and out onto the interconnecting tube that led into the terminal building proper, they completely ignored the cabin crew wishing them an enjoyable stay in London and moved down the tube at a brisk pace, leaving the mix of tourists and business men behind them.

Both men shunned the slow moving walkway, using the brisk walk to immigration control to stretch muscles that had sat idle on the long flight. Both men were tall, with short close cropped haircuts that had anyone been paying attention would have indicated a possible military connection. They moved with a casual ease that an experienced observer would associate with either trained military personnel or some form of athlete.

Approaching the passport control booth, both men moved their carryon luggage into their opposite hands and reached inside their jacket pockets. Both had British Passports, but both also placed an identity card on top of the passport so it could be easily seen by the man in the booth.

The customs officer recognised the card instantly, and killed the feed for the security camera above the booth as the two men approached, he knew that for understandable reasons the men of the SAS disliked their images being captured on camera, and that the airport had an arrangement with The Regiment.

The two men returned the custom officer's nod of greeting, pocketing their identity papers and moving into the arrivals lounge without fanfare. Neither man spoke until they had left the terminal building and collected the hire car they had arranged and paid for in advance.

Gregor Ivanovich, former Major in the Red Army turned to look at the man in the drivers' seat and smiled, he had enjoyed the idea of using the special privileges awarded to the SAS against them.

"That was almost too easy."

The driver nodded in agreement, he was a few years younger than the major, but there was something about him, an alertness, which hinted at a credible danger.

"Da, and now comrade Major, where to?"

"Straight to the hotel Srem, I don't know about you but I need some sleep before we have to meet with the Irish, very soon the others will have completed their mission and will start to arrive. Remember which side of the road they drive on over here, try not to get stopped by the local law enforcement, it would be a shame to have to kill someone so soon after arriving!"

"Da, a great shame, I wouldn't want to get blood on my new suit."

Ivan Sremkov, a former Sergeant Major in the Red Army turned his attention back to the road ahead and concentrated on the driving, it had been a very long time since he had spent any time in Britain. London with its weird traffic system, and crazy cab drivers was somewhat different to the streets of Moscow, he would need all his wits about him.

OoOoO

**The Burrow Hospital**

Katie looked up from her book on the legal rights of the undead, and smiled warmly as her brother pushed open the door and leaned his tall, rangy figure nonchalantly up against the doorframe.

Ever since the virtual stranger that was her older brother had arrived so unexpectedly back into her life after an absence of thirteen years, they had been delicately dancing around each other, slowly and carefully rebuilding their relationship.

There were a lot of things that had happened in the past that Katie didn't yet understand, she had only been four years old when her brother had left home and her parents had only seldom talked about her older sibling after that day, leaving the boy a fading shadow in her memory.

There was nothing of the nervous and shy boy she barely remembered in the man stood before her now, he was wearing the wide cocky grin that which he seemed to save for a very small, select group of people, almost as if he was afraid to show too much of himself to the world.

"You finally managed to lose the munchkin then?"

Katie laughed. She was aware how hard the last few days had been on Helen, the child had seen her entire surviving family, and Helen had started to include Draco whenever she said family, return to the burrow injured. For Helen it must have been her worst nightmare, suddenly having to face the prospect of being all alone in the world.

With both Draco and Thomas critically injured, Helen had latched on to Katie's bedside, sometimes sleeping in the chair beside the bed, hardly touching the food one of the male nurses delivered for her. Despite Katie's repeated attempts to get her to leave Helen had stubbornly refused.

"Draco has lured the munchkin away for some breakfast, and of course the promise of a broomstick ride!"

Thomas grinned, knowing as well as Katie that Helen would have been sold on the idea at the mere mention of touching a broomstick, she was rapidly becoming a genuinely talented broom rider.

"Good, because I really wanted to catch you on your own anyway…"

Thomas stepped fully inside the room and indicated someone stood out in the corridor that had been hidden from view behind him.

"…Because I have some here that wanted to speak to you."

Looking extremely nervous and almost reluctant to enter the room, Amanda Coombs hovered in the doorway and kept her eyes firmly on the floor, her face was filled with uncertainty. Katie hadn't seen Amanda since the night of the healers attack on her and Harry, the healer had been studiously avoiding both Harry and Katie, embarrassed at her inability to fight off the Imperius curse and worried what the affect of her unintentional actions had had on her friendships.

Katie didn't hold any malice for the healer at all, and would have been extremely surprised if Harry felt any differently from her. There was a reason why the Imperius curse had been classified as unforgivable, and unlike those Death Eaters who had used it as an excuse, Amanda genuinely had had no control over her actions.

"Hi Amanda, its good to see you, I've missed our little chats."

Katie's bright comment was greeted by a small smile that graced the healers face but she didn't look up from the floor. Perhaps Amanda had been expecting some form of verbal or physical attack from the Auror Cadet, but as far as Katie was concerned Amanda was as much a victim as she was.

"I've missed you too, you and Helen."

Amanda's reply was spoken in a soft almost disbelieving tone, it tore at Katie's heart that this normally outgoing and confident woman was feeling this way, and resolved to do something about it immediately.

"Amanda. Look at me Amanda."

The healer slowly raised her head until she met Katie's eyes; she flinched back slightly from the fierce expression she found on Katie's face.

"I'm only going to say this once, so Amanda you had better listen! What happened was not…In any way…your fault! There are only a handful of people alive today capable of fighting off the Imperius curse, I can't do it, hell even Marcus Washburn says he can't do it! It does not make you weak willed, or in any way responsible for your actions."

Stood behind Amanda, her brother Thomas was nodding his agreement with her words. Katie felt an inner glow of pleasure when she noticed that Thomas had intertwined the fingers of one hand with those of Amanda's, his very touch providing comfort and reassurance to the young woman. Despite his family, Katie always got the feeling that her brother felt very much alone, so it made her happy to know that he had found someone, especially someone as kind and sweet as Amanda Coombs.

"You forgive me?"

Amanda asked tentatively.

"There is nothing to forgive, there never was."

An intense look of relief swept across Amanda's face, Katie realised the young healer had expected when she had entered the room for their friendship to be over.

Even as Katie watched her brother moved up closer behind Amanda and placed his free arm around her waist, pulling her into an embrace to ensure she knew he was there for her. He bent down and gently kissed her neck, it was a touching moment, but not one that should be allowed to pass without comment.

"Look guys, I've had a fractured skull and still feel a bit queasy on and off. Watching the pair of you is not exactly conducive to my recovering health!"

"You didn't seem to object when it was you and Draco!"

Thomas replied with a grin on his face. Katie shrugged in reply.

"That was different because…well it just was alright."

"Once again Katie the logic of your argument has swept aside all opposition."

Katie snorted in amusement at Amanda's reply, just happy that something like the normal level of banter had been restored between her and Amanda despite the fact she faced odds now of two to one. She valued the friendship she had built up with the woman, it could be especially useful now that Amanda now had a relationship with her brother, and the blackmail opportunities that beckoned were simply immense.

"Hey you two, stop picking on the injured party, its not very sporting."

Katie turned and smiled at Draco, her boyfriend to the rescue, he was stood in the doorway, both of his hands resting on Helen's shoulders, Katie's hyperactive sister appeared to be about to burst, her face had gone red from holding something in and she had a big grin on her face.

"For your information Draco, my sister was giving as good as she was getting, and as my position of older brother I think it's my prerogative and lawful place as the eldest sibling to pick on her."

Draco cocked his head over and carefully considered Thomas' words before letting a small grin creep onto his face, he turned to Katie and gave a small shrug of defeat.

"Sorry girlfriend he's got me, he has older brother bullying rights."

Draco faced Thomas and bowed his head.

"Please continue."

"What! Draco Malfoy you damn traitor!"

Katie grinned at her boyfriend to take any sting out of her words.

"Why break the habit of a lifetime, right Draco?"

The room went suddenly and deathly silent as Amanda's words sank in, realising what she had said, the healer placed her hand to her mouth in horror, her face going suddenly pale. Amanda spun to face Draco, expecting to see outrage in his face, what she found was quite different.

Draco was grinning broadly, from ear to ear.

"I thought you would have been upset by that comment."

Thomas remarked dryly.

"I've been placed in Slytherin house for six years, that doesn't mean I'm an idiot, we're bred to be smart, cunning and ambitious. I always chose the side most likely to bring me personal gain, or with the best chance of winning."

"Ok, so we are fighting the most powerful wizard currently alive, we are facing Death Eaters, private thugs and Ministry Aurors, outnumbered at least five to one at the last count, where's the personal gain? Where's our chance of winning?"

Thomas asked evenly. He was genuinely puzzled, asking for Draco's take on the situation. Draco moved inside the room and crossed to Katie's bedside and reached for her hand, which she was only too pleased to give to him.

"Where's my personal gain? It's here in my hand and in this room, the kind of loving family I've never known before. Where's our chance of winning? Have you met Harry Potter? With Harry on our side how can we possibly lose?"

Thomas nodded slowly as he chewed over Draco's comments.

"Which brings me nicely onto Helen's big news, go on munchkin tell them"

Helen beamed at the three adults, almost bouncing from foot to foot in excitement.

"Harry's better, we saw him in the kitchen, he and Ginny were kissing. Just like Katie and Draco, like this."

Helen puckered up her lips and stuck her tongue out and waved it around as Katie gave her sister her best black look, but the young girl just giggled, having become immune to her older sister's black looks many years before.

"On that charming note I think we'll take our leave, let love's young dream have some time alone, come on Munchkin, Amanda, lets go for a walk, I think Katie and Draco need some time on their own."

Thomas held out his hand to Helen and the little girl bounded over to him, he turned and winked at Katie, acknowledging the look of gratitude on her face. Thomas held his other hand out to Amanda, who took it in both of her own.

With a cheerful wave the little group left the room, leaving silence in their wake, Draco waited just long enough for the door to close behind them before he bent down and grabbed hold of her hand.

"So, where were we?"

OoOoO

**Naval Operations Centre, Northwood, 10:00 14 July**

Owen Jackson had just about reached the limit of his patience, from the moment he had stepped off of the gantry connecting _**Iron Duke**_ to the dockside, it had felt as if he had been getting the run around with his own black storm cloud following him, a sense of impending doom that threatened to upset the calm outer facade he had been portraying.

He had reported as ordered to the base commander's office at _**HMS Nelson**_ in Portsmouth, only to be told his orders were to take him to the Admiralty building in London. So he had requisitioned a staff car and reported to the Admiralty building.

They had looked baffled at his appearance, but they had called Naval Operations at Northwood and found out he was supposed to be reporting there, so he had jumped back inside his staff car and driven to Northwood. All the while his personal storm cloud was following him every where he went.

Now he was stood outside the office of the deputy commander, naval operations, and having been kept hanging around for the better part of two days his temper was starting to get the better of him.

"Commander Jackson, Admiral Kyle will see you now."

The wren who had been busy ignoring him for over five hours now gave him leave to enter the office. Jackson snorted loudly and jammed his dress cap onto his head, he had to jam it on with some force because unlike shore based officers, he hardly ever wore his dress uniform and the peak cap did not fit him well.

He marched into the office and halted before the expensive looking desk, made from the wood of some French warship captured at the battle of Trafalgar whose name he had never bothered to learn, and saluted smartly.

The Admiral didn't even look up at him, the man looked like once, in his misspent youth he had been a bare knuckle fighter, his hair was grey and cut shorter than even the strict navy regulations required. His stocky frame, although it had filled out slightly with age, still maintained its powerful appearance that Owen remembered so well from his youth.

Sherman Kyle finally looked up at him and a large grin split his features, he waved a casual salute back at the man who had been his bunkmate on his cadet cruise, the man who had been the best man at his wedding, the man who had plucked him out of the freezing south Atlantic sea after his ship had been struck by a French exocet missile during the Falklands war.

"Well old friend, it seems as if your fantastic run of good luck is still holding as strong as ever. My original orders were to have you placed under house arrest and start an investigation with a view to court marshalling you. Not something I would have enjoyed in the least."

Kyle stood and came around from behind his desk, and as Jackson's eyes followed him across the office he suddenly noticed the second man present, who up to that point had remained silent. There was something a little 'off' about the man, his dress sense was unusual to say the least, he wore an old wax jacket of the type used by farmers, black suit trousers and tan shoes. It was like he was trying to dress like a civil servant, and failing dismally.

The man's face had a craggy lived in look that somehow exuded confidence and commanded respect all at the same time.

"I have been ordered to leave you in the tender care of this gentleman, he will explain more."

On the word gentleman Kyle rolled his eyes, he indicated the man should use his seat and quickly left the office. Jackson frowned slightly before turning to face the stranger.

"Commander, would you explain to me in your own words why you felt the need to expend your vessels entire offensive arsenal in the way that you did?"

Jackson sighed deeply and straightened his shoulders.

"There had been a series of attacks on shipping and an oil platform that has left its victims in a catatonic state, reports stated that the attacks were made by something that showed up on radar. We then witnessed an attack on a French air force plane that resulted in the planes destruction and the loss of all life onboard. My ship then picked up a radar contact that was traced back to the plane and it then approached my ship.

I considered my ship and my crew to be at immediate risk, and on my own authority I gave the order to open fire with all weapon systems."

The man was nodding slightly and smiling at him in a slightly disturbing yet somehow encouraging manner. All of which was confusing the hell out of Jackson, he had thought the man was to be his executioner, the man sent from Whitehall to officially end his career, but here he was smiling like a pleased parent who had just witnessed his genius child perform.

"Normally at this point in an incident of this nature I would be under orders to modify your memory so that you would never remember the incident, and after that I or friends of mine would have to visit every single member of your crew for the same reason."

The man held up his hand to silence Jackson as the naval officer felt himself bristle at the implied assault.

"However due to your actions in defence of your ship Commander, you have come to the attention of a very special group of individuals, a group that have taken the very same oath that you did when you entered service. My group has for a very long time now been entrusted with protecting the crown and the nation from all threats, both foreign and domestic, by any means necessary. You have been doing our job for us, you have managed to destroy a group of creatures that had proven very hard to destroy"

Owen Jackson just blinked at the man, and began to wonder if he was going insane.

"Sir, who are you?"

"Oh I'm from the ministry, an expert in these things, if there actually is such a thing."

"The Ministry of Defence?"

Owen asked, half hoping to god that the man would say no, because if this man was highly placed in the Ministry of Defence it really explained a few things about how the military was being run.

"Oh heavens no, they'd never let me work for them, not at all qualified for that you see, no I'm from the Ministry of Magic, my name is Edward Croaker, I'm currently the head of the Department of Mysteries, which I suppose translates for you into magical research and development. I'm here to tell you something about what it is you fired your weapons at, and ask you if you will answer a personal call to service by your monarch. The things you killed are called Dementors, and they are nasty, horrid creatures."

The rest of what the man said suddenly became lost in the background clutter of Jackson's mind as he tried to digest the phrase 'Ministry of Magic'.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

With Helen running on ahead of them, Thomas and Amanda strolled slowly through the sparsely populated trees that bordered the edge of the Weasley property, following the meandering course of a shallow stream. The stream was on the other side of the property from the new buildings and was tucked nicely away from prying eyes.

For several minutes they had been walking in comfortable silence, and Thomas marvelled at how at ease he found himself in Amanda's company.

He had never been entirely at ease around women, a fact that caused him no small amount of amusement. He had commanded men in combat, his mind clear of doubt, full of confidence in his abilities and those of his men, but the confidence with which he carried himself when involved in military matters quickly dissolved where a woman was concerned, but that was not the case when he was with Amanda.

He could not remember a time in his turbulent life that he had ever felt so relaxed and at peace, and nearly all of that was because of the woman he was walking with. He didn't have a lot of experience with love, but if this was how it felt he knew he never wanted to lose the feeling.

He glanced sideways at Amanda out of the corner of his eye and smiled, the woman had a new bounce to her step that had been missing since the attack on Harry, as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. If he had had any remaining doubts about forcing Amanda to see Katie, they were quickly evaporating.

Katie had reacted in exactly the way Thomas had known she would, not holding Amanda responsible for the crimes of another. The reassurance had helped restore some of Amanda's confidence, now if only he could engineer a meeting between Harry and Amanda, his work would be done.

Thomas frowned, it had dawned on him it had been several minutes seen he had seen any sign of his little sister flitting from tree to tree in front of them, and like any adult that had grown used to having a child around, he noticed the sudden silence.

"Now where has she gone to?"

"I'm sure she's fine Thomas, she's probably just hiding from us, ready to jump out and give us the fright of our lives!"

Thomas grinned and nodded his acceptance of the situation, when the moment arrived he would try and be suitably surprised by the child's stealth.

OoOoO

**Moscow**

From an outsiders viewpoint Lubyanka square in downtown Moscow was typical of many districts of the Russian city, it was filled on all four sides with drab and functional building, absolutely lacking any architectural style in a way that had become the norm under the communist rule.

To the residents of Moscow however Lubyanka square was unique. One reason for this was the department store that occupied one whole side of the square, _Dyetsky Mir _(children's world) was the largest toy store in the country, and although few residents could afford to shop there, many spent hours walking through the store looking at all the wonders on display.

But it was the large yellow building across the square from the store that was the real reason the square was famous, or rather infamous. This building had until the quite recent opening of a new building, housed the headquarters and the interrogation centre of the Russian foreign intelligence service, more commonly known as the KGB, and as such was feared by the population as a symbol of the hard-line government.

In recent times in an attempt at openness the government had transformed several floors of the old building into a museum, it wasn't a popular move with the Russian people and the museum soon fell into disuse leaving much of the building unoccupied.

But not all of it.

During the seventies and eighties, when the cold war was raging at its height and the prospect of war with the west was not only likely but imminent, the Russian government put the finishing touches on a program that had taken decades of planning.

The program was so highly secret it was never even given a name, just a number, it was called department 19. Using the massive intelligence assets of the KGB that were already in place, department 19 had over the course of many years built up a detailed picture of life in the countries of its enemies in the west.

The KGB also provided detailed plans to almost every type of infrastructure in the target countries, including nuclear power plants, government buildings, media facilities, dockyards, anything that could possibly be of use as a target once war broke out.

The strike force that was to make use of all this information were carefully selected from the already elite spetsnaz commandos. These highly trained soldiers were then split into companies depending on the target country they were to be deployed in. They were taught to blend in with the population, how to dress, how to speak the language, how to act, until in all outward regards it was if they belonged there.

The final part of the program was the most difficult and the most dangerous, the men were sent in ones and twos into their target country in order to put all the training into practise, and to check all the intelligence that had been gathered was correct. A few fell by the wayside, captured by foreign intelligence services or 'going native' in their chosen country, but most returned home after several months while the enemies of the soviet people were none the wiser.

The program was ready, department 19 now waited for the inevitable conflict with the west to begin, and then it would dispatch its trained killers to wreak havoc and cripple the enemy from within its own borders.

Then the impossible happened, almost overnight the Warsaw pact disintegrated, and the Berlin wall came down. The cold war was suddenly over and with it ended the need for department 19.

However all that sensitive and carefully gathered information wasn't destroyed, it was kept in case of some future need, archived in the basement of Lubyanka should war ever loom on the horizon again. Only a very select group of people knew of the archive's existence, senior KGB men, and the commander of each company of Spetsnaz.

The bored and poorly paid KGB guard paused on his patrol of the basement for a moment, he lent on the metal banister of the staircase and gazed down at the rows upon rows of shelves and not for the first time, although it would be the last, wondered whether anyone would ever show any interest in what was stored down in this huge basement.

He wasn't to know that some very serious individuals had already shown a great deal of interest in the archive of intelligence materials. He never saw the shadow detach itself from the wall behind him, he never had chance to act as the round from the silenced pistol put an end to his deliberations.

The three remaining guards never even realised they were under attack before they too joined their comrade in the after life. Figures dressed in dark, military style clothing moved quickly into position, using stolen shopping trolleys of all things to quickly remove large sections of the stored materials, all marked in Russian and all saying the same thing.

_Top secret – strike intelligence – United Kingdom of Great Britain_

Within an hour a powerful explosion would rock the Lubyanka building and the resulting fire would destroy what material remained in the archive for all time, and so would end the efforts of department 19, lost forever in the mists of history as an organisation that never actually existed.

OoOoO

**The Burrow**

Helen Bell had been lost in a world of her own imagining, a world where the world cup winning British Quidditch team was comprised of only red haired and raven haired players, and where the team's coach had blond hair.

She skipped happily in and out of the trees, not aware she was leaving her brother and Amanda behind, and certainly not aware she was in any danger.

She had made good friends among the Goblin contingent guarding the burrow, mainly because she stood at the same height as them, and had known of the preconceptions and bias of an adult wizard. She knew the Goblins guarded the trees and the grounds of the burrow, what she didn't know was that the small numbers of Goblins relied heavily on magical wards, which would not always be triggered by non-magical trespassers'.

Coming around a tree on the stream bank, she halted and found herself looking at the back of a man dressed all in green and brown. The man wore a vest similar to one her brother owned, but where her brothers' was black in colour, this one was the same green and brown colours as the man's clothing.

"Hello, who are you? My name's Helen. Are you a friend of my brother?"

The man burst into sudden motion at the sound of her voice, dropping the water bottle he had been filling from the stream, he tucked his body into a roll and snatched up something long, black and metallic that had been laid at his side, all in one smooth flowing movement. For a long moment he regarded the little girl down the length of the object he carried, before the man slowly lowered it until it was pointing at the ground.

The man wore green and black make-up on his face, and had parts of forest plants sticking out all over his body, making him look like a small Ent out of the story Katie had been reading her at bedtimes. Helen had never seen anyone wearing plants as clothing, and the image fascinated her.

"Hello Helen, I'm David. I don't know if I'm your brother's friend. What's his name."

The man's voice had a friendly tone, it was hard to read the expression on his face because of the face paint he wore.

"Thomas Daniel Bell"

She recited pompously. The man blinked at her with an odd look on his face, very similar to the look Draco wore when her sister had said something he didn't know how to answer.

"You're kidding me! You're Thomas Bell's sister? Well isn't that a turn up for the books, he might have actually had family trouble after all. As it turns out, I am your brothers friend, I have known him for years."

The man crouched down and laid whatever the object he was carrying across his knees and studied the little girl.

"Is your brother nearby?"

Helen nodded and pointed back the way she had come. The man smiled and rested his back against a tree, he reached up and touched something at his throat and spoke quietly to himself for a few seconds before looking back up at the girl.

"Let's wait here for Thomas, that way we can surprise him together."

OoOoO

**The Burrow Communal Kitchen**

Harry put the forkful of scrambled egg into his mouth and chewed slowly, his eyes closed savouring the taste, it seemed as if the house elves had been raiding Molly Weasley's recipe book behind her back.

He was sat at one of the benches beside a beaming Ginny, surrounded by his friends. The room was still buzzing with the same energy it had after his entrance and he had to admit it was a good feeling knowing so many cared about his well being, a moment of peace and quiet he knew had to be cherished, because something deep down inside told him it wasn't going to last long.

"So what did I miss while I was sleeping?"

OoOoO

Hermione lay back on her bed and smiled happily up at the ceiling. She gently reached up and touched her face, remembering the feel of Ron's lips upon hers, the excitement his passion had generated within her. She knew that she couldn't get released from the hospital fast enough for her liking. Because although they hadn't discussed it in so many words from the look in Ron's eyes he was now ready to take their relationship to the next level.

Hermione was intelligent enough to know that not all of her euphoric feelings could be laid at Ron's door, some of what she was feeling could still be put down to the medication she was still on, but the drugs only amplified her feelings for Ron rather than creating them. Added to the mix were the feelings she was receiving down her link with Fawkes.

The Phoenix was aloft far above the burrow and Hermione could feel the exhilaration and joy that flying gave her new companion, which was distinctly at odds to her own thoughts on the matter of flying. From the first lesson on broomsticks in her first year at Hogwarts, Hermione had known flying wasn't for her, while Ron was extremely skilful and Harry treated his broom like it was a natural extension of his body, Hermione felt nothing but fear when her feet left the ground.

Despite her own long founded fears she was still able to revel in the emotions broadcast by Fawkes in flight, it was enchanting and addictive, and made her almost sorry that the link they shared was so restricted. She would have liked to have experienced the joy of flight the way Fawkes was currently doing.

_As you wish Fledgling, you had but to ask._

Hermione screamed as she suddenly found herself looking down at the ground many hundreds of feet below, she frantically began to thrash her arms around in anticipation of the long fall ahead of her only to discover she wasn't falling at all…she was gliding on the air currents, effortless and graceful.

Or rather Fawkes was.

Hermione suddenly realised that she was seeing the landscape directly through the eyes of the Phoenix, the magical birds eyesight was so good that she could easily pick up the smallest detail on the ground. She could see the positions of the few Goblins presently healthy enough to stand guard, make out every brick in the walls of the burrow. Turning her/Fawkes's head to each side she could see each large red wing outstretched.

She was flying, and she felt no fear! It was as if she was born to it, had waited her whole life for this moment.

"Thank you Fawkes, this is brilliant, I never knew flying could be this much fun."

_This isn't flying Fledgling…_

Hermione detected the hint of humour in the tone of the Phoenix , and had just enough time to start to feel worried.

_This is flying!_

Without any warning the phoenix nosed over into a dive and folded both his wings in tight against his body. Hermione was suddenly granted a front row seat to the ground rushing towards her so furiously fast that time itself seemed to blur.

Logically she knew she wasn't actually there, that only a tiny part of her consciousness was with the Phoenix, she was actually safe and sound in her hospital bed. But as the ground rushed up towards her and she heard the air rushing past her ears the logical part of her brain had given way to the emotional part that was telling her she was going to die and she screamed until she thought she would pass out.

But at some point in the course of the dive something strange and remarkable happened, the screams of utter terror gave way to cries of freedom and joy, and by the time the Phoenix pulled out barely a dozen feet above the ground Hermione was whooping with exhilaration. She didn't know how exactly, but she knew that the next time she had to mount a broom or ride a rogue Hippogriff, things would be very different indeed.

By the time Fawkes had started to climb back to his original altitude with long, lazy strokes of his powerful wings Hermione was giddy with excitement and breathing heavily.

_It would appear Fledgling, that we have visitors._

Hermione shook off the adrenaline and focused on what the Phoenix was seeing far below. In a clearing not far from the burrow were a group of men, six men dressed in camouflage outfits and carrying equipment that made Hermione's blood run cold. She knew very well what these men represented. She wasn't a pureblood wizard, her muggle upbringing and her fathers previous military service meant she knew heavily armed British Soldiers when she saw them.

The fact these men were here, so close by and heavily armed, could only mean trouble for Harry and their resident soldier.

Her fears were confirmed as Fawkes continued to gain height allowing her to see further, another smaller group came into view. Four people stood near the stream that bordered the far side of the Weasley property, three she already knew, the fourth was dressed in a similar fashion to the previous six.

They were here for Thomas Bell, she knew this in a flash of insight. Although neither Harry nor Thomas had ever said anything to her, Hermione had picked up on the signs and she was convinced that the soldier had gone AWOL in order to protect his family, and now it seemed that the Army had dispatched a group of highly trained Sheppard's to round up the lost sheep.

Hermione threw back the covers on her bed and attempted to sit up, the room immediately began to spin furiously around her and she felt terrible pain in her chest and side. Laying herself back down, Hermione cursed silently in frustration at the weakness of her body, she needed to do something to help Thomas.

Without being able to take action herself she was left with only one recourse to take.

"Fawkes, I need you to come back to the burrow and fetch Harry, I think he went to the kitchen, he'll know what to do!"

_I come Fledgling, I come!_

_OoOoO_

The flash of fire and the agitated screams of the red Phoenix immediately stilled the buzz of conversation in the kitchen as everyone turned to regard the large bird with incredulous eyes as it settled gracefully onto the table where Harry was sat.

For most of them it was the first time they had ever seen a Phoenix, for most of the others it was the closest they had ever been to one and they were amazed at the sight.

Harry closed his eyes for a moment, cursing his bad fortune and knew Trelawney would be happy at his suddenly developing skills in her subject, and took a deep breath, before turning to see the Phoenix stride down the length of the table and halt in front of him.

Fawkes was clearly upset for some reason, the Phoenix was staring intently into his eyes and crooning softly as if trying to pass on some vital message that was beyond Harry's understanding.

Ginny suddenly gasped and spun to look at Harry, a look of fear on her face.

"Soldiers! Harry there are soldiers here with guns, they have come for Thomas! One of them has Helen Bell!"

Harry blinked for a moment as his brain tried to make sense of what he had just been told. Intruders at the burrow, in spite of all the protections and wards, how was that possible? Why would a soldier take the child prisoner, it would only drive Thomas to rash actions and violence, it made no sense.

Harry remembered back to when Thomas had warned him that this day would come, when the Army would reach out for its missing man, and they had never discussed what Thomas would do in such a situation.

It was hard to imagine where they would be now without the soldier, his worthy advice and tactics lessons had been inspirational to the actions that Harry and his band had carried out. His help would be instrumental in training the D.A. to face the threat Voldemort presented.

But more than that, in the short time Harry had known Thomas, the man had proven himself time and time again, as being an adult Harry could trust completely, there had been so few of those in Harry's life that he wasn't willing to give one up so easily.

But what could he do, pitch the marauders into combat with the British Army? That path led surely to the ruin of them all, the muggles had the numbers and the weapons to make short work of the magical world once a conflict had started.

And the very fact that there was a bunch of guys as dangerous and as highly trained as Thomas running around outside unchecked scared him more than he cared to admit.

But if these men scared him, just think what effect they would have on the Death Eaters. A soldiers most important job was to protect his country, Voldemort posed a real threat to both magical and muggle folk alike, if Harry could enlist the help of these men, what a resource they could be!

Harry came to a decision, he had to act to protect his friend regardless of the consequences, it was the right thing to do. But he had to go alone, with Aurors along for the ride the situation could easily spiral out of control and before Harry knew it there would be bullets and spells flying all over the place. He turned so fast that Ginny nearly fell backwards off the bench in surprise.

"Marcus! There are intruders in the grounds, muggle soldiers. I want all the buildings searched and secured, use the Goblins and the Aurors. If you come across them give them a wide birth, we don't want to start a fire fight if we can help it. The rest of you return to your accommodation blocks and secure the doors, wait for the all clear"

Marcus Washburn frowned in surprise at the commanding tone in Harry's voice, before he took a deep breath then began to bellow a series of orders at the top of his voice. To their credit, the members of the Goblin Company responded as quickly to the man's commands as his own Aurors, and the kitchen quickly became a mass of moving bodies.

Taking advantage of the chaos Marcus' commands had created, Harry turn to Fawkes.

"I need your help Fawkes, I want you to take me to Thomas Bell, but I have to retrieve something from my room at the burrow first, are you willing to be my mode of transport?"

The Phoenix nodded his agreement, and crooned softly before the bird leapt into the air with a beat of his wings, he circled the table once before flying straight over Harry's head, allowing Harry to grab his tail. Before he vanished in a flash of flame Harry just caught a glimpse of Ginny's face, there was anger and fear displayed on his girlfriends face, directed solely at him.

OoOoO

**The Crooked Wand, Knockturn Alley**

Auror Nymphadora Tonks was as confused as she had been at any time in her short life. Before today she had been convinced that Dawlish had been the Minister's man inside the Auror force, she would have staked her reputation on the fact he was a spy reporting to Scrimgeour on any disloyalty he discovered. But why would the Minister's own spy have followed the man he was supposedly taking orders from to a meeting with a high ranking Death Eater, it made no sense.

Tonks and Dawlish had watched from the shadows as the Minister and the Death Eater had gone their separate ways, then in silence using sign language they had come to an agreement which of the pair to tail and they had carefully followed Bellatrix to Borgin and Burkes shop at the far end of Knockturn Alley. The owners of the shop had long been suspected of having dark tendencies, but the DMLE had never been able to gather conclusive enough evidence to prosecute.

After a brief discussion in what to do next they had called for support from the day shift of Aurors and the rest of the strike team and were just waiting for the reinforcements to arrive. The bar was conveniently located, virtually opposite the shop, giving a full view of the part of the shop that faced onto the alley.

Tonks looked up as Dawlish approached the table carrying a butterbeer in each hand, and she shuffled around in the booth to allow him to sit down.

They were sat in one of the private booths at the secluded rear of the dimly lit bar, the booth had a permanent privacy charm laid upon it, but taking no chances both she and Dawlish had cast their own privacy charms upon the booth when they entered.

The Crooked Wand was the type of establishment that Aurors tended to avoid unless they arrived in battalion strength, its clientele were those on the lowest rungs of the criminal ladder, and had they entered during the busy evening opening hours the two plain clothed Aurors would have been robbed, beaten, stripped and possibly killed before they had managed to reach the booths at the back of the bar. During the day the place was mostly deserted and its reputation ensured they wouldn't be disturbed.

Neither of them touched the drinks that Dawlish had placed in front of them as each Auror stared at the other, the silence stretched on, neither willing to start the conversation.

"This is stupid, and counter productive. Tonks, my name is Andrew Peter Dawlish and as you may have guessed being an Auror is just my day job. Just as you, I serve more than one master, and just as you my immediate goal is the defeat of Voldemort and the cleansing of the Ministry."

"You have a funny way of showing it. All this time I thought you were Scrimgeour's man in the Auror force, just as you were Fudge's man before that. In fact I'm still not wholly convinced of what you are."

Tonks snapped back.

"Fudge! That man was a weak incompetent arse, he was so spineless I'm surprised he even managed to stand up unaided. He was too weak to keep control on his own, so relied on others to guide him from behind the scenes, and more often than not that man was Lucius Malfoy. It was Malfoy money that propped up the Ministry and Malfoy votes that kept Fudge in power."

There was a level of bitterness in the tone of the Auror Tonks had thought she had known, that and genuine loathing, the man was certainly no fan of Cornelius Fudge.

"He was the very worst person to be holding the office of Minister of Magic when You-know-who…"

"Voldemort"

Tonks quickly interceded, like all those who had spent time around Harry and Dumbledore, the dark wizard's name became easier to say with practice.

"Yeah him, when HE returned Fudge couldn't cope, wouldn't accept the truth or take any defensive measures until it was literally forced under his nose when HE and Dumbledore fought in the atrium. I thought Fudge was going to have a heart attack, it would have been more than the man deserved."

Dawlish took a deep breathe.

"I was placed with Fudge so that we would have as much warning of his more extreme policies, know who he met behind closed doors. I had to play the loyal lackey in order to gain his trust, it was the most distasteful duty I have ever carried out. When he was finally replaced by Scrimgeour, I was reassigned back to the Auror mainstream, we all breathed so much easier, finally a strong leader with a career in law enforcement in charge. If only we had known then we were exchanging the puppet for the traitor!"

"Harry never trusted Scrimgeour, not since the first moment he met him."

Tonks remembered.

"Unfortunately Tonks, the Ministry does not elect its new leaders on whether or not Harry Potter likes them or not, but then again maybe that's where we have been going wrong all these years!"

Tonks cocked her head over and grinned at the man, his personality seemed to have changed at the flick of a switch, he had suddenly become open, friendly and slightly mischievous. Could it be that what she was seeing now was the real Dawlish? That that the man she had served alongside for years had been just an act.

"So you are a member of the Order, that or you work for Marcus Washburn and his rebels?"

Tonks frowned when Dawlish shook his head.

"In this life things are rarely so simple as to only offer you a choice of just two sides Tonks, things are never, ever that clear cut. I work for a group of individuals whose authority comes from a level beyond that of the ministry."

Tonks just stared at the man sat across the table from her, what possible authority was higher in level than the ministry of magic? The ministry of magic in its present form had been established in the 1600's, it had never been recognised as part of the muggle government, existing alongside the muggle ministries rather than being controlled by them.

In theory there was only one higher authority than the Ministry of magic itself, although the Ministry would never openly acknowledge it. Back when the ministry had been formed, the international statute of secrecy hadn't yet been written. The then Minister of magic had sworn an oath of fealty to the highest authority in the land, the crown, and as far as she knew, that oath of fealty still stood.

Tonks blinked and shook her head in disbelief.

"But that would mean you serve…"

"That's right, and let me tell you…HRH is not amused."

OoOoO

Voldemort entered the large secret meeting chamber hidden under the premises of Borgin and Burkes shop, passing quickly between the two rank and file Death Eaters guarding the doorway, his robes flowing out behind him in a most theatrical fashion. As expected the room fell completely silent at his entry, there was a palpable sense of fear in the air and none but two of the Death Eaters could bring themselves to meet his eyes. He enjoyed and savoured the fear he could command in those around him, but not for its own sake, he used it as a tool to advance his own agenda.

For the first time in a very long time he had gathered together his complete inner council in one place, in times past it would have been risky indeed to have done so. But now with the current Ministry of magic weakened almost to the point of collapse, and Dumbledore's little bird club afraid and in hiding, Voldemort was fairly sure he had to fear no interruption of his meeting.

He looked over at his latest plaything, the cursed sword created so long ago during the Goblin and Giant wars, he had been wanting to test it on a magical subject to see if the demon bound within the blade still had the required power to do what was required to punish the Goblins for siding with Potter. The blade, safe in it sheath, sat on a stand at the far end of the room, even now he could feel it calling to him, the demon inside desperate to sate its blood thirst after so long.

With a conscious effort, Voldemort ignored the blade and stepped into the centre of the circle of Death Eaters, he slowly turned in a circle, regarding each of them in turn silently before he spoke.

"My friends, my true family, we have waited a long time to regain the ascendancy we once enjoyed. Many foes have stood, blocking our path to power, the greatest of our enemies, Albus Dumbledore, has now fallen before my might and your wands, but our work is far from over."

As he spoke Voldemort continued to pace a small circuit inside the circle of his most trusted followers, and despite the fact that all of them were dressed in full length black robes and the white masks of their calling he could identify each and every one of them, by their stance, their attitude, and their magical auras.

First among equals was Bellatrix Lestrange, her beauty and slim figure not spoilt by the time she had spent locked away in Azkaban, her sharp animal intelligence, skilled spell craft and casual cruelty earning her the rightful place at his right hand.

Next to her stood her husband Rodolphus Lestrange and his brother Rabastan, neither were particularly skilled or overly intelligent, they were however extremely loyal and very rich, from a pureblood family that stretched back to the time of Merlin.

Next in the circle was Lucius Malfoy, another family with a long and noble bloodline. Once Lucius had held the position that Bella now occupied, Lucius was intelligent and cunning, a skilled wizard and his loyalty knew no bounds, however he was now a broken man after his son's act of betrayal and his wife's recent sudden unexplained disappearance, many whispered Lucius had killed the woman in a fit of rage over Draco's betrayal.

Lucius had vowed to see his own son dead by his hand, but this act of revenge also would bring about the possible end of the Malfoy bloodline, something he dreaded above all other things. These two facts combined in the man to create a contradiction that meant he was altogether too unpredictable of late.

Amycus and Alecto Carrow stood side by side in the circle, brother and sister united in their passion for violence, they were the blunt instruments in Voldemort's arsenal. They took pleasure in bringing pain and death to others, and he had no doubt if they hadn't been Death Eaters, then they would have probably been active serial killers.

Antonin Dolohov was the exact opposite of the Carrows, where they were the sledgehammers in his toolbox, then Dolohov was the surgeons scapel. The man was a precision tool with a keen mind, a superb dueller with a talent for digging up spells and curses long forgotten, his favourite curse caused huge internal damage to the victim, Voldemort had learned it well and used it to good effect on young Draco Malfoy. Dolohov had been one of Voldemort's most effective followers in his first rising, single handed accounting for nearly a third of the wizards slain by the rank and file Death Eaters during that period.

Crabbe and Goyle stood slightly isolated, they looked a little lost without the companionship of the recently deceased Nott. Voldemort briefly wondered if the unease of the two men was because Nott had been using the shared brain cell when he had died at Harry Potter's hands. The two large men were not up to the task of deciding what they wanted for lunch, let alone any leadership decisions, but they were the typical henchmen, huge and threatening, providing Voldemort with the muscle where required. They carried out every task they was given like a robot, lacking the imagination to put their own spin on his orders, a good foot soldier and wholly expendable.

Walden Macnair, one of the few serving in the ranks of the Death Eaters who had received Auror training in the past, the man was currently charged with turning the newly recruited Death Eaters into something resembling effective duellers. Voldemort had grown tired of having his forces consistently outfought by a group of school children and renegades, and he was taking harsh steps to rectify the situation.

Avery, Voldemort's torture specialist and premier strategist, the man responsible for some of his more long ranging plans. Some of which were already starting to come to fruition, some which would only bare fruit if other plans failed. It had been Avery that had suggested that they hire specialists, both muggle and magical, from the continent for some of the more difficult tasks in front of them.

Voldemort smiled slightly as he saw Fenrir Greyback slowly rocking backwards and forwards on the balls of his feet. The Werewolf was now more wolf than man even without the effects of the full moon, he controlled the majority of British Werewolves and led them in Voldemort's service, only a few like Remus Lupin who foolishly tried to hang onto their tattered humanity remained outside his control.

Greyback was the only other person in the room not to have taken the dark mark, but he was no less a Death Eater because of that. Werewolves, just like wolves, operated in packs, Greyback was the Alpha male of the largest Werewolf pack in Britain and he would have lost the respect of his pack and possibly his position if Voldemort had insisted he take the mark.

Yaxley, Voldemort's senior man at the ministry, charged with steering the policy of the minister of magic where Voldemort wanted it to go, and responsible for providing the Death Eaters with every bit of intelligence that the Aurors gathered, allowing Death Eaters to evade capture on countless occasions. Yaxley had been instrumental in forcing through some of the recent bills which had clamped down even harder on Goblins, Vampires and especially the Werewolves, thus driving those creatures to Voldemort in ever increasing numbers.

Finally there was Peter Pettigrew and Severus Snape, the traitor and the double agent, what a pair they made, so physically unalike, yet utterly united in their hatred of Voldemort's nemesis Harry Potter. Both would gladly love to get their hands on Harry or any of his friends, a hatred that Voldemort soon hoped to put to good use.

"For too long we have danced with the do-gooders, engaged in a shadow war that has remained hopelessly locked in a stalemate. But after all the plotting and planning, all the manoeuvring to put pieces into positions where they can do the most damage, our time to strike is now, while our enemy is at its weakest. Indeed some of the strikes have already started. In one swift move we can seize control of the Ministry of Magic, terminally cripple the muggle leadership and remove and destroy the elements of Wizarding society that have aided Potter in the past, such as the Aurors and the Goblins."

They were lapping it up, Voldemort's words working them into a mob-like frenzy, all except for Severus and Bella of course. The only two who made eye contact with him when he entered the room, they would be the two who he could rely on to remain cool headed under any circumstances.

Voldemort turned back towards the assembled Death Eaters of his inner council and addressed them.

"Each and every one of you is important to me. We have gathered together for a cause, to see this useless and ineffective Ministry swept from existence and establish a new regime that governs this country not from rules and laws, but by strength and power. We will not let them continue to weaken and dilute our strength and sap our resolve. They have always sought to hide our existence from the Muggles, slowly watching our numbers dwindle. How much longer before we are not a viable society? How can we claim our birthright and heritage as the supreme beings on this planet, when those that claim to rule us are strangling our very existence? No more I say! This foolishness ends. The old guard will be swept aside. Those that stand against us will perish at the end of our wands! We will rebuild the Wizarding world to protect it from the Muggle empires. I will not allow our way of life to be destroyed. You are my chosen ones. You will be the ones who stand beside me as we usher in an age of glory not seen since the days of Merlin himself. Our time has come! Our time is now! Today Britain! Tomorrow the World!"

The moment that even Severus Snape began to cheer his words Voldemort knew with certainty that he had them eating out of the palm of his hand. If even the cold, collected Snape could be swept away by the passion, then he had done his work well.


	19. 19 The Point of No Return

**AN**/ Hello Readers, sorry to have kept you waiting for such a long time for an update, been off doing my bit for Queen and Country. Still only half-way through my deployment, but flew home especially to give you an update, because, my loyal readers that's the kind of Author i am, i'm here for you!

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It was the year 1997, nearly a thousand years after the founding of the first of the magical schools. Located deep in the Scottish highlands. The school was a port of call for Purebloods, the muggleborn, halfbloods, werewolves, politicians, and students from many lands.

It could be a dangerous place, but we all knowingly accepted the risks, because Hogwarts was our last, best hope for peace.

It failed.

But in the final years of the War, Hogwarts became something much greater: it became our last, best hope – for victory.

(adapted from the opening credits Babylon 5)

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"There's only one truth about war: people die." – Sheridan

Chapter Nineteen : The Point of No Return

**THE BURROW**

In a flash of flame, Fawkes and Harry appeared in Harry's room, off balance from the journey Harry fell back heavily onto his own 'borrowed' bed, a bed he hadn't seen now in nearly two weeks, laid up as he had been in the hospital.

Despite pretending to everyone around him that he was feeling well enough to be out of his hospital bed, in truth all the different parts of his body now seemed to be competing for his attention by causing him even more pain, even the act of raising his arms to grasp Fawkes' tail feather had forced an involuntary moan of pain from his lips and nearly exhausted him.

Harry sat up upon his bed with a heartfelt sigh, and starred at his hands, what were they? The hands of a young wizard who was just desperately trying to keep his loved ones and friends' safe, or were they the hands of the-boy-who-lived, the legend of the Wizarding world. Or perhaps they were the hands of the magical weapon Dumbledore had created, expressly for the purpose of killing Voldemort.

This was the first time Harry had been alone since facing Voldemort at Azkaban, and now the dark wizard's words came back to haunt him.

"_Why do you think he insisted you be placed with the Dursley's, against, so I am told, the express wishes of your parents. I'll tell you why Harry. He needed you broken in mind and body before you ever got to Hogwarts, so that he could begin to mould you into the perfect weapon he wanted you to be!"_

Voldemort couldn't be right, he just couldn't. Dumbledore had made mistakes, many of them, but he had been an old man and despite his power he had only been human, with a human's frailties. Voldemort's claims had made Harry painfully replay every discussion he had ever had with his former headmaster, looking for something, anything that might give him a clue to the man's intentions.

"_He knew about the prophecy you see, he indeed had the skill and possibly the power to confront me and win, but he knew it had to be you, he also knew that no normal, well adjusted youth could do the things you would have to do. You're no better than I am Harry, at least I don't pretend to be anything other than what I am."_

Was this why his life had always seemed such a mess, so out of control, because it had been a plaything in someone's grand plan to stop Voldemort?

The abuse he had suffered for so many years, had it all really been to make him unstable enough so that he could adopt the mantle of a killer so easily?

The fact that the supposed secure and well-defended Hogwarts had been breached time and time again during his stay there, forcing him into ever increasingly dangerous situations, was not a promising start.

But what if it went deeper than that, Hogwarts had been cursed by a series of incompetent and vindictive Defence teachers, only Remus and Crouch jnr had been any good, what if that had been the plan all along, to force him to have to rely on his own skills to survive, maybe to try and force his personality towards becoming untrusting of others.

If that was the case it had all gone massively and horribly wrong somewhere along the track, he had began almost the moment he had stepped foot on the Hogwarts express to forge bonds of friendship in an ever expanding group of teenagers, that over time had become utterly unbreakable, his friends had risked life and limb for him more often than he cared to remember. There were now members of all four houses in his group of rebels, house boundaries seemed to no longer matter.

And not every defence teacher at Hogwarts had been a fraud or an incompetent, after all who could have accurately predicted that a werewolf with no practical teaching experience would become such an excellent and knowledgeable professor, or that a Death Eater in disguise would actually pass on anything useful to the students at all.

Harry stood and pulled his father's invisibility cloak from his school chest where someone, Harry suspected Ron, had replaced it after Hermione's rescue bid, and threw it over his shoulders, despite the years of abuse that he had put the garment through it had only let him down once, allowing Tonks to spot him after he had stepped off the Hogwarts express.

Something deep inside him screamed to be let out, to let loose with his magic now and destroy the room, the house, frustration threatened to consume him, but he would not allow himself to fall into such a destructive and ultimately pointless frame of mind. Never-the-less it was a very grim teenager that reached up and grabbed the tail of the circling Phoenix, disappearing once more in a flash of flame.

OoOoO

**KNOCKTURN ALLEY**

The mission had been thrown together quickly, much quicker than the way Aurors normally liked to do things, but this was a once-in-a-blue-moon chance to capture Bellatrix Lestrange, who was only one step below Voldemort on the Aurors most wanted list, and this was simply too good an opportunity to pass up.

There had been no reconnaissance of the target building, nor any surveillance to catch those coming and going. They had no idea how many were inside, but the Aurors wanted the one person they knew was inside very badly indeed, and Gawain Robards, tired of watching the Auror force becoming nothing more than a laughing stock and the Minister's punch-bag, had taken the decision that the raid was worth the risk and thrown all the resources available to him at the raid without informing anyone above him in the Ministry chain of command.

Tonks and Dawlish had quickly secured an unoccupied building next door to the Crooked Wand and directly across the street from Borgin and Burkes as a staging area. Robards didn't trust the head of Magical Transportation Miriam Edgecombe, and he had to call in a lot of favours in order to get the fireplace in the building reconnected to the main Floo network without involving Edgecombe. But as a department head he still had some power to cut through Ministry bureaucracy when he had to.

The Aurors arrived in twos and threes so as not to draw attention to themselves as they slipped out of the Ministry, until virtually the entire day shift and the strike team had arrived. Senior Auror Ryan Savage commanded the strike team while senior Auror Peter Deacon commanded the remaining bulk of the Aurors.

Back at the Ministry only a dozen Aurors remained putting on a front of business as usual, assisted by a large number of Auror cadets in an attempt to keep news of the raid secret.

The fire flashed green once more and Kingsley Shacklebolt stepped into the now crowded room and smiled at Robards.

"Kingsley, I though you were baby-sitting the muggle today?"

Shacklebolt shook his head while fingering his wand.

"One of my protection detail swapped with me, he needed some personal time later in the week, I was at a bit of a loose end in the office and heard a rumour that you were going after Lestrange. I would consider it a personal favour if you would let me join the assault team."

Robards frowned at the unusual amount of emotion in the usually implacable man's voice.

"Is there something I should know Shack?"

"Just that Bella and I have history and that I want to see justice catch up to her with my own eyes."

Robards just shrugged, Shacklebolt was certainly qualified to join the strike team, had he not already been in charge of an important detail he would probably have been given Ryan Savage's position as Auror in charge.

"Alright Kingsley, but you are under Ryan's command for the duration of this operation, he is the Auror in charge of the strike team, I don't want you undermining him in front of his troops."

"I agree to those terms"

"Good, now to operational matters, let's go and find out how Savage and the strike team intend to gain entry to Death Eater central."

Robards led Shacklebolt over to the twelve Aurors that stood slightly apart from the others. The strike team were dressed in long crimson robes over which they wore dragon scale body armour of the same colour with the word 'AUROR' emblazoned on the front and back in brilliant white. Only Tonks was different, wearing her body armour over her street clothes, Dawlish had already changed into his red robes.

"Alright Savage how will you get in?"

Robards asked, allowing his team leader a moment to shine.

"Well sir we decided to use the innate ability of one of our team members to its greatest advantage to fool the Death Eaters into letting us just walk in the front door."

Ryan Savage held out an object to Robards that was instantly familiar to him, and object that made him shiver despite his training. The object in his team leader's hand was the white mask of a Death Eater.

"You will all eventually bow down before the might of the Dark Lord!"

Robards spun, his wand already in his hand as he heard the cold and haughty tones of Bellatrix Lestrange at his side, he found himself staring into the cold, dead eyes of the Death Eater. Bellatrix stood there, tall, dark haired, beautiful and threatening, the very epitome of a cold blooded killer.

Before he could utter a sound Bella's long dark haired flashed pink and blue before returning to its original raven black colour and he let out a breath as he realised he was in fact staring at the amazing ability of Nymphadora Tonks.

"Damn Tonks, that's scary, you even have the voice perfect."

Shacklebolt was grinning widely in appreciation of what he had just seen. While changing her appearance was part of her native talent, when she changed her appearance she normally still sounded like Tonks no matter what form her body took.

"You have no idea how long I had to practise in front of a mirror to get it right."

The sweet voice of the young Auror seemed disturbingly out of place coming from the mouth of Bellatrix, as did the mischievous grin that lit up the Death Eaters features.

"Here, try not to trip over your own robe"

Dawlish, his usual snide self having reasserted itself, handed Bella/Tonks a long black Death Eater robe, which she quickly slipped on over her street clothes and body armour, as she adjusted the robes her face lost all expression and her features once more became that of her aunt, the Death Eater.

"You know what you have to do Auror Tonks?"

Ryan Savage asked, knowing full well they had just covered this subject only a few moments before Robards and Shacklebolt came over. Tonks came sharply to attention.

"Yes sirs, gain entry to the building by means of impersonating a high ranking Death Eater. Hold the entrance until the remainder of the strike team is inside. Then if possible locate and detain Bellatrix Lestrange. Identify the number and the location of any additional Death Eaters inside the building, and bring any information gained to the attention of the strike team commander …which I believe would be you sir."

Ryan grinned and cuffed her playfully on the shoulder.

"Yes Tonks that would be me. Don't take any chances in there ok, I'd rather have scanty information than a dead Auror on my hands, I hate the paperwork that sort of event brings!"

Tonks grinned.

"I wouldn't want to put you to that much trouble boss, after all we all know how much you hate paperwork."

"Here."

Savage thrust a small brooch in the shape of some kind of beetle into her hands, Tonks took it from him and examined it carefully from all sides, then she poked it repeatedly with her finger, finally to the amusement of all present she put the brooch to her ear and shook it.

"Ok, I give up, what is it?"

"This comes to us courtesy of the lab rats in the Department of Mysteries, it's an experimental item specially designed for the strike team, it can be used as a one way single use portkey powerful enough to break through some the toughest wards currently in use, it will take you to wherever its partner brooch is, although its range is limited."

Savage explained, Dawlish held up an identical brooch and waved it under her nose.

"If you need to escape touch your wand to it and say 'this parrot is dead'"

"No its not, its just sleeping"

Robards groaned and placed his head in his hands, he hated Monty Python, unfortunately he was in the minority, as most of the strike team were muggle born and had adopted the wacky comedians as some kind of mascots.

Savage just grinned before continuing.

"It can also be used as a one way or two way communicator, press here and we will hear everything said around you without our sound giving you away, press here and we will be able to talk normally. It has a fairly short range at the moment, but those boffins in the department of mysteries promise us they are working on the range problems."

Tonks watched carefully as Dawlish demonstrated on his version of the brooch and she quickly practised on her copy, once she was satisfied she knew how to use the item she slipped it safely into her robes

"At least I have one thing in my favour, the element of surprise, they won't expect us!"

Tonks set up the gag, and the rest of the strike team obliged her by completing the saying.

"NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!"

Tonks laughed along with the other members of the strike team, they all had confident and determined expressions on their faces, none looked nervous in the slightest, but Tonks wondered if any felt the uncertainty she was now feeling.

"Right then, off you go Tonks, Merlin watch over you."

Ryan handed her the Death Eater mask and she fixed it in place over the face of Bellatrix with a quick sticking charm, then she pulled the hood of the black robes up over her head and arranged it so that the hood over hung her face just as the Death Eaters wore it.

Squaring her shoulders, Tonks nodded her readiness and moved to the exit. Two Aurors stood either side of the door to ensure the way was clear, the alley was empty at this time of day, Knockturn Alley unsurprisingly only really came to life in the hours of darkness, in daylight very few people ventured out. With a nod from the Aurors Tonks took a deep breath and strode out onto the street, on her own and about to enter enemy territory.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW**

Harry reappeared in a flash of light and stumbled slightly as his balance failed him on the uneven ground. Travelling using Phoenix flame magic was not at all like apparating, which just involved concentrating hard on your intended destination and actually willing yourself there. Phoenix magic seemed to involve physically moving through nothingness or a void to your final destination, like an extreme form of Floo travel, it was very disconcerting and left him feeling slightly ill, although that could have been down to his injuries and various medication he was on.

Fawkes had not lingered alongside him, disappearing with a flash almost as soon as he had appeared, Harry felt a quick surge of jealously that Fawkes had chosen Hermione instead of him, having a Phoenix bonded to you was incredibly useful, providing certain undeniable advantages.

This feeling of jealousy was gone as fast as it had come, Hermione was his friend, and her character was as white as snow, she deserved the fact that Fawkes had chosen her.

Harry recognised exactly where on the Weasley property he was from the small stream in which he was now currently stood ankle deep in. It appeared that Fawkes had a sense of humour modelled on that of the Weasley twins.

He was covered by his father's invisibility cloak and ahead of him through the trees, Harry could see the four figures of Thomas Bell, Helen Bell, Amanda Coombs and the Unknown Soldier dressed in a green, brown and black forest patterned camouflage uniform.

Both soldiers were holding weapons, Thomas had his black pistol drawn while the stranger carried some kind of long black rifle, but both were being extremely careful not to actually point the weapons at each other.

Ensuring his invisibility cloak was adequately covering him, Harry moved slowly and as silently as possible across the width of the stream towards the group, trying to ignore the growing cold of his toes.

Amanda was holding Helen protectively in her arms in front of her and both the healer and the child were watching the interaction between the two soldiers. Although Harry was looking around carefully he couldn't spot any others, but that didn't mean they weren't there.

"….you look like shit by the way."

The man beside Thomas spoke softly, Harry noticed the man's eyes never stopped moving, scanning the area, searching for a threat. It took a moment to register, but Harry quickly realised that the Soldier's posture was a mirror of Thomas Bell's, from the casual, almost relaxed way they held their weapons, to the way their eyes scanned back and forth always alert. Even the stance of the two men was the same, both seemed to balance on the balls of their feet, like some kind of predator about to spring into instant motion.

"As always your sense of timing stinks, and believe me, you are no oil painting yourself."

Thomas replied good naturedly.

"It's good to see you too, by the way if you ever want your job back as team commander you are more than welcome to it. Walking in your shoes has aged me by about five years."

The soldier regarded Thomas with a genuine smile on his face, the two men seemed to not only know each other, but were good friends.

"They went and promoted you to Sergeant didn't they? Damn, they really are scraping the bottom of the barrel Wilky."

Despite the fact they were insulting each other, the two men were obviously close friends, yet here the man was preparing to tear Thomas from his family and friends. Harry didn't understand why a man would do that to a friend.

"Well they didn't have much choice did they? The last one who held the job, he up and buggered off without telling anyone where he was going!"

Thomas snorted in amusement, at the man Wilky's comment, it was obvious he was talking about Thomas himself.

"I told you didn't I?"

Thomas said indignantly, Wilky just grinned.

"So are you going to introduce me to your lady friends?"

Thomas shook his head muttering under his breathe. Harry got the impression that such a request from the boyish faced soldier was nothing unusual at all.

"Wilky I'd like you to meet my girlfriend Amanda Coombs, and the little bundle of energy you have already met is my sister Helen."

The soldier called Wilky looked between Thomas, Helen and Amanda with an expression of utter incredulity.

"How is it an ugly little fat fella like you can win the heart of such a beauty and possibly be related to such an angelic child? Will the mysteries of the universe ever be solved?"

Thomas glared at the man but Harry could tell there was no real heat in the expression, almost as if this was a continuation of some previous conversation.

"Hands off, Wilky, I know your track record and Amanda is definitely not your type, she actually has a brain for a start, so stop making puppy dog eyes at her or I might have to hurt you."

The man called Wilky adopted an innocent 'who me' expression and sniffed in disdain at the comment.

"As if I would let you hurt me. I'm sorry, as much as I have enjoyed the idle chit-chat, time is ticking on, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to come with me Thomas."

Harry noticed his friends face suddenly takes on a serious aspect.

"I guess its time then? I'll come without any trouble, I won't resist, just let the women go on their way"

Wilky nodded and seemed about to say something else. Harry clenched his wand tightly in his hand and shifted position slightly getting ready to move, and underneath his foot a dry twig snapped, in the quiet of the woods the sound was as loud as a trumpet blast.

Wilky suddenly straightened, his head cocked over to one side, then the SAS soldier moved so fast he was a blur, his arms swinging up blindingly fast until he was pointing the black rifle directly at where Harry was stood, rooted to the spot some ten feet away, but what must appear to the muggle to be empty air. Harry was caught completely flatfooted, he never even had time to raise his wand.

To Harry the open end of the barrel of the rifle appeared as wide and as black as one of the tunnels the Hogwarts express travelled through, so wide he almost felt he could walk up to it and step inside it. The rifle never so much as wavered an inch from where it was pointed, directly at his chest, and Harry wasn't sure whether he imagined it or actually saw the soldier's finger tighten on the trigger.

"I don't have to be able to see you to know you are there. Show yourself to me right now or I will be very, very miffed!"

Harry hesitated for just a moment, retracting his wand safely into his new holster, and in retaliation for the delay there was a metallic click as the soldier used his thumb to release the safety catch. Deciding not to tempt fate any further, Harry slowly let the invisibility cloak fall to the floor at his feet. To show he wasn't armed, Harry held his hands in front of him, palms facing forwards.

"Well that's certainly a neat trick young man, I can move quietly and avoid being seen when I have to, but disappearing from sight completely…that's something else entirely!"

Harry just stared at the soldier with a puzzled expression on his face. The man had just seen someone appear out of thin air right in front of him, yet he sounded as calm as if he was discussing tomorrows weather, he was taking all this far too well, most muggles would have been speechless in shock.

"Wilky, this is Harry Potter, possibly the most famous person in our world…for all the wrong reasons. Harry this is Sgt David Wilks, possibly my best friend in the whole world…god help me! He also knows a little about our world, but not too many of the details."

There had been a time when the fact a muggle knew about his world would have worried Harry, but now this information didn't bother Harry in the slightest, he wasn't a Ministry employee and after recent events felt no particular need to try and enforce the statute of secrecy. Besides having one of the muggles knowing what was at stake could only be of benefit to him.

As Thomas made the introductions the two studied each other intently, Harry noticed the man that was still holding the weapon on him was in fact younger than he had first thought. But despite the man's boyish good looks, when Harry looked into those grey expressionless eyes it was as if he was looking into a mirror.

Like his own, those eyes had seen far too many horrors, witnessed and perhaps committed too many foul deeds, Harry wondered if the man suffered from nightmares like he did whenever Ginny's calming influence was missing.

"Nice to meet you, now I don't suppose you would mind pointing that elsewhere would you?"

Harry indicated the black rifle held rock steady in Wilky's hands, the man blinked in surprise as if he was surprised he was still holding it on Harry, without further comment the weapon was quickly slung over the man's shoulder.

"Sorry about that, force of habit I guess. While it was nice to meet you Harry, your impressive arrival does not change anything, Thomas will still have to come with me, I have my orders and I would rather avoid any trouble if I can help it."

Harry again held his hands out to show his peaceful intentions.

"I have no desire for trouble either, I just wanted to ask if you would allow Thomas say goodbye to his other sister before he left?"

Harry knew full well that Katie was in a private room at the hospital, he wanted the soldier to see some of the casualties they had taken, he wanted the man to understand what they were up against, he desperately wanted this man and his companions to throw in their lot with the Marauders, they would be an invaluable resource in fighting this war.

Wilky frowned slightly, his intense gaze moving from Thomas and over to Harry, the man was carefully considering the request, looking for any treachery in the two men before him. Harry held his breath, he couldn't force the man to do his bidding, which could destroy any hope of getting these men on his side.

"So, how are those family issues you mentioned?"

Wilky asked Thomas, smirking slightly.

"Better than when I arrived, but still unresolved."

"In that case I think we can give you the time you need to say your goodbyes, but don't try and pull anything on me, I didn't come here alone."

Once again Harry looked carefully around him, but could see no sign that anyone else was anywhere in the area, it was slightly frustrating and a little alarming, knowing that someone could be looking at him down a weapon sight right now, and Harry wouldn't have a clue.

"How many are there with you?"

"Now that would be telling, wouldn't it Harry"

"Six, there are six more of them out there somewhere."

Both Harry and Wilky spun to regard Thomas, Harry was puzzled, while Wilky was just amazed.

"What? You think I held my position in the SAS because of my winning smile, please. Two teams is the minimum number I myself would send after me, and since Wilky is here that means my whole team is also here. It's too soon for them to have replaced me yet, which means one full team of four and one with only three. Wilky here, plus six."

Wilky chuckled and shook his head.

"You are right of course, and since our radios and all the other technology we normally rely on is not working I shall have to do this the old fashioned way."

Wilky cupped his hands to his mouth and sucked in a lungful of air.

"OZ!"

There was just a moment of silence.

"Yes boss?"

Harry jumped nearly two feet into the air and spun as a voice sounded almost at his elbow, what Harry had taken to be a large mound of grass and moss off to his side seemed to convulse and change shape, growing out of the ground and transforming until it became a man. A man wearing the strangest clothing Harry had ever seen, he resembled some sort of man/plant hybrid.

"Damn it Oz! Why do you insist on doing that to me every time?"

Wilky, although he hadn't reacted as badly as Harry, was obviously as surprised at this soldier's appearance as everyone else.

"Because this sniper is a sneaky bastard Sergeant!"

"You can say that again!"

Wilky muttered.

"Because the sniper is a sneaky bastard Sergeant!"

Both Wilky and Thomas groaned. Harry studied the new arrival, he was carrying the longest weapon he had seen yet, with a large sight mounted on top. The man himself however was wearing similar equipment as Wilky underneath his camouflage covering.

"Oz come with me."

Wilky stepped away from the group, and after a moments hesitation the sniper followed until both men were out of earshot. Harry wished he had a set of extendable ears on him. As he watched Wilky handed his weapon to the sniper and removed his assault vest handing that over too. Harry noticed that the soldier still carried a black pistol identical to the one that Thomas had once more hidden somewhere on his person.

Wilky walked back towards them smiling.

"Right, that's settled. I will be coming with you and checking in with the other lads in two hours, should you decide to pull anything and I miss the scheduled check in…well lets just say the results of that would be bad for everyone and leave it at that ok?"

Thomas nodded, obviously happy with these terms.

"Speaking of bad results, would you allow the ladies to go on ahead, after some of the more recent events there are some quite excitable people around here, the sight of an armed individual without prior warning might provoke a violent response."

Wilky studied Thomas carefully for a moment before nodding his acceptance of the request, Thomas smiled and turned to Harry, lifting his eyebrow. Harry grinned, knowing full well what Thomas wanted him to do.

Raising his open hand theatrically in front of the two soldiers, Harry shut his eyes and concentrated, feeling a sensation of pins and needles in his hand, he opened his eyes and found the familiar and comforting weight of his firebolt broom in his hand.

"What…How…But…I don't understand."

Wilky spluttered incoherently.

"It's magic"

Helen Bell happily informed the shocked soldier.

OoOoO

**KNOCKTURN ALLEY**

Tonks crossed the open expanse of the alley certain that at any moment the green flash of the killing curse would illuminate the dark shadows, speeding on its way towards her. Somehow she managed to remain outwardly calm and project an aura of utter confidence and menace as she walked. It must have been effective because the only other person she saw went white as a sheet at the sight of her and turned around and ran.

Arriving at the doorway Tonks reached up and knocked using the brass snake shaped knocker, knowing there was more than likely a coded knock which she didn't know. Sure enough after a few seconds a small hatchway in the door opened and a pair of beady eyes peered out of the interior gloom.

"That wasn't the right code for today was it?"

A nervous voice complained from inside, from behind the man with the beady eyes presently regarding her came a non committal grunt, indicating there were at least two guards. Tonks nearly laughed out loud at this indignant and surreal response, summoning up as much bluster and fury that she could manage Tonks leaned in closer to the door and spoke in Bella's voice.

"Listen you idiots, there's an Auror patrol right behind me, if you don't let me in, you can be sure they won't even bother knocking some stupid code, they'll just blow the door in!"

With a panicked look on his face the door warden threw the heavy oak door open and ushered her inside, as Tonks passed the threshold she was aware of a magical 'presence' almost like a pressure change before an electrical storm, and guessed the doorway was heavily warded against uninvited intruders.

She found herself stood in a small entrance way, the shop itself was to her right, while to her left were stairs leading up and another closed door. The second Death Eater, a hulking brute of a man, stood guarding the closed door, indicating its importance.

With the door shut behind her, the door warden had closed the hatch until it only remained open a slit, and was peering nervously out into the alley. He held his wand down by his side, his hand clenched around it so tightly his knuckles were white.

"I don't see them! There are no Aurors out there!"

The door warden exclaimed fearfully. Tonks smiled to herself, if this was the standard of the Death Eaters being recruited by Voldemort then the Aurors really had very little to fear.

"I still don't see them, Where are the Aurors?"

"Right here."

Tonks replied softly.

One stupefy later and the Death Eater lay sprawled on the floor at her feet. Behind her, the second, massive Death Eater had finally realised that there was something definitely wrong with what had just happened and he had put his hand into his robes to pull his wand.

The man's movements were so slow that it was almost painful, like watching a bad case of continental drift, and Tonks suspected his thought process was even slower than his movement, this was going to hurt…him, a lot!

The man swung a fist the size of a grapefruit at her head, which if it had connected would have smashed her through the wall and possibly knocked her out for a week, but the blow never landed, the Death Eater had telegraphed the move so early that Tonks had plenty of time to duck under the blow.

Tonks span around on her heel and smashed her elbow into the man's jaw, watching with grim satisfaction as the Death Eater's head cracked into the door frame behind him with a solid 'thunk' sound.

Not giving him any time to recover, the petite Auror who massed under half the Death Eater's weight then drove her knee up between his legs as hard as she could, for a moment the giant of a man just stood there, simply frozen in the moment, then his face paled, he let out a small whimper and slowly slumped to the floor, where he preceded to roll into the foetal position and lay there moaning quietly to himself.

Tonks froze and listened intently for any sign her curse had been detected by a ward, but could hear nothing, not even any voices. The second Death Eater wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, so turning back to the unconscious Death Eater she stunned him again to be on the safe side and opened the door.

Stepping into the alley, she gave the all clear sign to the unseen observers and stepped back inside and waited patiently, she didn't have to wait very long. The members of the strike team plus Kingsley Shacklebolt wearing a hastily donned set of body armour, came pounding across the street and into the entrance way. The first, an Auror named Wilson, bent and began to strip the black robes from the unconscious Death Eater, which he quickly donned over the top of his body armour.

Kingsley nodded at the moaning man still rolling about on the floor.

"Resisting arrest?"

He asked with a smile.

"I used the minimum necessary force to restrain him, sir"

Tonks explained.

"I have seen your idea of minimum necessary force before Auror Tonks…please feel free to continue using it where you deem appropriate."

Ryan Savage added from the doorway, watching as the now crying Death Eater was led gingerly from the building by two members of the day shift.

"Yes sir, absolutely sir."

Two more Aurors from the day shift had grabbed the unconscious Death Eater by an arm each and hurriedly dragged him out into the street and eventually into a ministry holding cell. Outside the rest of the day shift lined up down the street ready to force their way deeper inside.

From stunning the first Death Eater to replacing him with a vigilant Auror, it had taken less than a minute, and now the Auror force had managed to breach the outer defences with no one being any the wiser. But now the hard part began, the rest of the building had to be searched, as quietly as possible.

With a nod to her companions, Tonks put her hand on the door knob of the door on the left and took a breath before pushing the door open and striking out into the unknown.

OoOoO

**BRITISH LIONS QUIDDITCH TEAM TRAINING GROUND, NORTH YORKSHIRE**

"Oliver! Hey Oliver, wait up!"

Oliver Wood turned at the loud shout from behind him, his brooding frown quickly turning into a broad smile as he stopped and waited for the older man to catch up to him.

Despite the fact both men were the starting goalkeepers for their individual league Quidditch teams and were both wholeheartedly competing for the same starting spot on the British national side, the two men got on extremely well together.

Both men had identical firebolt racing brooms slung over one shoulder and wore the year's new design for the British team robes. Oliver wore the home strip of white with red and blue trim around the shoulders and sleeves while Robert wore the away strip, which basically just reversed the colours with red as the primary colours.

"Robert."

Oliver acknowledged his friend and fell into step beside him. It had come as no small surprise to him that in the professional league teams there was very little of the ill temper and bad sportsmanship that had been on display during his times at Hogwarts, especially from the Slytherin house.

The league teams threw themselves into each game with reckless abandon, striving to find any advantage over their opponents, but once that whistle blew to indicate a captured snitch the players from the two opposing teams reverted to being the friends they had been before the start of the game, buying drinks and exchanging tall stories of impossible Quidditch skills.

"You had a great session today Olly, you really impressed the selectors with that reverse double eight loop, I've never seen anyone do it that fast. The starting spot is yours now for the taking, without a doubt."

Oliver grimaced, he hated being called Olly, and that was just why Robert did it, to prick his ego bubble every once in a while and bring him down to earth.

The double eight loop was a manoeuvre a goalkeeper used to keep all three hoops covered by flying in a figure of eight as fast as possible.

"I just had a good day Rob that's all, next time out it'll be your turn."

Robert snorted with amusement but made no further comment, and Oliver suddenly realised the man already knew and had graciously accepted the fact that he was the second best British keeper to Oliver's first place. Oliver felt his heart swell with joy, he knew he was only a few short steps from finally playing Quidditch for his country.

"I suppose you heard the news?"

"What news?"

Oliver asked. He was not a gossip, preferring to spend his time practising in front of the hoops or planning new team plays to experiment with. His love of Quidditch occasionally made him seem obsessed with the sport.

"Tony has just announced he plans to retire."

Oliver Wood stopped suddenly and spun on the spot, starring at his friend in astonishment.

"WHAT!"

Tony Newton was the current British team seeker, the oldest player on the team and also the national team's captain. Oliver knew the man better than most because he was also the seeker and Captain of Puddlemere United, Oliver's league team. He was an exceptional seeker who at forty-two was in the twilight of his career, but more than made up for his slowing reactions with years of experience and by showing no fear while mounted on a broom.

"Puddlemere hasn't lost him yet Oliver, don't panic, he is only retiring from international Quidditch."

"Did he say when?"

"At the end of this season, he says that when the world cup comes around again in a year's time he will be too old to be competitive any longer. He has persuaded the manager to give Britain the best chance of winning the cup, and that means bringing in young blood to the team, hence our own call up."

Oliver nodded, the national side had not changed its team roster in nearly six years, despite their poor performance in the last two world cup's.

So it had come as some surprise to receive his call up owl to report to the training camp. Only two of the original team had retained their spots, one of these had been Tony Newton, the newly called up young bloods had replaced the others.

Although it wasn't the team Oliver himself would have chosen. His former Gryffindor housemates would have filled that team, the British team he occasionally let his wildest dreams conjure up. The New British team line up was filled with talent and youthful ambition.

"Any idea on who will take over the seeker spot?"

Robert shook his head and frowned.

"No idea, I just hope it's not Higgs, I honestly can't stand him!"

Oliver laughed, he was familiar with ex-Slytherin Terence Higgs having played against him while at Hogwarts and many times since. Higgs was the starting seeker for the Wimbourne Wasps, Robert's own club, and a thoroughly nasty individual.

Although the man was a competent enough seeker, he was not a team player or someone blessed with an overabundance of sportsmanship. Oliver remembered only too well how the broad shouldered and tall Higgs had been embarrassed at Hogwarts by the small and, back then, inexperienced Gryffindor seeker, Harry Potter.

It's was a shame they couldn't press Harry into the seeker position, the youngster had a gift, Wood had been sure of that from the first moment he had seen Potter astride a broom. He was born to sit astride a racing broom, a natural seeker with lightning reflexes and amazing awareness of what was happening around him. But the rules being what they were meant that to play in the National side you had to first be on the books of one of the league clubs as at least a reserve player to be eligible to be chosen.

Together they walked back towards the changing rooms in companionable silence. Oliver was lost in his own thoughts, imagining himself stood proudly in the British Quidditch strip he was now wearing, singing the national anthem in front of a home crowd at the Dover national stadium.

Sometimes, in his few truly introspective moments, Oliver Wood wished he had still been at Hogwarts during the reign of Delores Umbridge as headmistress. He would have like to have been there when the Weasley twins had made their dramatic exit from the school.

He liked to think that he would have put Quidditch aside and done the right thing, become a founding member of Harry's DA. Perhaps he would also have gone with him to the Department of Mysteries, although how he would have fared in the battle was anyone's guess.

Maybe one day he would be forced to put his duelling skills to the test, although before that time came he knew he would have to undertake some serious refresher training.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

Wilky had watched in silence as Amanda and Helen had mounted the racing broom and somehow managed to keep his face completely impassive as the firebolt rose into the air at a much more sedate pace than the broom was used to with its usual rider, the two females eventually disappeared out of sight over the tops of the trees.

"So, witches really do ride broomsticks. Honestly, who could have known?"

Wilky spoke in soft tones full of childlike innocence and wonder, Harry had to wonder what the man's reaction would be when he discovered that so much of what muggles read about in fairy tales actually existed in the magical world. Giants, unicorns, centaurs, vampires, all were real creatures, it would probably shake his world to its very foundations.

"Right then, let's go."

Thomas led the way back towards the hospital at a sedate pace; he had not yet fully recovered from his own injuries received at Azkaban, and still favoured his injured side. As they walked Harry fervently hoped that Amanda had the sense to warn everyone what was happening out here. One over eager Goblin with an axe to grind (even in his head, Harry winced at how bad that sounded) could spell disaster for all of them.

By the time the three of them had walked the short distance back to the hospital, Harry and Thomas had told Wilky about what was presently happening in the Wizarding world in very general terms, there would be time for a more detailed explanation later.

The soldier had remained silent for the most part, only asking a few pointed questions about Death Eaters and Voldemort himself.

"So at the moment we are fighting a war on two fronts, against Voldemort and a shadow campaign against the corrupt Ministry of magic, and despite being outnumbered at least five to one, we are, at present at least, holding our own."

Thomas concluded.

"But from what you have just told me, a large part of your fighting force, discounting the probable unreliable Ministry element, is made up of children, members of this D.A. you mentioned?"

"Yes this is true, but one thing you have to understand Wilky is that size is truly no indication of magical strength, Harry here is one of the strongest, if not the strongest wizard here at the burrow, despite his relatively young age. And just wait until you meet his firecracker of a girlfriend…powerful things come in surprisingly small packages!"

Harry blushed slightly at the praise, but couldn't really comment because he found he was breathing nearly as heavily as Thomas, he was putting on a brave face on things but the walk and the excitement of the morning had left him once again feeling exhausted.

Harry found himself feeling grateful that Thomas' own recently healed injury kept their pace reasonably slow, he didn't think otherwise he would have been able to keep up with the two long legged men. His thigh burned as if someone was holding a flame to the back of it, and it was taking a lot of will power not to limp on his injured leg.

As they approached the entrance to the hospital building, Harry was surprised and pleased to see the building apparently unguarded, had no warning been passed there should have been at least a pair of Aurors and a pair of Goblins guarding the entrance, but there was nobody in sight at all. The message regarding their visitor had apparently been passed on by Amanda Coombs.

"Would you mind telling me why you feel the need to have your own hospital?"

Wilky enquired, sounding somehow as if he was bored with the whole experience.

"Because my friend, very bad men, keep causing very bad things to happen to good people."

Thomas muttered loudly under his breath.

Before Harry could reach out and grab hold of the door handle, somebody opened it from inside, before he could possibly react, a red headed missile struck him so hard that he was nearly knocked from his feet. Ginny had wrapped her arms around him and was squeezing him tightly, her head pressed against his chest. It was with some shock that Harry realised she was in fact crying.

"Hey, Ginny its ok, everything's ok."

Ginny pulled back from him and wiped ineffectively at her eyes, then without warning she drew back her fist and she punched him, solidly on his arm, deadening the muscles immediately. It was a good punch, learnt at a very early age growing up with six brothers, despite her small size it had been thrown with all her weight behind it.

Harry flinched backwards more in surprise, that she of all people would strike him, than at the force of the blow. Before he could say a word he found himself staring at Ginny's wand that was hovering under the tip of his nose.

"Harry James Potter, don't you think it's about time you started considering the feelings of others! You leave without a word to anyone, going to who knows where! You have only just gotten out of your hospital bed after suffering severe and life threatening injuries, now look at you, swaying from side to side, you can barely stand up straight! Merlin help me, if you do this again Tom Riddle won't have to kill you, I'll curse you into the grave myself!"

Ginny yelled at him in that tone of voice that showed she was channelling her mother, Molly Weasley would have been so proud. While Harry had heard it directed at her various brothers often enough, he had hardly ever suffered personally under the junior version of the verbal tongue lashing himself.

The worst thing for him was that Harry knew Ginny well enough to know that she was reacting this way only because he had scared her very badly with his disappearance. She was utterly right, and he knew it, he had not spared a thought for Ginny or anyone else when he had departed so abruptly.

She mattered more to him than just about any one he had met in his entire life, and he suddenly knew with an odd certainty he always wanted her there in his life, and that to keep her he had to start being more considerate, and involve her in his plans.

As much as he hated to display any sign of weakness, even in front of his friends, Ginny was also right about his physical condition, the walk had left him feeling utterly drained and he was only too aware that he was swaying back and forth even as Ginny yelled at him. All he wanted to do was go back to bed, preferably with Ginny in his arms, but he could live with going to sleep alone.

"I'm so sorry Ginny, I didn't mean to worry you. You're right, as usual. I should have told you where I was going, or let you come with me. I promise to be a better boyfriend from now on, to try and be the boyfriend you deserve."

He reached out with his hand, slowly pushing her wand arm back down by her side and gently brushed a stray lock of her long red hair back from her face and tucked it behind her ear. She dropped her head and looked intently at her feet rather than meet his gaze, Harry knew he had badly hurt her feelings, he had to work now to put this right.

Touching her chin, Harry gently lifted her face until her eyes met his, looking into her beautiful bright brown eyes allowed him to see the hurt he had caused her and it left him with a bitter after taste in his mouth.

"Ginny you have to know that you mean more to me than anyone else I've ever met, I love you Ginny and I'm so sorry that I have hurt you."

Ginny scowled at him, trying to keep her face stern, but she failed badly and a small smile crept onto her face. It was the same smile that had so captivated his heart when she had been laid in her bed injured, and he felt his heart pound loudly in his chest. He lent down and placed a tender kiss upon her lips.

There was the sound of someone clearing their throat and Harry spun around, in all the excitement he had forgotten he had an audience. Thomas was grinning at him, while the other soldier was trying to look unimpressed and standoffish, however Harry could see the amusement in the man's eyes.

"Ginny this is David Wilks, a friend of Thomas's. Wilky this is Ginny Weasley, my rather exceptional girlfriend."

The two nodded in greeting to each other, appearing to size each other up, which considering Wilky was more than twice Ginny's height, and the same ration in width seemed almost comical to watch.

Ginny Weasley, while very attractive (at least to Harry's eyes) was outwardly at least nothing special to look at, small and petite, with neither large muscles nor an overly threatening manner. But there was something about her, the way she carried herself perhaps, that indicated power and a newly found confidence to use it, and Harry could tell from the slight widening of the soldier's eyes that he had picked up on it.

OoOoO

**KNOCKTURN ALLEY**

Tonks had literally walked slap bang into the middle of her very worst nightmare.

Behind the door had been a narrow, badly lit, winding staircase, leading down into the darkness under the shop, and concentrating hard on keeping the clumsiness inherent to her shape changing ability under control and feeling her heart pounding in her chest Tonks carefully descended the stairs, she had already pressed the correct sequence on the experimental broach so that it would transmit all that was said around her, letting the assault team know everything that occurred.

At the bottom of the stairs was another door, and taking a deep breath she pushed down on the handle and stepped through into the room beyond, the moment she stepped into the room she could feel the powerful ward that had been thrown around the room, it left her doubting that the experimental brooch portkey would be able to penetrate the ward.

"What is so important that you dare interrupt this meeting?"

The room was packed full of Death Eaters!

But that wasn't Tonks greatest threat, because stood inside the circle formed by more than a dozen Death Eaters in the centre of the room was the dark lord…Voldemort himself. Tall and thin, his skin an inhuman shade of white, his angry red eyes seemed to burn into her and for an instant she found herself frozen, rooted to the spot in terror.

"Answer me! What is so important!"

Her mind had locked up under the terribly intense stare of the darkest wizard alive, she tried to think of something to say, some way of using her ability that would save her life and get her safely out of that room, but in the end her mind fell back on her Auror training. Swinging her wand swiftly up to point directly at Voldemort, she pulled her mask off and dropped it to the floor, she let her features morph back into those of her own normal face.

"Auror! Nobody Move! Thomas Marvolo Riddle you are under arrest for multiple counts of murder, multiple uses of unforgivable curses and attempting to overthrow the magical government!"

In hind sight she thought it was probably not the wisest things she could have said, but at least she had sounded confident, more confident than she actually felt.

Voldemort's skills and power levels tipped the whole balance of the equation in favour of the Death Eaters. Possibly the finest duellers in the Auror force were Kingsley Shacklebolt and Marcus Washburn, Mad-eye himself had said that they were the best two he had ever mentored in all his years of law enforcement, but even with all three of them together Tonks doubted they could stand wand to wand against Voldemort. The Metamorphmagus found herself wishing fervently that Harry Potter was waiting outside with her colleagues.

Just as Voldemort was a force multiplier for the forces of darkness, Harry Potter was the same for the forces of light, despite his young age he always managed to make decisions and bring about results out of all proportion to his magical experience.

With a sudden cold certainty Tonks realised that she was unlikely to leave the room alive. The number of people that had defied Voldemort to his face and lived to tell of it could be counted on one hand. Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley with Harry's help, Mad-eye Moody in the first war, and both Alice and Frank Longbottom if it could be said what they still had was life. Nymphadora Tonks was a talented witch and an accomplished dueller; however she knew that she wasn't in the same league as those who had defied Voldemort.

There was a long moment of absolute silence that seemed to stretch into eternity following her statement, as if nobody dare speak in case they broke the spell.

Then slowly Voldemort started to laugh, not the evil laugh of a homicidal maniac, but the sound of someone that was genuinely amused by what confronted him.

"You are arresting me! On your own! Auror Tonks that's the most amusing thing I think I have ever heard. Bella, I think I shall keep your cousin around, after all every king of old needed a court jester!"

Several Death Eaters sniggered at the comment, but Tonks just tightened her grip on her wand, readying what she knew would be the only incantation she would be able to get off in the coming duel. She found herself facing death, and briefly regretted that she had to leave Remus in order to spy, she missed the kind hearted werewolf terribly.

But her imminent death was also in a way, invigorating. She felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, allowing her clarity of thought that had been hidden from her.

Cocking her head slightly to one side, Tonks smiled slightly as she regarded Voldemort.

"So I guessing that means that you won't be coming quietly then?"

Voldemort opened his mouth to reply, but Tonks never learned what witty comment would have escaped the dark lords mouth, because at that very moment it seemed as if her entire world exploded into fire.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

Harry led the way inside the hospital, his hand held securely in Ginny's petite fist. The two soldiers followed behind, sharing knowing looks and exchanging random small talk behind the teenager's backs.

As they made their way towards Katie's room, the corridors were completely deserted, but Harry got the distinct impression several pairs of eyes were observing their progress through the hospital, he suspected several invisibility cloaks were in use.

"You can tell everyone they don't have to hide out of sight on my account."

Wilky spoke matter-of-factly, he walked as if he didn't have a care in the world, but his eyes told a different story, they were in constant motion, darting around seeking out any possible threat, and his right hand never strayed far from his weapon holstered on his hip.

"They are a shy bunch Wilky, but quite friendly once you get to know them."

Thomas remarked, his face struggling to retain its current neutral expression, Harry knew the man was thinking about the twins, the one word that you could never use to describe them was shy!

"Ah, here we are then."

Sure enough they had paused outside the private room that Katie Bell was currently occupying. Thomas appeared to hesitate a moment before he knocked on the door and pushed it open, Wilky followed him inside with Harry and Ginny trailing behind.

Katie was sat up in bed, blushing so much her cheeks resembled Ginny's hair, Draco was at the bedside looking uncomfortable in the extreme. Harry didn't need to struggle too hard to imagine what the two had been doing with each other before Thomas's knock on the door. It was what he had wanted to do to Ginny outside if there hadn't of been an audience.

"Hi Katie, how are you feeling?"

Katie frowned and looked from Harry, to her brother, to the stranger that had entered with him.

"I ache, but I've been told that I'm remarkably thick headed so I'll probably live, I guess that runs in the family. Amanda was in here a short time ago with the munchkin. She said we had visitors and somehow seemed to have gotten it into her head that you were leaving with them. Is there any truth to this?"

Thomas looked uncomfortable at Katie's direct gaze, and seemed to struggle to find an answer to his sister's question. To everyone's surprise David Wilks stepped forward and covered his friend's brief lapse.

"Hello miss, my name is David Wilks, but your brother has called me Wilky from the moment we met, I have served under your brother's command for four years, I have been sent to fetch him as we need him back at camp, shouldn't take long, a few days at most."

He held out his hand and Katie took it, as they shook she was studying his face intently.

"You lie about as well as my brother does Mr Wilks, but I thank you for trying to but my mind at rest anyway. I know my brother is in a lot of trouble with the Muggle Army, he came back to look after his family knowing full well what that would mean. I also know he will go back with you without causing any trouble, the brother I have come to know is a man of his word."

For a moment Wilky looked down at Katie with a strange look on his face, almost as if there was some form of internal struggle going on behind those expressionless gunmetal grey eyes. Then he looked at Thomas and the two seemed to share a moment of non-verbal communication before he looked down at Katie again.

"Good looking and smart, and assuming that your younger sister takes after you miss Bell, how do you explain that Neanderthal?"

Wilky indicated Thomas with his thumb and a nod of his head. Katie laughed, a sweet musical sound that had not been heard often enough at the burrow in recent days.

"I ask myself this same question several times a day, maybe he was swapped at birth, or just dropped on his head too many times as a baby. This is Dray, my boyfriend."

As introductions were being made, Harry took Ginny's hand and led her towards the door. They deserved some privacy now, Harry found it hard to read Wilky, his expressions were guarded, but Harry thought that maybe he had seen cracks appearing when the man had been speaking to Katie, perhaps the man could be won over after all.

"We'll leave you lot to it, I'll find Helen and Amanda and bring them over"

Thomas nodded in gratitude, smiling happily as he listened to his sister bantering good-naturedly with his best friend, he had planned this moment in his head, and never in his wildest imaginations could he have foreseen events going this well.

Harry stepped into the still apparently deserted corridor, drawing Ginny along close behind him. He had a sudden and overwhelming desire to push her against the wall and smother her lips with kisses, he had spent very little time alone in Ginny's company recently, and he desperately wanted to rectify that problem, to get her alone, he had so much to tell her.

"Harry?"

Harry swung around, slightly irritated at the interruption, Draco had left the room immediately behind them and was now stood leaning up against the doorframe, and from the expression on his face it looked as if he was in pain. Harry turned to fully face him, frowning in puzzlement.

"What's wrong Draco?"

Draco shook his head.

"Nothing's wrong exactly, I just wanted to…err…thank you. You saved my life at Azkaban Harry, against my own wishes and better judgement, I find myself in debt to you, and I want to put that right."

Harry grinned in understanding and shook his head.

"Despite everything that has past between us lately, I bet that still wasn't easy for you to say, was it?"

Draco looked frustrated, angry and confused for a moment, before a little smile folded up the corners of his mouth. Even with the changes that Draco had undergone he still had the tendency to be sombre and preoccupied a lot of the time. Of course this certainly wasn't the case whenever he was around Katie Bell, who seemed able to bring Draco out of his shell with little effort on her part.

"You have no idea Potter, no idea at all."

Still grinning, Harry moved forward and put his hand on Draco's shoulder and squeezed gently.

"Draco you idiot, you owe me nothing! Despite our less than stellar history you were willing to stand beside me against Voldemort, and that's something I will never forget!"

Ginny stepped forward and slipped an arm around Harry's waist, with her other hand she gripped Draco's arm. She smiled up at him, and if Harry wasn't so confident about her feelings for him he might have been a little jealous.

"In case neither of you knew, the twins are running a book on which of you will save the other's life next. My money's on Draco, it has to be his turn next!"

Harry and Draco just looked at each other for a moment before they both burst out laughing, only the twins could possibly attempt to make money out of a situation so serious, there would never be a morale problem for as long as those two were around.

"Harry Potter! You are not turning out to be an easy person to guard!"

Harry spun around to find the Auror Matthew Hobart stood leaning up against the wall behind them, although his tone sounded quite annoyed, his facial expression and body language indicated he was actually quite amused.

"Yeah, sorry about that, I made one of those famous Harry Potter, spur of the moment decisions, sorry."

"I'm just glad that you have returned safely and in one piece, I shudder to think of the amount of paperwork that Marcus would make me fill out if I had allowed any harm to come to you during my shift!"

Harry grinned at the former Auror.

"We'll just have to see to it that nothing happens to me then won't we."

OoOoO

**BUCKINGHAM PALACE**

As a young child Lauren Connor had often dreamed, as most young girls did at some point, that she was some fairy tale princess from Arthurian legend, living in a glorious palace, waited on by footmen and guarded by noble and pristine soldiers. But never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined the splendour and sheer scale the reality of an actual palace presented.

She had known where she would be going at least a week in advance, the Prime Minister whenever he was in the country made the trip once a week, normally on a Tuesday. But knowing you would be going to Buckingham Palace, and actually being there were two completely different things.

Lauren Connor tried to focus her attention where it should be, protecting the Prime Minister, but as they walked down those elegantly decorated corridors leading towards the Queen's audience chambers, she couldn't imagine a threat that could possibly reach him here inside the palace's formidable defences.

The Prime Minister's armoured Daimler with its police escort had shot through the already open gates to the palace after the fast journey down the Mall passed the masses of tourists, the small convoy of vehicles had not slowed down until they had passed under an arch and entered a large immaculately kept gravelled square.

It was with some surprise that Lauren realised that Buckingham Palace actually formed a large hollow square, with much of the building hidden from the sight of the public. An entire Battalion of muggle soldiers could be hidden in the square out of sight of those tourists only a long stones throw away.

It had been an even greater surprise for the Auror to discover that the Palace was covered by an exceedingly powerful and complex ward scheme and the barest hint of other magical defences.

As soon as she had passed through the Palace gates several mundane looking items in her possession began to vibrate to alert her to the presence of the unexpected magic, she had discreetly cast spells which had confirmed to her the existence of wards that easily rivalled in strength those formerly placed upon Azkaban. Someone has obviously deemed the threat level to be high enough to have made the palace virtually a magical fortress.

Her scheduled partner for the day was due to have been Kingsley Shacklebolt himself, and she had been looking forward to sharing the unique experience of the trip to the palace with her detail commander, she enjoyed his dry humour and the small insights and tips he enjoyed passing on to his youngest Auror.

Instead she had been forced to spend the day being pretty much ignored by Ayden Williamson. Williamson was the most taciturn and uptight Auror she had ever met, whose every glance communicated to her his utter dislike of the young Auror. The tall, bird like Auror had swapped with Shacklebolt for a personal reason she knew nothing about, but whatever it was it had left the Auror looking quite worried about something, so worried in fact he had chosen to stay by the Prime Minister's car.

Lauren Connor snapped back to the here and now as an elegant set of double doors was opened in front of the Prime Minister by a pair of liveried footmen and the Queen's personal secretary indicated they should enter.

Even if Lauren Connor had never seen her picture on the muggle stamps and coins she occasionally used, she would have known who the woman stood in the center of the room was. Her regal bearing, and the attitude of unflappable calmness and elegance the woman exuded would have been all the clues Lauren would have needed. She wasn't dressed in finery, but in a skirt and worn jumper that had been much patched, her clothes just made her seem all the more regal.

The Prime Minister bowed from the waist before his sovereign, while Lauren stumbled though a clumsy curtsey, somehow managing not to fall over flat on her face in the process. The Queen indicated two chairs that had been set up facing each other, and the Prime Minster moved to one but remained standing until the monarch had sat. Lauren stood behind and off to one side of the Prime Minister, acting as the ever loyal secretary.

"Thank you Edward, will you see to refreshments for Mr Blair"

The Queen's secretary bowed and took two steps backwards while still facing the Queen, before turning and leaving the room, closing the doors behind him.

"Mr Blair, how are the children and your adorable wife?"

The Prime Minister and the Queen exchanged pleasantries and small talk for several minutes while Lauren's attention wandered around the room, admiring the sheer class of the decorations, some of the objects on display were hundreds of years old, and most were worth much more than her family home. It as like being in a museum and examining the displays without being able to touch anything.

"Now Mr Blair, what is the state of my government and country this week?"

Lauren's attention snapped back to the here and now and she frowned, there had been something strange in the Queen's tone, a hint of anticipation. The Prime Minister bowed his head and took a deep breathe before he started, Lauren knew he was not looking forward to having to lie to the Queen, explain away Voldemort's latest attacks as terrorist actions.

"It is my unfortunate duty ma'am to inform you of a series of attacks against the population of this country. An intentional derailment of a high speed train on the East coast, a large bomb placed in a small town in Scotland, and the use of a chemical agent on several targets in the North sea. Investigations are ongoing and I have my best people….!"

The Queen had held up her delicate hand to stop the Prime Minister in his stride.

"Mr Blair, one knows these acts are not those of your common garden terrorists."

Lauren had a very bad feeling that started growing rapidly inside her, as the two muggle leaders regarded each other, the Prime Minister looking slightly confused.

"I would even hazard a guess that you know the name of the person responsible for the attacks, and if you don't Mr Blair, then I'm sure your Auror bodyguard certainly does."

Lauren blinked in amazement as the Queen's gaze briefly flicked up to her face, she knew! How could she know? The Ministry of Magic had long ago decided that only the muggle Prime Minister and certain key members of the government were to be told of their world's existence. The Monarchy, as now mere figureheads had been left in the dark for nearly a hundred years.

But whatever the reason, the Queen knew about the magical world, knew enough to recognise who and what she was, knew enough to know the name of the dark lord.

"Voldemort"

Lauren whispered.

"Yes indeed, Voldemort, a wizard of great power and evil intentions, or so one has been reliably informed. Really Mr Blair, there is no reason to look so shocked, one has known of the magical community for considerably longer than you one would wager. One is after all the hereditary ruler of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and all its citizens, magical or not. One would not be doing her job correctly if she did not at least try to stay abreast of current events."

Lauren grinned a little as the Queen actually cracked a joke at the Prime Minister's expense, the poor man looked about to pass out at finding out that his monarch knew more about the magical world than he probably did.

"I am so sorry your Majesty for lying to you, when I became Prime Minister and first found out about the magical world I was warned of the dire consequences of what would happen should the general populace find out about the magical world."

The Queen nodded her head and smiled slightly.

"Then it is a good job that one is not considering broadcasting such information on the BBC is it not?"

"According to what that man Scrimgeour said I believe the Ministry of Magic would take steps to prevent such a broadcast, is this not so Auror Connor?"

Lauren gave a little start at being included in the conversation between two such highly placed and influential individuals, it really wasn't her place to join such a conversation. But she had been put on the spot and given the state of the Ministry lately she owed these people more loyalty than she owed the Ministry, she at least owed them an honest reply.

"Yes sir, the Ministry would take action to prevent such a broadcast."

"What form would those actions take?"

The Queen, despite speaking softly, pinned her with an intense stare from across the room.

"Memory alterations to all those involved and the recording of the broadcast would mysteriously disappear."

The Queen inclined her head towards her.

"Thank you for the honest answer. Now, it has been brought to one's attention that the Ministry of Magic has been less than successful at bringing this dark wizard to justice, now I'm afraid that it is our turn to step up. Although one is loath to interfere in the magical world, this war must end, and it must end soon."

The Queen sighed heavily, and it suddenly seemed as if she was feeling every one of her years pressing down upon her, she seemed to shrink almost in front of Lauren's eyes.

"There are dark storm clouds gathering over our country Mr Blair, and they threaten everything we know and hold dear. We have this one, slim chance to stop the darkness before it spirals out of all hope of control. The coming conflict will require some difficult decisions to be taken, and some sacrifices will have to be made, but as an old and trusted adviser of mine once said 'it is for the greater good'."

The Queen adjusted her position and sat forwards slightly, facing the Prime Minister.

"Prime Minister Blair, although I am all too aware no declaration has been formally made, due to the acts of violence that have been committed against the British people, both muggle and magical, we are from this moment on now at war with those carrying the Dark Mark, and we must now act accordingly."

The Queen stood and retrieved something from a small, old looking, and probably ridiculously expensive table in the corner. Lauren was surprised to see the monarch was holding a parchment bearing several impressive wax seals, the Queen un-rolled the document and began reading.

"I, Elizabeth II, ruler and Monarch under god, of Great Britain and the commonwealth nations, do hereby authorise the government of Prime Minister Anthony Blair to direct and command the armed forces of this land to engage in the open act of warfare against the individual named Voldemort and his followers, bearing the Dark Mark, and those that would give the aforementioned group aid and comfort. The forces involved in the prosecution of this campaign shall be judged to be absolved from the statutes of civil law for the duration of the action."

The Queen paused to let her words sink in. Lauren gasped out loud, nothing at the academy had prepared her for involvement at such a high level, but even she realised that the statute of secrecy could about to be shattered beyond repair. The muggles had just declared war on Voldemort and the Death Eaters.

"Mr Blair, we, in this country are extremely blessed by the standard of our armed forces, they are respected across the globe and wherever they have been sent to fight they have always done everything asked of them and more. Now we must give them their greatest challenge yet, now we need them to protect our country, perhaps the world, from a threat they have never before faced…and it must all be done if possible in total secrecy!"

OoOoO

**KNOCKTURN ALLEY**

**Kaboom**!

The outpouring of sound in the confined interior of the room was simply awe inspiring, it felt as if the very world was ending, Tonks found herself thrown none to gently to the floor by the shockwave, as the entire ceiling above her exploded and rained debris down on those below, the whole room was suddenly awash with violent, scarlet flames, and for an instant she felt the savage heat lick at the hairs on the back of her unprotected neck, searing the skin.

Across the room she was vaguely aware of someone screaming as their robes caught fire and they became a human torch, from the inhuman sounds they were making it was lucky for her that the debris and smoke in the air hid the sight. If they were looking for help from their Death Eater friends, they were going to be disappointed, even if one of them felt motivated enough to help the injured party, most of the room's occupants were still laid on the floor as utterly shocked as she was.

A burning wooden joist from the ceiling landed with a crash on top of her, lying across her shoulders, trapping her on the floor and doing its best to ignite her robes.

"Aquamenti!"

Using the water charm Tonks quickly doused herself from head to toe, and extinguished the ceiling joist, causing a thick waft of steam to rise towards the ceiling. This ended the imminent threat of her bursting into flames at any moment, although it did nothing to ease the pain she felt in her back and shoulders.

It took all her strength to force herself upwards and send the joist rolling off of her and crashing to the floor. With a groan she rolled onto her back and took a long look around.

The room was rapidly filling with a thick black acrid smoke that caused her to start coughing almost continuously, it seemed as if the entire building was now on fire above them, and given the anti-apparation wards placed upon the building, everyone inside was now in real danger of burning to death or suffocating without a chance of escape.

Of course, this wasn't her immediate concern. Dark figures were moving through the smoke, and she fumbled for her wand expecting one of the Death Eaters to be upon her in seconds. She was surprised when one of the figures offered her a hand to get back to her feet.

"When we sent you fishing Tonks, I didn't expect you to hook the big fish first time out!"

Despite being muffled by the bubblehead charm that he wore, there was no mistaking the voice of Ryan Savage. The Dark robes that she had mistaken for those of a Death Eater were actually those of an Auror, covered in soot and burn marks.

All around her Aurors, both strike team and day shift, moved forward, wands drawn, trying to spot Death Eaters in the smoke and burning ruins of the room, they all wore the bubblehead charm. Tonks groaned at her own inexperience, quickly casting the charm and hoping her cheeks were not as red as they felt, she had never even considered the charm.

Someone shouted an incantation she didn't recognise, a voice that was horribly familiar. Time seemed to stand still as every sound in the room became somehow muted, even the now feeble moans of pain were stilled. For a moment nothing happened at all, then the smoke in the air began to spin at an almost leisurely pace, but even as she watched the particles in the air span faster and as they increased pace they were being sucked into a tight cyclone in the centre of the room, leaving the air free of smoke and debris.

Tonks could still feel the intense heat from the conflagration occurring just over their heads, she could hear the crackle of the fire as it continued to utterly consume the building, but no more debris fell into the room as some form of magical barrier sprang into being where the ceiling had once been.

The visibility in the room was now as good as it had been when she had entered, and stood exactly where he had been before the explosion, looking completely unconcerned at the state of affairs stood Voldemort himself.

The remaining Death Eaters were now slowly picking themselves from the floor, apart from one who lay still, unmoving, robes smouldering. For a moment the scene was frozen as Aurors and Death Eaters glared at each other across the intervening dozen feet, the Aurors slightly out numbered the Death Eaters, but numbers weren't everything.

"Well well, it appears the little shape changer wasn't as alone as she initially seemed to be, you Aurors are proving to be quite an inconvenience, but after today that inconvenience will be a thing of the past. Surrender now and lay down your wands and I might consider sparing your lives!"

Voldemort sneered, appearing totally confident in his abilities to overcome the Aurors.

"I don't think that's likely, for one thing you're still under arrest!"

Tonks was the first to speak in the silence, she felt much more in control now she had back up all around her, nods of agreement from all the Aurors present stiffened her resolve.

"Well then, if that's you answer…"

A dark batlike shape dropped down through the raging fire from the floor above, down through the missing ceiling and landed gracefully on his feet. Throwing the now burning cloak away, Kingsley Shacklebolt turned and drew his wand in one fluid motion.

"What she said!"

Kingsley Shacklebolt had an amazing ability to make anything he said sound cool, Tonks had once heard him read an article from the Quibbler in the Auror crew room, and everyone in the room had been totally entranced until he had finished speaking. Now every eye in the room was firmly fixed upon him, including Voldemort's.

"Can't believe you were about to start this without me, damn selfish of you!"

"Sorry Shack…"

Ryan Savage actually sounded contrite.

"…Ok Aurors, go get them!"

A curse blasted from Voldemort's wand and a piece of the ruined ceiling impaled one of the day shift Aurors before he could even raise his wand. The man fell to his knees, a look of surprise on his face as he died.

But Tonks could do nothing for him as she picked out a Death Eater across the room and launched a blistering assault upon the figure. Incantations and cries of pain echoes around the room as bright beams of multi coloured destruction criss-crossed the space, mixed in with the rest were the glowing, threatening green of the killing curse. But although the Aurors were not using the unforgivable curses, there were plenty of curses that could maim and kill.

Her targeted Death Eater evaded or deflected her initial attacks and tore his mask off, Tonks found herself looking into the dead black eyes of Severus Snape. The former potions Professor and her one time head of house smiled with the distain and launched a series of blisteringly fast curses back at her and Tonks began the duel for her life.

OoOoO

**LONDON, THE MALL**

Auror Lauren Connor gazed out of the tinted back window of the executive armoured saloon car as it sped down the long straight of the mall, to her right was the lush green area of St James's park, and to the left they were just passing Clarence house.

Across from her on the rear seat sat the Prime Minister deep in thought, he appeared still in shock at what the Queen had told him. Not that Lauren knew everything, she had been asked to leave for nearly five minutes at the end of the meeting. She had no idea what was discussed, but she could guess.

When the Prime Minister had gotten back into the car he was in a foul temper, and Lauren guessed that they had discussed what to do should the Ministry of Magic fall to the Death Eaters, it seemed prudent at that point to ask her to leave considering she actually worked for the Ministry.

She glanced over at the other magical body guard, Ayden Williamson, he too was staring out the window at London passing quickly by. His shoulders were hunched together and he appeared to be looking for something.

Lauren was about to ask him if he was ok when she froze. An ordinary looking pen in her jacket pocket had started vibrating wildly, someone had just apparated into close proximity, and from the amount of vibration the pen was giving out, several someone's.

She had just opened her mouth to warn the protection officers in the front of the car to keep their eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary, when there was a sudden unexpected movement from inside the car, turning she was shocked to find Williamson was pointing his wand directly at the driver, he muttered something and there was a bright flash of light and the driver screamed.

"I can't see, I can't see!"

Lauren span around in her seat to see the driver holding his head in his hands, covering his eyes, the officer in passenger seat was attempting, quite heroically, to lean over and steer the vehicle. The panicking and blinded driver tried to hit the brake pedal to stop the car, but in his moment of distress he slammed his foot down onto the accelerator by mistake.

The heavily armoured executive saloon accelerated as fast as its V8 turbo charged engine could power it, and the car smashed into the rear of the police escort vehicle in front of them, the impact span the police vehicle away and sent the saloon careening into one of the cast iron lampposts that lined the side of the Mall.

The impact was savage and with the sound of tortured metal, folded the front end of the car around the sturdy lamppost, the vehicle was instantly and quite effectively immobilised in a mess of twisted bodywork.

The Prime Ministers protective detail was as highly trained as any in their position across the world, but they were trained to identify the threat and respond with appropriate force.

They however had never been warned to consider individuals carrying wooden sticks as a threat, and as such ignored the half dozen such individuals nearby, after all they weren't carrying firearms or even blades, what threat could they possibly present? Most of the protective detail were felled before any of them even realised they were being targeted.

Inside the armoured saloon Lauren was flung against the bulkhead separating the front and the back of the vehicle by the impact, finally landing in a heap on top of Ayden Williamson, she had not been wearing a seatbelt and from the sudden pain in her chest she thought she had paid for that decision with a couple of cracked ribs, it took a couple of seconds for her to recover and gather her wits.

Ayden Williamson recovered first and tried bring his wand to bear, but in the tight confines of the executive car fancy wand work was not going to be of very much help. Lauren threw herself onto him, driving her elbow into his chest as hard as she could, the air rushed from his lungs in response.

He punched her hard in the face, rocking her head back and making her see bright stars, he again tried to bring his wand to bear and Lauren grabbed his wand arm with both of hers, forcing it against one of the armoured windows. She smashed the man's hand repeatedly against the glass until the wand fell free.

Before Williamson could recover the fallen wand, she twisted her wrist and her wand shot out from her hidden wrist holster already aimed at the traitor.

"Stupefy!"

With a bright flash of red the man feel to the floor and lay still.

Lauren took a deep breath and took a few seconds to clear her head and evaluate her options. She took a quick look around and glanced out of the window, although she could see very little. A curse slammed into the passenger side of the car, the vehicle rocked on its suspension and creaked alarmingly.

The situation was, she had an unknown number of attackers outside the vehicle, the muggle security would probably prove to be completely ineffective against the attackers and the two officers in the front of her car appeared to be dead or unconscious, so it would come down to her and her actions.

Grabbing hold of the still dazed Prime Minister, Lauren activated the emergency portkey, but the expected sensation never occurred, nothing happened either when she tried to apparate. She had to assume the attackers had erected some form of temporary ward to prevent their escape.

Her main purpose was to get her primary to safety, to regain that ability, she needed to either get far enough away from the attackers and the wards, or if possible incapacitate them, hence removing the threat.

The car was heavily armoured against muggle small arms and even explosives, and she and Shacklebolt had added a few magical defences as well, for the moment it would be safer to leave the 'primary' inside the vehicle, while she tried to gain the upper hand on whoever was attacking them.

"Stay here Prime Minister, I'll be right back"

Reaching over, Lauren tried the door on the drivers side of the car, the one facing the road, the door wouldn't open, obviously the crash had damaged the door somehow. Shrugging, it was time for plan B, she pointed her wand at the door. Plan B for…

"Bombarda!"

The door exploded away from the car with a shriek of tortured metal and landed in the road nearly twenty feet away with a loud metallic clang, so much for the element of surprise! Lauren clambered swiftly out of the car and using it as protection peered over boot. Another curse slammed into the car just as she pulled her head back into safety.

Six men with wands out, wearing Wizarding robes that were not coloured black. They were spread out in good spacing to make it harder to hit two of them with a single spell. They were arranged in a semi circle with the men on each end of the curve within moments of being able to flank her. And if that happened then any chance of escaping from this situation disappeared.

They were not wearing masks, so they may not have been Death Eaters, but she wasn't prepared to allow them to introduce themselves properly, they had initiated this attack, any actions she took now were in self defence.

Already having a picture of where her target was, Lauren popped out of cover, her wand arm already extended, she made the smallest adjustment and…

"Reducto!"

The man went down in a spray of blood as the curse caught him on the side of the chest. Stunners would serve no purpose against so many opponents, as fast as she stunned them another would re-enervate her target, she had to put each one down in a more permanent manner if she was to have any hope of surviving.

A series of curses impacted into the far side of the car, rocking it backwards and forwards. They were determined to take the Prime Minister alive because they were using surprisingly low powered spells.

"Auror Connor, by order of the Minister of Magic you are under arrest! You are charged with conspiring against the Ministry. Step out from behind the vehicle and surrender your wand, we will be taking the muggle into protective custody for his own good!"

Lauren paused for a moment, confused. These men were not dressed as Aurors should be, and she didn't recognise any of them, yet they were saying they were here to arrest her! What the hell was going on? Conspiracy against the Ministry, what were they talking about?

But Shacklebolt's words came back to her. 'Your first, last, and only concern is the safety of the Prime Minister, nothing else matters, not your life, and certainly not mine'. Whoever they were they had attacked and threatened her 'primary', her duty was clear.

"Auror Connor! Step out immediately or we will use lethal force!"

Lauren smiled, a vicious predatory smile that would have made Shacklebolt proud and would have chilled the blood of her opponents if they could have seen it at the time. They had seriously underestimated her and now it was going to cost them dearly, she reached inside her muggle handbag for the item Shacklebolt had given her especially for this detail.

There was a long pause as the five men slowly edged closer to the car, they completely ignored their wounded colleague as he lay moaning piteously on the pavement.

"Auror Connor! Step out of the car now! You are completely surrounded!"

"For me to be surrounded you all really need to be facing me."

The words were spoken quietly, but their effect on the five men was dramatic, they spun around, wands coming to bear on the slight blond woman that was now standing behind them.

"Reducto!"

They had only made it halfway through the turn before she had shrugged off the invisibility cloak and dropped the second man with a well-aimed curse that neatly removed his head from his shoulders. She was heavily outnumbered, therefore Lauren felt absolutely no need to fight fair, all that bowing to your opponent stuff was only for formal blood duels, in this sort of situation it would just get you killed.

"Stupefy!"

The third man fell to the ground, nailed by an accurate stunner to the chest, there were a lot of muggles now milling about in confusion and Lauren didn't want to risk killing one in the cross fire. The remaining three rapidly returned fire, but the young woman had moved sideways at incredible speed, tucking herself neatly into a shoulder roll that carried her safely behind a large well positioned waste bin.

Auror Lauren Connor had gained exceptionally high marks in practical duelling classes while at the academy, this however was the first time she had ever engaged anyone in a real practical duel and her heart was racing, beating so loudly it threatened to deafen her. She had allowed her body to react on a purely instinctive level, rolling away from the return fire that had come her way.

"Stupefy!"

Leaning out from behind the bin and she took a hurried shot, but Lauren managed to only clip the fourth man. The spell spun the man around and he went down onto his hands and knees, she knew he would be back in action in a few short moments.

'In a practical duel you must use every advantage you have and be able to turn that advantage into a weapon. Your wand is important yes, but stand still and it won't matter a damn how good a shot you are, speed and agility will turn a good duellist into an exceptional duellist'.

Lauren well remembered the words of her academy instructor and gathered her legs under her. Like a sprinter leaving the blocks at the sound of the starting gun, Lauren exploded from behind the waste bin, just as two Reducto curses combined and reduced the bin to only so much scrap metal.

"Stupefy!"

The near miss gained her enough time to drop another of her attackers to the pavement, but being forced back into the open put her back in the line of fire of the remaining two. She ran like she had never run before, arms and legs pumping for all she was worth, the invisibility cloak given to her by Shacklebolt wouldn't help her now. But in the distance she could hear sirens, and muggle help would be most welcome at that point. It was time to think about getting herself and her 'primary' to safety.

But before she could make any move to escape, one of her remaining attackers managed to draw a bead on her rapidly moving form. The curse struck Lauren under her left arm, the impact picked her up and threw her a dozen feet sideways through the air before she slammed into a bench set back from the roadside.

Despite hearing the sounds that could only mean that several bones had broken in the impact, surprisingly Lauren felt no pain, in fact she felt almost engulfed by a strange feeling of serenity. Her wand lay a little beyond the reach of her outstretched hand, where it had fallen when she had landed, she tried to stretch out further to grab it but parts of her body refused to cooperate with her. Her entire left side appeared to be paralysed, she wondered fleetingly if she had broken her back when she had hit the bench, she knew she was bleeding because she could feel it spreading slowly down her side.

She looked up to find one of her attackers stood over her, his wand pointed at her heart. Beyond him Lauren could see the last man approaching the car, he was going after the Prime Minister! She reached out again for her wand, only to have the man stood over her casually bend down and pick her wand up.

"Well aren't you a pretty little thing to be causing us so much trouble…"

Lauren gritted her teeth, she hated being called pretty, at six to one odds she had managed to down four of them, not a bad showing for a first time duellist she supposed. She was of course slightly disappointed that she would die in such circumstances, it was slightly less dignified than she had imagined.

Using her good arm she managed to lever herself into a sitting position leaning against the remains of the bench.

"…I suppose that's one less Auror to round up, it's a shame we won't get commission per head we bring in, today could have made me a very rich man. Time for you to go to sleep my dear, close your eyes. This won't hurt me a bit!"

He took a step back and sighted down his wand at her, against his advice Lauren refused to close her eyes, she was determined to meet death with her eyes open.

"Avada Ked…"

Instead of the expected death, there was a loud series of reports close together and the sound of breaking glass, and then the whole world became very, very confused.

OoOoO

**KNOCKTURN ALLEY**

Nothing in Tonks career to date had prepared her for the fury of the surreal combat she found herself involved in, not even the fight in the department of mysteries was a match for this. Spells flashed back and forth in the confined space of the small room that was growing hotter and more stifling by the moment.

The blaze above them had become a raging firestorm, sucking the air from the room and leaving all the combatants gasping for breath, but that did not slow the combat at all, if anything the pace had started to quicken as those involved realised that time was running out.

She and Severus Snape whirled and danced, flashing curses at each other at breakneck speed. Conjuring a large dog at Snape's feet, Tonks used the time the creature won for her to transfigure a piece of ceiling debris into a shield against his curses and snatch a glimpse around her.

To one side, Proudfoot seemed to be holding his own against the combined talents of Crabbe and Avery, Dawlish also seemed to winning against Macnair, although he had picked up a bad laceration to the shoulder in the process.

But possibly the most important duel was taking place in the centre of the room. Voldemort was facing off against Kingsley Shacklebolt, Ryan Savage and Gavin Robards, he was facing the three best Aurors in the room single handed, as well as maintaining the shield over their heads, he seemed to be struggling slightly, but from the twisted smile on his face, the dark wizard seemed to also be enjoying himself.

Voldemort moved with a fluid catlike grace that belied his age, casting spells both with his wand and without, there was no longer any time for meaningless banter as he faced off against the three Aurors.

Shacklebolt rolled under a killing curse and levitated a large piece of the ceiling into the path of a second. The debris exploded under the power of the curse sending splinters of wood in all directions. Thinking quickly, Shacklebolt banished several of the splinters directly back at the dark wizard, using the engorgio charm to enlarge the splinters mid-flight until they were the size of javelins.

Voldemort casually deflected a Reducto curse from Gavin Robards towards the pre-occupied Andy Dawlish, Ryan Savage, seeing his strike team member in trouble summoned the Auror out of the curse's path and the two men went down in a heap of arms and legs. Seeing his chance, Voldemort stepped forward, wand raised.

Some heightened sense of awareness alerted the dark wizard at the last moment and he dropped flat and rolled aside as the enlarged wooden splinters passed close over his head. There was a gurgling sound as several of the pieces of the wood struck Crabbe in the chest, pinning him securely to the wall like some insect specimen on a collectors pin.

Seeing Voldemort on the floor Shacklebolt moved forward, throwing caution and good sense to the wind with the eagerness of a rookie Auror, seeing an opportunity to finish the duel and determined to take it.

But Voldemort had survived many duels to reach his current position, he had already bounced back to his feet, and fired off a curse, the floor under Shacklebolt's feet were instantly transformed into a muddy bog, and he found himself trapped up to his knees unable to move.

Voldemort quickly followed the first curse with a killing curse, Shacklebolt saw the green curse coming and tried to pull his feet clear of the bog using Wingardium Leviosa, but the suction force of the bog resisted his attempts to free himself.

The flash of green death filled his vision, and he steeled himself for the impact, wishing he could have seen his wife and daughter just one last time.

Something slammed into him from one side, the impact knocking Shacklebolt clear of the bog, and clear of the killing curse, it passed close enough to him that its wake left him feeling nauseous and wretched.

Picking himself off the floor, Shacklebolt was stunned to see the body of Gavin Robards lying across from him, the man's eyes stared up vacantly at the ceiling, the chief Auror's face had an expression of determination burned onto it.

Shacklebolt span, and cast a shield charm just in time to deflect a powerful cutting hex that would have cut him in half and responded with a Reducto curse. Ryan Savage added a curse of his own forcing Voldemort back a step, both men forced for the moment to ignore their fallen colleague.

For a moment the two senior Aurors faced the dark lord across twelve feet of debris strewn floor, then Voldemort slowly raised his wand in a duellers salute, the dark wizard gave each of the men a small nod of his head as a mark of respect. Shacklebolt and Savage mirrored the gesture, and then the three men got down to the serious business of trying to kill each other.

OoOoO

**THE MALL**

_~~~A minute previously~~~_

Special Branch Diplomatic Protection Officer Craig Taylor groaned in pain and slowly pushed himself upright in the passenger seat of the armoured saloon car, he shook his head in an attempt to clear it. The ringing in his ears mixed with smell of burnt cordite from the deployed air bags combined to make him feel quite ill.

Taking a moment to assess his condition, Taylor was pleasantly surprised to find he was in surprisingly good shape considering, despite the crash. His nose felt as if it was broken…again, but otherwise it was just cuts and bruises.

The driver had not gotten away so lightly, from the angle of his neck and the gory smear of grey matter on the windscreen it was obvious he was dead, but Taylor reached across and felt for a pulse anyway. His initial diagnosis was unfortunately spot on, the man was indeed quite dead.

Whispering a quick prayer for the dead man, Taylor reached under the driver's jacket and retrieved the weapon slung in a holster there. The squat black weapon was an MP5K, a heavily cut down version of the Special Forces favourite, it had a 15 round magazine fitted and was only 12 inches long, a perfect fit under the armpit.

"Are you ok Prime Minister?"

Taylor looked back over his shoulder, and got a sharp nod from the still stunned man in the back. Taylor was surprised to see the man was alone with an unconscious body, his brand new, good looking secretary should have been back there with him.

Movement out of the corner of his eye drew his attention out of the window, he stared open mouthed as the duel unfolded in front of his eyes, although he didn't understand the different coloured beams of light that criss-crossed the pavement, he understood the tough odds the woman was facing.

He tried the door, but it wouldn't open, the crash had caused enough damage to the bodywork to jam the door shut, next he tried to lower the window electrically to allow him to climb out, but it seemed the electrics of the car were out as well.

Looking up, Taylor was horrified to discover that the girl was now down, possibly permanently by the look of her and one of the attackers was nearly at his door. Because of the dark tinted glass of the window the strangely dressed man couldn't see in without peering in from close range, and this was just what the man did.

"Put your fingers in your ears and open your mouth sir!"

Taylor yelled over his shoulder as he pulled back on the small cocking handle near the front of the automatic weapon and thumbed off the safety, taking a firm hold of the pistol grip and the small fore grip Taylor squeezed the trigger.

In the tight confines of the car the sound of automatic weapon fire was utterly deafening, it was hard to take up a solid firing position while seated facing to the front and firing off to one side, but hours of practise ensured that all the rounds were on target.

Or they would have been had it not been for the bullet-proof glass in the window, which being the nature of such things was unfortunately bullet proof in both directions. The first three rounds out of the weapon managed to punch most of the resistance out of the bullet-proof glass. But Taylor was taking no chances and kept the trigger depressed until the weapon clicked empty.

At such a close range there was really no need to aim, three rounds remained lodged in the bullet proof glass, a further three rounds were deflected by the last of the glass' resistance and went wild to one side, and nine rounds struck the strangely dressed attacker in the chest within an area perhaps four inches across, throwing him backwards several feet and turning his chest into a red bloody ruin.

For a moment the man stood upright, opening and closing his mouth silently several times as he tried to come to terms with what had befallen him, before the laws that govern the universe caught up with him and he collapsed, dead long before he ever made it to the floor.

Taylor tossed the now empty smoking gun aside and drew his own service weapon from his shoulder holster, the Sig Sauer 226 fit comfortably in his hand and he actually felt calmer with its familiar reassuring weight ready for action.

Smashing the remaining shards of the bullet-proof glass from the door with the pistol grip of his weapon, Taylor pulled himself quickly from the vehicle. As soon as his arm was clear of the vehicle his weapon was up and he was scanning for further targets.

The single remaining attacker was stood with his back to him over the prone figure of the girl, the man appeared unsteady on his feet, almost as if he was drunk. Taylor approached him in a crouched over run, his pistol held out in front of him in a two handed grip.

"Very slowly, turn around and face me!"

The man began to turn, having trouble staying on his feet. When he had turned all the way around Taylor understood why he was swaying, at least one of the wild rounds he had fired had struck the man and he was bleeding heavily.

"This is no business of yours muggle, this is an internal Ministry of magic matter, your interference here today will bring swift reprisals down upon you and all your family. You will watch your loved ones scream and beg for death, and then you will feel the wrath of…"

**Bang. Bang. **

"I think that's quite enough of that"

Taylor stepped carefully over the now still body and bent down beside the young woman, she seemed to be trying to reach a wooden stick laying on the ground beside the body of the man he had just shot, not understanding what it was she was reaching for, he casually reached out and handed it to her.

"Avada ked…"

"Stupefy!"

Taylor spun around. He was just in time to see another strangely clothed man sink to the floor, he had been sneaking up on them, and somehow this woman had just dropped the man with…a…a wooden stick!

"I don't suppose you'd like to tell me what the hell is going on? What is a muggle? What is the Ministry of Magic?"

The woman ignored him and slowly reached up with her good hand and gently touched her shoulder, her fingers came away bloody. She scowled mightily and looked up at him.

"After all I've just been through today, you bloody well went and shot me, you idiot!"

Then her eyes rolled up into her head and she slumped to the floor unconscious, Taylor sighed heavily, there really was no pleasing some people. In the distance he could hear the insistent sound of police sirens and knew that help was only a short time from arriving.

He took a last look around, and when he was finally completely satisfied that there were no further threats in sight, either carrying firearms, blades, cricket bats or small bits of wood, he expertly holstered his pistol.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW (ACCOMMODATION BLOCKS)**

Harry sighed softly and closed his eyes, his body relaxing as Ginny gently ran her hands over his back. He was laid face down on the double bed in the bedroom of the suite of rooms assigned to Neville Longbottom. Neville had told them he had keyed the room to both of them the moment he had heard Harry was awake, he mostly spent his time in the Lovegood Suite of rooms and had stated that someone may as well make use of the rooms.

Harry had protested at Ginny's suggestion that he lie down for a while, still putting on a brave front that his injuries were not troubling him in the slightest. Ginny however wasn't fooled for a moment, she could read him like a book, and she saw every wince that crossed Harry's face when he thought no one was looking, every slight tremor in Harry's out of condition muscles.

It had taken the threat of Molly's involvement and the fact he would be forced to miss the memorial service scheduled for that afternoon, to finally convince him to take some time off and let his exhausted body continue the healing process. With the help of Matthew Hobart, Ginny had guided Harry to the suite and insisted he try to relax.

She had felt the knots of tangled muscles under the skin of his damaged calves and massaged them for the first time since before Azkaban. She had felt tears form in her eyes at the pain that she had caused him, although the only external sign from Harry had been a slight stiffening of his shoulders and a sharp intake of breath. This for him indicated he was in an excruciating amount of pain.

Now as she looked down at him she could see that she had made the right decision, Harry was already nearly asleep, his injuries had sapped his strength and his body had been running on sheer will power for most of the morning. Now if only the outside world would give Harry enough time to allow him to fully heal.

It had been less than a month since she and her friends had fought for their lives and their school when the Death Eaters had invaded Hogwarts. Since the night of Dumbledore's funeral it had felt as if her life had been stuck on some crazed broomstick ride that showed no sign of stopping. There had been little enough time to draw breath as events continued to spiral out of control.

All she wanted was to spend her life at Harry's side, peacefully, without some psychotic evil madman trying to kill one, the other or both of them every five minutes.

Was it too much that they be allowed to just spend time together like a normal couple, instead all their time together seemed to involve one or the other of them being injured from some battle or other, it was enough to drive her to despair.

Harry had so much willpower and magically he was still growing stronger, although Ginny wasn't sure how, his magical core should have stopped growing by now. But even given his previous power level which was impressive enough, Ginny had seen him doing things at Azkaban that should have been beyond even his level of power.

The fact he had side-a-long apparated Thomas Bell all the way from Azkaban to the burrow when Ron struggled carrying Hermione from the garden to the house, the Protego shield spell he had repeatedly recast over himself for the majority of his duel with Voldemort, the illusion charm he had cast over himself, the repeated healing spells, and the fireball after fireball she had seen him blast at Voldemort and other Death Eaters when just one or two would be more than enough to exhaust most wizards.

All these signs gave away the fact that Harry possessed an extraordinary level of power, especially considering he hadn't yet reached his majority. She wondered whether any of the adults at the burrow had any inkling how powerful Harry was becoming, no-one had mentioned within her earshot.

Ginny was in a unique position where she had close intimate knowledge of two powerful teenage wizards. Harry she had willingly taken into her heart, her feelings mirrored in his every glance, and Tom Riddle, whose vile diary had forced its evil way into her consciousness.

Admitting to herself that she was biased, Ginny reckoned that Harry would have been able to easily kick the arse of a Tom Riddle of the same age.

An adult Voldemort of course was different matter, he had a lifetime of delving into dark magic that had boosted his power beyond the human norm, and this was the opponent that a prophesy said that Harry had to face, and if they could enjoy a peaceful future, defeat.

Looking down at the vulnerable teenager asleep on the bed beside her, Ginny couldn't help but be afraid for what the future would hold for the pair of them.

OoOoO

**THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND**

Gregor Ivanovich warily lifted the cover of the green packing crate, the outside of which was covered in Russian stencilled writing, he studied the contents of the crate carefully before reaching in and lifting out one of the five objects stored inside.

The Russian made AK47 was in a completely pristine condition, it had never been fired and still was wrapped in its preservative wax paper, and the former soviet army officer stripped the wax paper from the weapon in quick experienced movements. He examined the assault rifle for any visible defects but could find none, grasping the cocking handle, he pulled the working parts to the rear and peered inside, the face of the bolt and the chamber were as pristine as the exterior.

There were of course newer versions available of the long serving weapon, it was now the most widely used automatic weapon in the world, popular because it could survive field conditions indefinitely and still function as it was supposed to, it was also popular because the lack of training required to use it, the AK47 was a very simple, uncomplicated weapon.

"Ok, I'll need twenty crates of AK's, eight magazines per weapon, along with 200,000 rounds of ammunition, five dragonov sniper rifles with 10,000 rounds, ten RPG launchers with one hundred warheads and body armour including helmets for a hundred men, da?"

The man stood alongside him just blinked at him for a moment before a slow grin began to spread across his face.

"You're after starting a ruckus right enough boyo, that's some firepower you're after. I can supply what you want for sure, but it'll cost you plenty!"

Ivanovich grimly nodded at the ironic truth of that statement, it would indeed cost a fortune to buy the arms and ammunition his men required from the Irish terrorists, arms that his government had supplied to them in the first place at a fraction of the cost. It would be an expensive transaction, but one he personally would not be picking up the bill for.

"Name your price O'Donnell."

The Irish terrorist reached up and scratched his chin, Ivanovich knew that somewhere out in the darkness a hidden terrorist sniper had taken his finger off the trigger of his weapon. He wasn't worried, because also out in the darkness Sremkov would no doubt still be holding the man squarely in his sights, his finger still on his trigger.

"Now then boyo, here's the rub. While I personally have no problem with you going off and killing servants of the crown, a fine and wholesome use of your time to be sure. The leadership these days are trying to make nice with those lying bastards in parliament square, and they would get all twitchy if our little arrangement were to become common knowledge, if you catch my drift."

The Russian officer smiled.

"O'Donnell, these are Russian weapons, in the hands of elite Russian soldiers, as long as all the weapons I want are in the same virgin condition as this one…"

Ivanovich waved the weapon he was holding in his hand.

"Then this…campaign cannot be traced back to you, you get to sit back and watch Britain unravel before your eyes, while still honouring your peace with the British, and get to make a tidy sum into the bargain."

The Irish terrorist smiled and held out his hand.

"Then my Russian friend, we have a deal, where and when do you want to take collection and make payment?"

The former Russian officer took the hand and shook.

"Here, tomorrow night, we shall provide our own onward transportation after the deal is concluded."

The Terrorist nodded in agreement and the deal was struck.

OoOoO

**KNOCKTURN ALLEY**

Tonks threw herself sideways and slammed painfully onto her side, her injured shoulder screaming in protest at such harsh treatment. The cutting curse which should have taken her arm off at the elbow had just nicked her, another Injury to add to the growing list she already had. Severus Snape was proving to be a tough and artful opponent, willing to use the full range of magical skills against her, transfiguration, charms and Dark Arts, but with a combination of good luck and fast spell casting she found herself holding her own.

It made her remember every time he had belittled her, first as her teacher and house master, then as her fellow member of the Order, every time they spoke she had always gotten the impression that he was measuring her, evaluating her skills, as it happened that was exactly what he had been doing, knowing one day they would probably face each other.

The temperature in the room had risen to the point that it was a struggle to draw a breathe, and the various duels being fought between Death Eaters and Aurors were slowing due to the need for the combatants to draw breath to cast their spells.

The exception was Voldemort, his spells blasted from his wand as if he was completely unaffected by his environment, and Tonks was left wondering if he was even really truly alive anymore, it was if he wasn't even drawing breath.

Despite their best combined efforts Ryan Savage and Kingsley Shacklebolt couldn't match the Dark Wizard, and Tonks could read sheer desperation on both of their faces. It was only a matter of time before one of them fell under the onslaught, then the other would fall seconds later. No single wizard could stand before such evil.

And then something extraordinary happened, with a casual wave of his clawed hand, as if he waving at someone across a crowded street, Voldemort removed the shield above their heads that had until that point been holding back the inferno the building had become. The room immediately began to fill with smoke and fiery ash previously held at bay, making seeing across the room virtually impossible.

"As much as I have enjoyed our time together, for parting is such sweet sorrow, I'm afraid I must insist we now part company. The world as you know it is about to change, welcome to the dawn of a new age, the age of the pureblood!"

With a small pop the dark wizard disapparated, several of the Death Eaters immediately followed their master, including Snape, gnashing her teeth in frustration that her opponent had escaped, Tonks peered around the smoke filled room, searching for a fresh target, aware they needed intelligence about what was happening. She saw a black robed shape leaning up against the far wall, coughing and spluttering from the polluted air.

It was a flying tackle any rugby player in the world would have been proud of, Tonks hit the figure at waist height at full speed, and despite her slight frame the force of the impact took both of them to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs. After a moments struggle, she managed to grab hold of the leering white mask and tear it from the figures head.

Smiling, she found herself atop a stunned and feebly struggling Peter Pettigrew, it seemed there was justice in the world after all, she had lost him once when he had been in her custody, now here he was in her grasp once more. Feeling the need, she punched him in the face, before she reached down and got the anti-apparation cuffs onto him.

"Aurors! Time to get out of here before we all burn to death! Gather up the fallen and any prisoners, move to the primary safe house."

From somewhere towards the centre of the smoke filled room came the reassuring sound of Ryan Savage's voice. Bending down, Tonks dragged the unwilling Pettigrew to his feet and fumbled in her robes one handed for the portkey that would take her and her prisoner to the safe house.

There was no warning, a hand clamped over her mouth hard enough to leave bruises and twisted her head savagely to one side, driving spears of pain through her already injured shoulder, she saw a flash of blond hair before a voice spat into her ear.

"You have sullied my family name with your very existence, now I finally get to correct that insult, seeing you dead would have been enough, but knowing you died in unbearable pain makes this moment all the sweeter, don't worry, the werewolf will join you soon enough."

Lucius Malfoy had never been the sanest person on the planet, but from the sound of his voice it was as if he had completely lost the plot.

She started to struggle, trying to break his vicelike grip on her face when it suddenly felt as if her entire body burst into searing flames, there was an unbearable stabbing pain in her lower back and chest.

Laughing manically, Lucius Malfoy released his grip on her and gave her a slight push away from him, and in a strange, almost detached way, Tonks looked down to see a foot length of a black, dull metallic blade protruding from her chest just above her naval, the blade was covered in a lot of blood…her own blood, it dripped from the blade to the floor almost in slow motion in large tear shaped drops, splattering at her feet.

The portkey tumbled from her suddenly numb fingertips and Malfoy kicked it away, then with a snarl he pulled the weapon clear of her back and laughing in a high pitched maniacal manner apparated away with a large pop, leaving a desperate wide-eyed Pettigrew, still secured in anti-apparation manacles, behind.

Tonks placed both of her hands over the wound in her chest, trying desperately to stem the flow of blood from the gaping hole. Sinking to her knees, her breath coming in half strangled gasps, Tonks coughed and spat up a mass of red, bubble filled blood and knew instinctively that the blade must have passed through one of her lungs.

From her basic medical training she knew that she would very soon start going into shock from the massive amount of blood loss which would possibly result in her passing out, she had very little time left to try and save herself.

Pettigrew had began to edge away from her, although how he thought he was going to escape from a burning building while wearing apparation cuffs she had no idea. However he had intelligence that could save hundreds of lives, and it mattered more than her life did to ensure he didn't escape.

"Stupefy!"

Pettigrew hit the ground hard. Looking around, Tonks couldn't see another soul in the room, the other Aurors had gathered up the bodies of the fallen and escaped. She really needed to find that portkey, although visibility was now virtually non-existent as the room filled with cloying black smoke.

Rolling onto her side in order to get her head low enough to look under the thick smoke that now filled the room, she spied the portkey, created from a baseball cap, on the other of the room, it was already on fire and completely useless to her now. She stifled a moan of self pity and rolled onto her back, above her the inferno continued to consume the premises of a known purveyor of dark artefacts, every now and again the fire touched off an items magic and a small explosion would shake the basement.

She felt faint and could feel the growing pool of her own blood spreading from the wound in her back, she was running out of time…and blood. If only she had another way out!

The Broach!

The experimental broach that had been handed to her, it was supposed to go to wherever its partner was, and the second broach had been in the robes of Andy Dawlish. The last time she had seen him he was alive and well and would no doubt already be at the safe house.

Reaching into her pocket, Tonks ignored the pain and the way she had started to lose the feeling in her fingers and grasped the hard shape of the broach and pulled it clear.

Blinking away the tears caused by the intense pain and by the cloying black smoke, she crawled hand over painful hand to reach the captured Death Eater, grabbing hold of Pettigrew, Tonks said the code phrase that activated the device and disappeared from the room in a blast of sound and light, bare moments before the remains of the premises collapsed into the basement.

OoOoO

**THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC**

Bronwyn Edmunds, the department head for Health and Education, looked around her office and smiled faintly, it had taken a long time to purge the office completely of the influence of its previous occupant.

Delores Umbridge had a singular taste in decoration that seemed at odds with that of any sane human.

Bronwyn had also found the blood quill that Umbridge had left in the desk drawer. For a long time the young Welsh witch had studied the quill in utter horror. Like most enchantments involving blood magic, the blood quill had been created in times past by the undisputed masters of the art, the Goblins had originally intended the Blood quills to be used by the Ministry when signing treaties and agreements between the two races. An agreement signed in blood went beyond legally binding, it became sacrosanct, perhaps more binding than a wizard's oath sworn on his wand.

But over the course of centuries the Ministry had misappropriated the Quills for another use. Interrogation and punishment, it had never been sanctioned by the Wizengamot, but that had never stopped certain members of the ministry using the objects anyway.

But the very fact the one had turned up in the possession of Delores Umbridge worried Bronwyn Edmunds greatly, because the last role Umbridge had filled was that of Grand Inquisitor at Hogwarts, and she could only guess what use that woman put the blood quill to while in a school filled with children.

Edmunds had made a mental note to speak to Minerva McGonagall at her earliest convenience, there were many fences that had to be mended between Hogwarts and the Ministry, and she wanted to be the one that made the first step. Even if that first step involved bringing charges against a respected Ministry employee.

Until that time the Blood Quill was carefully placed inside an envelope in her desk, after all it would probably be needed as evidence should it turn out it had been used on the children of Hogwarts.

"**Ministry employees, may I have your attention. This is Rufus Scrimgeour, the Minister of Magic. It has come to my attention that there are many among us that do not share our vision of a better future, who would actively conspire against us. **

**The time to act to stop these troublemakers has arrived. Martial Law is hereby imposed, effective immediately. Forces of law and order are even now moving to round up the disloyal, in order to allow this to happen with as little disruption as possible please remain in your offices and workplaces until advised, thank you."**

Bronwyn frowned as the voice cut off, what in Merlin's name was happening? What conspiracy was the man talking about?

Pushing back her chair, her reports forgotten, she stalked to her door and pulled it open. A large man dressed in brown robes had stationed himself at the corridor intersection just down from her office, his wand was out, and he appeared ready to use it.

"Get back inside, or you'll get back what's coming to you!"

Bronwyn bristled with anger, she didn't demand the bowing and scraping that some department heads demanded, but she was still a department head, and that position required a certain level of respect from the rank and file employees.

"I suggest you learn to keep a civil tongue in your head or I'll report you to Gawain Robards."

Bronwyn was even more surprised when the man laughed out loud. She had just threatened to report him to the chief Auror, and the man had laughed at her threat. The man turned to face her slowly moved towards her, despite herself Bronwyn took a step backwards, the man towered over her by nearly two feet.

"I don't answer to that idiot Robards, but if you want to report me to Norton Yaxley please be my guest, just give me some notice so I can buy tickets…now get back inside before I demonstrate to you how Yaxley would handle your complaint!"

Bronwyn felt a shiver of fear run up and down her spine, she had left her wand on her desk, and she was completely unarmed and defenceless. She backed up until she found herself pressed against her door and stepped inside. The hulking man grinned menacingly at her and shoved it closed on her, shutting her inside.

Bronwyn crossed to her desk and grabbed her wand, she was breathing heavily, but for now the fear was forgotten. Because as the door was closed on her she had heard distant sounds drifting down the corridor, sounds of battle, and it had been getting closer.

OoOoO

**SOMEWHERE IN EASTERN EUROPE**

"This is a mistake, a terrible mistake that will end up costing us all dearly!"

The man punched the large table to illustrate his point, however not one of the five figures that sat behind the opposite side of the table so much as flinched, despite the deep fist sized indentation that had been left in its surface.

"Mistake or not Lord Isaiah, the Conclave has reached a decision and has spoken now with one voice, the matter had been put to rest."

The voice, which came from the middle figure of the five seated was stern and dismissive, almost like a parent talking down to an unruly child.

"In all the years this Conclave has existed, we have never before entered into the affairs of the humans to such an extent as to that we now propose; to do so now is a huge mistake. To trust one such as Voldemort to keep his side of any bargain is plainly idiotic, it could rain destruction on all our heads."

The ancient meeting chamber, carved by hand from the mountain in ages past by creatures that never truly slept, was dimly lit by a dozen spluttering torches. The flames cast a flickering light up onto the numerous banners adorning the walls, depicting scenes of savagery and bloodlust many centuries past.

Despite the age of the banners and the time that had passed since the events they depicted had occurred, all but one of the present occupants of the room were clearly shown in those scenes of so long ago.

The six beings that currently occupied the chamber counted their natural life spans in centuries, not years, although none of them actually looked the age in years that they had walked the earth.

"Your arguments have been heard, discussed and discounted; anything further from you on this subject could earn the disapproval and displeasure of this Conclave."

The seated speaker took a deep breathe and struggled to calm himself, he stood and leaned on the table to face his agitated opponent.

"Lord Isaiah, you are still young, your clan will benefit from your leadership for many centuries to come, but you must curb this need of yours to always speak out on subjects which do not concern you."

Snarling in anger at his treatment from his supposed equals, Isaiah turned on his heel and strode from the chamber, his angry footsteps reverberating off the stone for many seconds after he had vanished from sight.

OoOoO

**VARIOUS LOCATIONS**

Aurors were by their very nature a cautious bunch of individuals, it was rammed home during their three years of training at the academy and reinforced during their probation period while they shadowed an experienced street Auror. This caution, and the fact that most Aurors were very sparing with their trust would save many that day from captivity or worse.

However trust among fellow Aurors was sacrosanct and more than one who wore the Auror grey had been recruited by the Minister's followers. These turncoats gave away closely kept information on their colleagues with barely a thought for the consequences. Addresses, family, safe houses, everything these men knew became known to those Scrimgeour had recruited to do his bidding.

For those off the day's duty shift there was little or no warning, and the first that most of them knew of the attack was when their doors exploded inwards followed quickly by one of the secretly formed Ministry hit teams. A handful managed to escape into the Floo network or by emergency portkeys, but on the whole the majority of the off duty personnel were taken with barely a fight.

Those that did decide to fight it out rather than run were dealt with ruthlessly, no surrender was offered, and the resulting conflict didn't stop with just the single Aurors death, pumped up on adrenaline and the lust for death, and egged on by specially placed Death Eaters the teams' slaughtered whole families of those brave Aurors.

By the end of the day the MLE had been virtually decimated, over three quarters of the Auror force had been captured or killed, the remaining quarter on the run or in hiding.

The only failure of the carefully planned and co-ordinated strike was that nearly seventy on-duty Aurors that were supposed to have been bottled up inside the Ministry itself during the lock down had, without notifying anyone, launched and unauthorised strike of their own.

Unbeknown to him, Gawain Robards last official act as chief Auror had saved nearly the entire day shift and the Auror strike team from becoming trapped inside the Ministry.

As an organised and coordinated law enforcement force, the Aurors were finished.

OoOoO

**SOMEWHERE IN EASTERN EUROPE**

"My lord! My lord Isaiah!"

Turning, Isaiah regarded the council member that had hurried after him once the meeting had adjourned, her graceful, soft footfalls hidden by his own hurried, and angry departure.

"The Conclave will lead us all to complete destruction, surely they see that."

The beautiful woman smiled slightly and inclined her head.

"These are the very same arguments you used on the Conclave Isaiah, and still they voted you down."

The man snorted with barely concealed derision.

"I noticed I couldn't even count on your vote in my favour Rebecca, the vote finished five to my one."

"Exactly my point, my vote would not have changed the end result, the only thing it would have done is to have shown the others my support of your position before we were ready to act."

"Act! Against the will of the Conclave, are you mad Rebecca?"

The second figure laughed, a light and joyous sound despite the disturbing circumstances, and tossed her raven hair over her shoulder. Her appearance was that of a female in her mid twenties, in actual fact she had lived over six hundred years, he himself was considered a mere child at not yet even three hundred.

"Isaiah, my friend, I have known you for nearly all of your time on this earth, I would like to think we are as close to one another as siblings, and that I continue to hold your trust. I have no doubt in my mind that you have a plan, some devious, sly way of getting around the Conclave's decision in this matter. You are far cleverer than the rest of the Conclave suspects, so how may I aid you."

The woman bowed her head to him; it was a sign of equality that others on the Conclave would never have bestowed upon him, for they regarded him as little more than a curiosity and a pet. Someone they could easily ignore when the circumstances allowed.

His clan was only small in both numbers and influence, only the fact that tradition dictated the Conclave be made up of six members had forced his appointment in the first place, that and the fact that Rebecca had fought to add another moderate voice to that of the Conclave.

The standing members hadn't wanted to appoint a leader from one of the more powerful clan's to the Conclave, someone who could possibly challenge them. So what if he was a moderate, his power base wasn't something that troubled them in the slightest. But what they didn't know was that they already had a moderate in their midst, and now this voice of reason held a third of the vote.

He nodded at some internal decision he had arrived at and took her by the arm, leading her into his clan quarters; he nodded to his personal guardsman who stood to one side of the doorway. Once inside he gestured to a seat and began pacing. Rebecca settled herself in the seat and watched with amusement as Isaiah began another circuit.

"I have done my research on this matter, more it seems than the Conclave has bothered to do. This conflict is far from the done deal that Voldemort presents it as. Yes this dark lord is powerful, and yes should he triumph then the rewards for those that backed him would be great. However, should he lose, then those that backed him would suffer severe consequences."

"Lose? This Voldemort cannot lose, he is rumoured to somehow be immortal. Arrogant and prejudiced he may be, but the forces moving to back him are powerful indeed, and who opposes him? A bunch of renegades, children and Goblins, led by an inexperienced teenager who relies far too much on his own fame."

Isaiah turned at Rebecca's words and pointed at her.

"You are making the same mistake as every opponent that has stood against this Harry Potter, you underestimate him to the extent that you are blind to the danger he represents. Voldemort has tried to kill him personally several times…and has failed every time."

Rebecca snorted with contempt at the human youth and dark lord both.

"So he's lucky, that won't allow him to succeed, not against Voldemort."

Isaiah shook his head in disagreement.

"Its much more than that, did you know the Dementors actually fear him, a mere human child, but they fear him terribly."

Rebecca just stared at him in unashamed shock.

"The Dementors acknowledged a human child as an individual? They only see humans as little more than cattle, a view by the way that we once held I might add."

Isaiah nodded.

"He has managed to forge a formidable alliance against Voldemort in a very short space of time, mainly by the force of his own charisma. He might yet triumph, and if that happens then the backlash against us would be extreme should we have solidly backed Voldemort."

"All right, so what is your plan then, to tip the balance in our favour."

Isaiah looked a bit sheepish and muttered.

"That's the bit I'm still working on."

OoOoO

**THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC**

The sounds of battle had fallen silent, now there was only deathly silence outside the door. Bronwyn stood in the centre of her office and raged impotently, whatever was happening was just the latest step in turning the Ministry into a dictatorship, and Bronwyn wasn't entirely convinced that Scrimgeour was the dictator in question.

She was just about to begin another round of pacing when a large portion of the ceiling turned into grains of sand and cascaded down onto her desk.

Bringing her wand up, she starred up in amazement as the head and shoulders of a man she recognised appeared through the whole.

"Bronwyn where is the nearest guard?"

Amos Diggory was covered in a layer of white dust that made him appear like a ghost, from the red smears on his face he had several deep cuts.

Bronwyn waved her hand at the door, shocked speechless by the unexpected appearance of her fellow department head. Diggory lowered himself down through the hole, landing on her desk with a loud thump.

"Call the guard Bronwyn, get him in here."

Diggory was more decisive and commanding than she had ever remembered him being, and almost on autopilot Bronwyn opened the door and called out to the guard.

"I need some help in here."

"I'm not here to help you, so shut up and go back inside."

The massive man replied. From inside her office came a loud thumping sound that must have attracted the man's attention, because he started moving towards her once more. He stormed past her and crossed the threshold of the office. The stunner struck him in the gut, but despite appearances' the man wasn't a complete idiot and had raised a shield before entering the room.

The shield collapsed under the power of the stunner, but it held long enough for the man to fire off a curse that reduced her desk to kindling, throwing Diggory to the floor, his wand flying from his hand.

The man drew careful aim on Diggory as he tried to recover his wand.

"Avada…"

"Stupefy!"

Bronwyn watched the hulking man slump to the floor and then looked down at her own wand in amazement. It had been her voice and her wand that had stopped the man.

"Thanks Bronwyn, I guess that I'm really not cut out for this sort of thing."

Amos Diggory picked himself up and made a futile attempt to brush himself off.

"Alright you lot down you come."

Diggory directed his comments to the ceiling, and to Bronwyn's surprise a slight figure dropped through the hole, quickly followed by a second and a third. Nearly a dozen figures dropped down into her office.

They were Auror cadets.

The oldest could only have been in her mid twenties, the youngest barely out of Hogwarts, and all of them looked as if they had seen the end of the world. They were also covered in cuts and the same layer of dust as Diggory.

They didn't make a sound, just huddled together in her office trying to draw strength from each other.

"What the hell is going on Amos?"

"The Aurors had a lead on someone high up on the most wanted list. They launched a strike to grab the individual but needed to keep it a secret, in order to appear fully manned they used about twenty Auror cadets to make up the numbers upstairs."

Diggory paused and ran a hand over his tired face.

"It just so happens that today is the day that Scrimgeour decided to remove the last obstacle to his grand plan."

"The Aurors!"

Bronwyn exclaimed in horrified understanding. Diggory nodded.

"I happened to be upstairs arranging for an Auror escort, when the Death Eaters and their pets arrived, it was…messy. There were only six trained Aurors left in the department, they were never even offered the chance to surrender."

Diggory paused again for a moment, this time his voice was filled with emotion as his mind replayed the events.

"What of the cadets, you said there were twenty, you only have twelve?"

"This was all I could save. The Death Eaters are killing indiscriminately anyone who gets in their way. They have destroyed the entire Auror department, burned everything, all the files, all that information…it's all gone. I managed to get a warning out by changing the recorded message on the Floo lock down, my department head clearance still works, but I have no idea if there are any free Aurors still out there to hear it."

For a moment the two of them stood in silence, trying to adjust their thoughts to what was happening to the Ministry, in the space of a few hours everything had changed again for the worst.

"How did you escape and get these others out?"

Amos Diggory grinned wickedly at her.

"I got a little creative and I collapsed the ceiling on top of them, it should take them several hours before any survivors can dig themselves out."

"So, what do we do?"

Bronwyn asked softly.

"We gather as many as we can and we get out of here as quickly and quietly as we can."

"And where do we go?"

This came from one of the Auror cadets, the first that had come down form the floor above. She appeared to have taken on the mantle of the little groups' leader.

"The only place of safety left to us."

Diggory answered.

"The Burrow."

OoOoO

**SOMEWHERE IN EASTERN EUROPE**

Isaiah looked up at the individual stood on the other side of his desk. He was dressed head to toe in loose fitting black clothing, only his face showed and that was held rigidly impassive. Over his shoulder was a black sword sheath with a black hilted Katana resting in it.

He was well known to the progressive clan leader, and had been in his employ for almost a decade.

"I have a task for you, a difficult and dangerous mission that requires certain skills."

The man simply nodded.

"I suspected as much, you would not have summoned me otherwise my lord."

Isaiah nodded, he was sure he was making the right choice, and had picked the right individual to carry out the task.

"You are aware of the situation in the land of your birth I assume?"

Again the man nodded, although this time his expression softened just slightly.

"Less than an hour ago a treaty was signed between us and the self proclaimed dark lord Voldemort, in which the Conclave in its infinite wisdom will agree to send forces to Britain to aid this wizard subjugate your former country."

The only sign that the man had heard these words was a slight rising of his eyebrows, despite the fact this treaty set aside nearly a thousand years of non-involvement.

"The resistance to Voldemort is led in the main by an individual named Harry Potter, he is the glue that holds the fragmented alliance together, without him resistance to Voldemort and his supporters would quickly crumble. I want you to travel to Britain and…"

"…Terminate this individual?"

The dark man interjected drolly, showing his familiarity with Isaiah, no-one would dream of otherwise speaking out to a clan leader normally. Isaiah coughed, and placed a hand over his mouth to restrain his impulse to laugh out loud.

"Yes, you would think that would be the case wouldn't you, good little servants of the Conclave that we are…but no, your task is going to be much more difficult than just killing some unprepared teenage human wizard. No, what I want you to do is to keep him alive…"

Isaiah smiled at the puzzlement that crossed the face of the clan assassin, he was as dangerous an individual as Isaiah had ever come across, and he was consistently and never endingly grateful that this capable assassin worked for him.

"My lord, I don't understand…"

And then the assassin shrugged and grinned at him, the spluttering torchlight glinting off of his prominent incisors and pale complexion.

"…but then, when has my understanding something ever gotten in the way of my completing one of your tasks, if you order it so…"

Isaiah formally nodded his head in the affirmative.

"…then so shall it be. And if this protective duty requires me to confront or act against those acting on the Conclave's direct authority…?"

Isaiah smiled and stood, he stepped around the table and placed his hand on his friends arm.

"Then I imagine there are soon going to be some very annoyed vampires in Britain."

OoOoO

**AUROR SAFE HOUSE, MUGGLE LONDON**

The safe house had been magically enlarged so that although from the outside it resembled a small, two bed roomed terraced house, the inside was large enough to cram nearly seventy Aurors with no room for comfort. Now there were Aurors sprawled all over the house in a state of shock at the savagery of what they had just faced. Casualties, although terrible could have been so much worse.

Despite the tragic deaths of six Aurors, including Gawain Robards, it had not been all one way traffic, three high ranking Death Eaters had been amongst the fallen. But most importantly they had come away from the raid with a valuable source of intelligence.

That source was at that moment being none to gently interrogated by the combined talents of Senior Aurors Kingsley Shacklebolt and Peter Deacon.

"So tell me Mr Pettigrew, what do you know about the details of what the Dark Lord plans today?…"

"Can I just interrupt you there Senior Auror Deacon."

"Please feel free, Senior Auror Shacklebolt."

Kingsley placed his hands upon the table at which Pettigrew was sat bound at and leaned menacingly towards the prisoner, the small weasel of a man moved back in his seat.

"Now Wormtail, we have been here before have we not, you and I over another table, at the Ministry."

Some inner flame of defiance flared inside Wormtail and he sneered up at the Auror.

"Your good Auror, bad Auror routine is getting very old Shacklebolt, last time your partner was Auror Tonks, I would suggest you need a new good Auror for your bad Auror, as I don't think she will be available for much longer."

Kingsley's face didn't even flicker as Wormtail mentioned his protégé, presently fighting for her life in one of the bedrooms upstairs. The only sign of his emotions was a slight whitening of his knuckles as he gripped the edge of the table harder.

"I think you have mis-read this situation Wormtail, I think you should know something…"

Shacklebolt leaned in closer as he lowered his voice, and Wormtail obligingly leaned forward as well, struggling to hear his words.

"In this case, I'm not the bad Auror…he is."

Shacklebolt stepped back as Wormtail turned his head to regard Peter Deacon, just in time to catch the thunderous punch that split his cheek open. The unexpected blow propelled Wormtail out of his chair and sent him sprawling onto the floor.

Peter Deacon walked slowly and calmly around the table, dragged the Death Eater upright by the scruff of the neck and forced him sharply back into his chair, then retook his own seat as if nothing untoward had happened.

"So, Mr Pettigrew, about those plans…"

OoOoO

**GOBLIN ENCLAVE, NOTTINGHAM**

"You are tribal elder, Rocksplitter Gromass?"

The elderly Goblin looked up from his tribes latest financial report, at the cloaked human that had somehow managed to enter his lodge unannounced, his two arms men, stood either side of the door, had already drawn weapons ready to end the trespasser's life.

He waved a clawed hand to halt his two bodyguards in their tracks and regarded the cloaked figure that stood before him. The human had a natural confidence about him, a surety that he spoke to the second most powerful Goblin tribal leader as an equal.

While Rocksplitter had no idea what the Human wanted with him, and to be honest he didn't really care, he knew whatever the result of the conversation, it was bound to be entertaining, one way or another. He had lived for a very long time and knew that one had to squeeze as much entertainment from life as possible.

"I'm Rocksplitter, tribal elder of clan Gromass, and you human have less than a minute to live, so I suggest you get on with whatever task brought you to my lodge to die."

The Human nodded his casual acceptance and reached inside his cloak, a gesture that nearly resulted in his death a whole fifty-five seconds early.

"My master has sent me to convey an offer of peace and fair treatment to the Goblin Nation."

Rocksplitter cocked his head to one side and evaluated the human afresh.

"Voldemort sent you."

It wasn't a question.

"Yes."

"Then he has wasted the life of one of his minions, for my tribe no longer controls the fate of the Goblin Nation, the untimely death of my father caused that honour to pass to another….Worthy."

Rocksplitter knew his father's death had been no accident, he had never been able to find the evidence to lay the death at Ragnok's door, but not through lack of trying. His quest for vengeance had nearly resulted in an inter clan war that would have torn the Goblin Nation apart. His relatively young age, his inexperience and his thirst for vengeance had ultimately ensured that the ruling tribal council passed control of the Goblin Nation to the tribal elder that could best ensure financial stability, rather than it be passed down to him.

Unfortunately that tribe was ruled by the very creature he suspected of killing his father, Ragnok of the clan Thuras. It was a decision that had mocked and ridiculed his tribe for over a hundred years.

His hatred for Ragnok had grown over the years, not lessened, his rival had led the Goblin Nation through one of its most financially successful and stabile periods, but despite the profits this stability brought him personally, Rocksplitter was sure of only one thing, he wanted Ragnok humiliated, then he wanted him dead.

"With the right leverage applied, leaders can be replaced and Governments can change. All we wish is to live in peace with our Goblin neighbours, the armed conflict we presently endure will not serve either of our interests."

"ARMED CONFLICT! WHAT ARMED CONFLICT?"

Rocksplitter roared. The Armed Forces of the Goblin Nation could only be sent into combat with the express permission of the Goblin Tribal Council, and as a member of the council he was certain no such vote had taken place.

"When the forces of the troublemaker Potter engaged the law enforcement officers trying to uphold the law and secure the Azkaban penal facility, they did so with a Goblin company at their side. Loss of life was severe on both sides. My lord wishes to prevent a repeat of such a tragic incident."

Rocksplitter was almost beside himself with glee, he finally had something to attack Ragnok with, sending Goblin troops into battle with humans without even consulting the council was something that if he played it carefully could not only result in Ragnok's removal and possible execution, it could lead to the leadership falling onto his shoulders.

"I'll have his head for this. Human, you mentioned leverage, what did you have in mind?"

The human wizard held out the object he had pulled from under his cloak and unwrapped it. Rocksplitter's eyes widen as he recognised the object in front of him. Then he started to laugh, all his plans would finally reach fruition, Ragnok would be disgraced, ritually executed, and he would finally take his destined place and rule the Goblin Nation.

"So what exactly is Voldemort offering for the neutrality of the Goblin Nation in your conflict…"

OoOoO

**AUROR SAFE HOUSE, MUGGLE LONDON**

Tonks screamed in agony, her arms and legs thrashing about in a desperate attempt to grab hold of something, anything to lessen the pain that coursed through her body. Her chest burned as if someone had impaled her with a red-hot poker and it was all she could do to remain conscious against the pain.

Strong hands grabbed hold of her arms and legs, holding them down against her continued struggles, she fought to free herself from her captors, to seek some form of release from the pain but she found she was too weak and was held too tightly to escape.

It took four of them to hold the wounded Auror down on the bed while the field medic attached to the day shift attempted to stabilise her.

"This is not working damn it!"

Savage looked across, surprised at the anger in the MLE medic's voice. Affectionately known as 'doc' by the troops, Samuel Tucker was a fully trained Auror who had spent an additional two years cross training as a medic, and he was a damn fine medic as well. Which was why hearing such frustration in the normally level-headed man's tone didn't exactly fill Ryan Savage with confidence.

"What's happening doc?"

The medic's hands were moving in fast controlled movements, over and sometimes inside the bloody red ruin that was Tonks' chest, his wand tip glowing a brilliant blue. Savage had been shocked when Tonks had arrived, he had seen the extent of the wound, it was like no spell damage he had ever seen, and it was still bleeding profusely.

"I can't stop the bleeding Ryan! This wasn't done by any spell I have ever seen, for one thing there are no magical burns around the edges of the wound that a spell would leave and there is this strange deep purple colouration I don't recognise."

"Ok, so if it wasn't a spell, then what the hell did this to her?"

Savage demanded.

"Judging from the wound to her back as well as her front, I'd guess some kind of long, thin blade, someone ran her through Ryan. But that doesn't explain why I cannot heal the wound, it's as if the wound is being forced somehow to reject the magic. Plus she is developing a high fever, anyway you look at it she is running out of time! We need to get her to a fully equipped medical facility, and soon."

Savage for once in his life had no answers, normally a wounded Auror would receive treatment at the Ministry of magic infirmary, or in more serious cases, be sent to St Mungo's, but neither of those were a safe option anymore. Thanks to the information that Wormtail had finally surrendered it was now known that both were firmly controlled by the Minister's private army.

But it didn't end there, Voldemort had launched an unprecedented number of strikes at a wide range of targets, including the Muggle Prime Minister and certain other high ranking government officials, the Ministry of Magic itself according to Wormtail was already under martial law. And that wasn't the worst of it, thanks to traitors within the department of magical law enforcement, the Death Eaters had information on every Auror and their families, Voldemort had wasted no time to strike out with all the power at his disposal.

With Robards dead, Savage had assumed command of the assembled Aurors, shocked at the scale of Voldemort's plans, Savage had used the Aurors at his disposal to get the word out as fast as possible and warn as many MLE officers and their families as he could, he hoped he had acted in time. Several of the day shift Aurors with families had already departed to gather up family members and return to the already crowded safe house.

Shacklebolt had already left, knowing that with his wife at the burrow, his daughter was in particular danger, although the man had been torn between his family and the muggle leader he was tasked with protecting.

Savage had no idea what was happening in the magical world at large, but knew enough to realise that their best chance of putting up any kind of serious resistance was to get as many Aurors together and coordinated as soon as possible.

Now he had been forced to make a decision that he hoped and prayed he wouldn't regret.

"I think we have to take a chance on St Mungo's. Stay here and she dies, at least at the hospital there is a chance she will receive treatment. Do your best to get her ready to move doc, we need to get her out of here."

The medic nodded grimly, knowing no words of his would provide comfort, Savage was about to do something that no Auror would normally consider, turn one of his own over to the enemy.

Savage turned away, but was stopped when a petite blood soaked hand reached out and fastened itself around his wrist in a painful vicelike grip. Startled he looked down and found a pair of feverish, pain filled dark eyes staring up at him from the bed.

"The Burrow, take me to the burrow!"

* * *

**AN/** Hope the wait was worthwhile


	20. 20 And The Walls Came Tumbling Down

**AN **Well my tour in the land of sand has finally come to an end, thanks for being patient and understanding. I need to answer some questions. Yes, yes, no, maybe, Treacle pudding, never, yuck and yes. You know who you are.

**AN **Hope you enjoy this after the wait, if not...I'm sorry, but this is a non-profit making venture and I own absolutely none of it.

**AN **No quote this chapter, if you have a favourite quote you want to see in this space then drop me a line and I shall credit it to you.

* * *

Chapter Twenty : …And The Walls Came Tumbling Down...

**THE BURROW**

Harry awoke slowly, yawned massively and stretched, working out all the kinks in his shoulders, and despite the general stiffness of his body from all he had put it through lately, he felt invigorated. He felt as if he had slept for a week, although given the sunlight outside the window, it could have only have been a few hours.

Reaching out with his arm he discovered a warm, depressed area in the bed beside him, but no sign of the person that he just somehow knew had been lying there until quite recently. Cracking one eye open, Harry quickly scanned the bedroom, part of the suite of rooms assigned to Neville Longbottom, and found it empty, although there were sounds coming from elsewhere in the suite.

Swinging his legs off the bed, Harry gingerly stood, remembering all too well what happened the last time he got up out of a bed a little too fast. But despite the minor aches and pains he felt stronger than he had for a long time. As he moved across the room he found he still limped, but there was no pain, just a numbness indicating a lack of strength in his over-taxed muscles.

Moving slowly to the door, he peered into the central living area, but that too was empty. Moving to the small kitchen he silently pushed the door open a crack and peered inside. Ginny was busying herself preparing them a tray full of food and cups of tea, Harry smiled as he watched the youngest Weasley, he found that watching Ginny doing anything, no matter how simple made him unexplainably happy.

His girlfriend was humming to herself as she busied herself around the kitchen, her wand tucked behind her ear, like he had seen Luna keep it on occasion. He entered the kitchen as silently as he could, but Ginny was so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn't hear him approach.

Coming up behind her, he enveloped Ginny in a tight embrace and bent down and kissed her neck, taken by surprise, she tensed up and spun around.

"Oh, its you!"

Harry blinked at her in astonishment and grinned widely.

"Who were you expecting? Cornelius Fudge? No-one else is keyed to be able to open the main suite door other than Neville and Luna, and I rather think they are busy in her suite."

No sooner than had he finished speaking, the main door to the suite slammed open, and rapid footsteps crossed the living room.

"So who's that then? Cornelius Fudge?"

Ginny quipped, raising her eyebrows at him. Harry groaned and wished he could have an uncomplicated life for just a day, was that too much to ask?

The door burst open, and a flustered and out of breathe Neville Longbottom stood in front of them, panting heavily.

"Good afternoon Neville, can I interest you in a spot of tea."

Ginny's voice had a cold, hard tone to it that Harry had never heard before, and inwardly he shivered, not wanting to be in Neville's shoes at that moment.

"I'm sorry to burst in on you, but it's the hospital, it's been over-run."

For a second both Harry and Ginny just looked at him, as if he had grown a second head.

"Overrun by what? Pixies, merpeople, Dementors, mutant biker mice from mars? You need to be a bit more specific here Nev."

Neville looked at Harry as if his intelligence level had just fallen somewhere below that of most common garden plants.

"Casualties Harry, the hospital is overrun with casualties…"

OoOoO

**THE SHACKLEBOLT RESIDENCE, KENT**

Kingsley Shacklebolt was an Auror, and a senior Auror at that, and you don't get to that level by rushing off half-cocked into unknown situations blind and without backup. But this occasion was so different, this was about his daughter, and no-one and nothing was going to stand between him and his family.

Pettigrew had, after some 'encouragement', given up the information that Voldemort now had access to every piece of information on Aurors and their families, addresses, workplaces, safe houses, everything, and that he had dispatched teams to strike those addresses. What made Shacklebolt even more frantic was the knowledge that his membership in the Order of the Phoenix had been 'outed' as well.

If being detail commander guarding the muggle leader wasn't enough, the fact that he had been inside Dumbledore's inner circle as well, must have bumped him up the priority list of possible targets significantly.

Shacklebolt appeared in exactly the position he had intended to the inch, a piece of precision point to point apparation that he was renowned for. The planks of wood in the base of the tree house groaned slightly under the sudden added weight of the tall Auror, but other than that the only other sign of his arrival was a small pop that was easily hidden in the background natural noise of the trees branches creaking.

He had built the tree house for his daughter Rachel the previous summer, completely by non-magical means, it had been a father-daughter bonding experience that the usually stern Auror would never forget. His daughter, although obviously not resembling him, still took after him in many respects, including her inquisitive nature and her need to tackle any challenge placed before her.

She had shunned dolls and tea sets at an early age, preferring the small training broomstick Kingsley had gotten for her, and climbing trees. The only allowance that Kingsley had made to her safety had been to place a permanent cushioning charm around the base of every tree on their property in case Rachel fell out of it.

From his perch, surrounded by the tree house and the branches covering it, he studied his home carefully. He could see nothing immediately wrong, but that meant less than nothing in the greater scheme of things.

A scream rent the air and made the breath catch in Kingsley's throat, he knew his daughter's voice anywhere, any parent would, and the sound of it spurred him into immediate action.

Moving quickly to the entrance of the tree house, he stepped out into empty air and landed knees bent as the cushioning charm absorbed his impact with the ground. He cocked his left wrist to a certain angle and his wand snapped out of his holster.

He crossed the empty lawn at a crouched over run, his wand never leaving the shut kitchen door. Reaching the porch steps leading up to the door he paused for a moment to review his options. He was alone, he faced an unknown number of opponents, and inside there were at least two hostages. Assuming nothing terrible had already happened inside then he also had his French live in Au pair to consider.

Amie Beauchamp was a distant cousin of Fleur Delacour, and had been hired on the recommendation of Henri Delacour, who he knew from law enforcement circles, and Madame Maxine at Beauxbatons. The teenage girl wanted to work aboard for a year before she took up an apprenticeship in charms. Despite a rocky start, his daughter had very quickly become quite attached to the young French woman, and the thought of what the girls' death would do to his daughter wasn't something Shacklebolt wanted to think about.

Whichever way he looked at it Shacklebolt needed information on what was happening inside, and with a sudden moment of inspiration he knew how to get it.

"Toby! Maddie!"

He hissed as quietly as he could.

With a puff of smoke a small female house elf appeared, she was injured, bleeding heavily from several nasty cuts.

"Oh master Kinsey sir, thank goodness yous is home. Bad men come, hurt young mistress, hurt Maddie and miss Amie!"

Kingsley muffled the house elf as soon as he could, her strident voice would attract all sort of unwanted attention.

"Its ok Maddie, I'm here to stop the bad men. Now I'm going to remove my hand but I don't want you to raise your voice, do you understand?"

The elf nodded with huge tear filled eyes. Shacklebolt removed his hand slowly, ready to replace it in an instant should the elf begin to shout again.

"Now Maddie, tell me, how many bad men are there inside?"

Shacklebolt grinned as the house elf held up four fingers.

"Very good, now I want you to stand over by the tree with the house built in it and when I nod make as much noise as you can, I mean I really want you to scream, understand?"

The elf nodded once and vanished again, only to re-appear at the foot of the tree. Shacklebolt flattened himself against the wall and prepared himself for what was probably going to be the most violent few seconds of his life, and then he nodded to the Elf.

"Master! Master! Come quick, there be bad men in the house, they be doing bad things to the little miss, come quick!"

The elf screamed loudly, and from inside the house came the sound of movement and voices.

"Shut that damn elf up before it attracts any more attention. Jacobs, you go, you got the other one."

Shacklebolt's knuckle whitened on his wand at the news that one of his house elves was dead, although they were bonded to his family, like Harry, Shacklebolt had always been far ahead of the curve in the way he had treated his elves.

The Kitchen door opened, and a thickset man in black robes stepped onto the small porch and raised his wand, pointing at the anxious house elf.

No incantation left his lips however. Moving at a speed powered by his anger and his fear for what he might find inside, Shacklebolt had straightened from his crouch and raised his arm, pressing his wand tip under the man's jawbone.

Shacklebolt had been pushed far beyond his limits by what had happened already that day, Tonks mortally injured, Robards dead, the battle in the basement, Voldemort's mocking farewell, and now this threat to his family. Right here, and right now he wasn't an Auror, he was a father acting in defence of his child.

"Reducto!"

The word was whispered, but at that range it didn't matter, the man's head exploded off his shoulders, covering the wall, garden, and Kingsley himself in a layer of gore. Wiping his eyes clear, Shacklebolt stepped through the still open door before the now headless man had even hit the floor.

Inside the oh so familiar kitchen, Shacklebolt paused for a fraction of a second to take in the bloody body of a male house elf that lay spread-eagled near the door, perhaps shot down in an escape attempt. He reached across to a counter and pulled one of a set of expensive chef's knife's from its rack, and advanced towards the man stood with his back to the kitchen, leaning nonchalantly up against the door frame leading to the living room. The man's attention seemed focused on something happening in the other room.

Shacklebolt had covered half the distance across the kitchen before the man turned around to face him, the evil smile on that mocking face hardly had just enough time to turn into a look of horror as the hard-eyed black skinned Auror was upon him.

The man recovered quickly, his wrist made a familiar motion and his wand appeared in his hand from the wand holster hidden by his sleeve. The man tried to bring the wand to bear on the fast moving Auror, but Shacklebolt was too close and blocked the man's arm with his own wand hand.

With a single savage thrust of the kitchen knife in his other hand, Shacklebolt rammed it up to its hilt in the side of the man's throat. The point of the blade protruded grotesquely from the other side of his neck, the man dropped his wand in shock as he put both hands to his throat in a forlorn effort to save his life. Then he was past the man and into the living room as the man desperately flailed about as he tried in vain to halt the blood flow from the hideous wound.

Despite the gurgling sounds coming from the hideously wounded man behind him, Kingsley could hear a hauntingly familiar rhythmic grunting. As he entered the room he found himself looking at the back and buttocks of a man, naked from the waist down, astride the still and bleeding form of the petite figure of his French au pair. Amie laid spread eagled upon the floor, her skirt pushed up around her waist, her blouse ripped open revealing her pale breasts.

"Reducto!"

The man had spun and fired off a curse so fast that Shacklebolt had little time to counter it, instead Shacklebolt ducked and rolled behind the couch as the spell came hurtling towards him.

A large hole was blasted in the wall behind him, covering his head and shoulders in plaster dust. Rising from behind his flimsy cover, Shacklebolt levelled his own wand.

"Aquamenti!"

The solid stream of water achieved its aim and blasted the rapist across the room and away from his victim. The man, now sopping wet, staggered to his feet and retaliated.

"Diffindo!"

Shacklebolt calmly levitated the couch into the path of the cutting curse, the power of which cut the couch into two nearly even halves. Letting one half drop to the floor, Shacklebolt flung the other half at the man, transfiguring it into a giant spear as it went.

Whoever the rapist was, he was nowhere near the skill level of Voldemort, and the spear slammed into his chest just under his heart, the force of the impact threw him backwards and pinned him to the wall with his feet daggling a foot in the air. For a moment the man struggled feebly in an effort to free himself, before going limp.

"I swear to you, that unless you put your wand down I'll take her damn head off!"

Shacklebolt spun to find a fourth man had entered the room from the passage leading to the bedrooms, the man had his arm tightly around his daughter's throat and his wand pressed to her ear. His daughter had a bruised face, with blood coming from her nose, she looked utterly terrified.

"I'm scared Daddy."

Shacklebolt felt his face soften slightly.

"I know honey, everything will be fine, I'm here now."

The man tightened his grip to make his point, causing his daughter to choke and her face to turn red.

"Alright, just don't hurt her."

Shacklebolt dropped his wand at his feet, his gaze resting on something over the man's shoulder. The familiar shape of a house elf had just materialised silently in the passageway behind the man, a very angry female house elf.

"Kick it over to me."

Shacklebolt kicked the wand to the man's feet, and watched as the man, his eyes never leaving Shacklebolt for an instant bent, to retrieve his wand, and in doing so loosened his grip around Rachel's neck until his hand only rested lightly upon her shoulder.

"YOU SHALL NOT HURT LITTLE MISS!"

The bludgeoning curse smashed into the man's back, right between his shoulder blades, as the house elf threw all her power into the spell. The man cart wheeled across the room, thankfully clear of his daughter, until he struck the far wall. He came to rest upside-down with his feet in the air, with his hand unfortunately still grasping his wand.

"Oh crap."

Shacklebolt dived at full extension, his hand out stretched for his wand that lay at his now sobbing daughters feet. The man had shaken his head and was climbing to his feet, his wand swinging around making a beeline for Shacklebolt or his daughter.

The palm of his hand made contact with that reassuringly familiar polished wood, and Shacklebolt rolled over onto his back, his arm pointing back at his attacker.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl, as both men aimed and began to incant.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The green light of the killing curse sped out, and with nothing in its way, struck its intended target.

OoOoO

**HEATHROW AIRPORT, LONDON**

The seatbelt sign came on over the passengers heads accompanied by an annoying chime, with military precision the stewardesses began herding all the errant passengers back to their seats.

"Ladies and Gentlemen we will shortly be descending to land at London Heathrow, please return to your seats, place your seats and tables in the upright and locked positions and put on your seat belt. On behalf of Captain Tickler and myself I would like to thank you for flying Virgin Atlantic."

Lt James Hastings looked up from the screen of his laptop and checked his watch. With a satisfied sigh he folded the screen down, trusting the auto save to retain his half finished document, placing the laptop back into its bag he accidentally nudged the man sat beside him.

The man was not much taller than Hastings' 5'6", but his shoulders were nearly as wide as he was tall and it was impossible to move in the neighbouring seat without touching him. The man's eyes opened slightly, and through small slits he regarded Hastings with a feigned hostility.

"I was right in the middle of the best damn wet dream I have ever had, and what do I find when I open my eyes? A short, ginger, twit of an officer, what a let down!"

Hastings just grinned at the abuse and nodded his head at the seatbelt sign over their heads.

"We're almost home, wake the troops, and Sergeant Barnes…for your information, I'm strawberry blond!"

The wide shouldered man grinned, and with a further yawn raised his arms over his head stretching, then without having to lean over, reached across the isle and touched the arm of the man in the seat opposite. This man was tall to the point where the economy seating arrangements seemed designed as method of torture, but despite his height he wasn't thin, possessing a ranginess that suggested a long distance athlete.

He snapped awake and for an instant wasn't sure where he was, every muscle in his body tensed, for a moment he became a coiled spring, before he became aware of his surroundings and the lack of threat. Relaxing, he turned his head to the fourth man in the group and spoke a few words.

The fourth man seemed asleep, but that was all it was, a pretence, the others knew he never slept on an aircraft, due to some incident earlier in his career. He never spoke of it, and those he worked with never pressed him on it, after all they all had secrets they didn't want to become public knowledge.

The fourth and last of the group was also the least noticeable of the four, he was average in virtually every respect, average height, average build, average looks. But this Average veneer was destroyed simply by looking into his cornflower blue eyes, there was a savage and calculating intelligence at work behind those eyes, and a fearlessness that was something special even within the group of talented individuals he currently found himself mixing with.

The four men waited patiently until the 747 touched down on the runway and taxied to the terminal, they had endured far too many such journeys to get impatient waiting the chance to disembark. When the door finally swung inwards, allowing access to the terminal, the four men allowed tight smiles to show.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

Neville led the way along the path at such a pace that Harry was forced to devote all his concentration to just keeping up with his friend, his body was telling him that he was over doing it again and that he would pay harshly for it later.

Beside him, Matt Hobart, who he had found leaning up the wall outside his suite, ran in easy loping strides that Harry could never duplicate, even when he was fully fit.

He was starting to see spots dancing wildly in front of his eyes and he was breathing heavily by the time they had crossed the short distance from the accommodation blocks to the hospital entrance.

Pushing the door open, Neville stopped and looked back over his shoulder in concern when he suddenly realised that Harry was struggling, Harry waved him on, unable to talk because he was so out of breath.

From the moment he stepped inside the hospital Harry was struck by a wall of sound, the sound of suffering and despair. The corridor was packed wall to wall for its entire length with injured people, men, women and children, some of the injuries were minor, but most were not. There was a general pall of hopelessness that seemed to hang in the air like a thick blanket of fog.

So many wizards and witches of all ages that Harry just stood in the doorway in stunned silence. In the corridor alone there were nearly a hundred injured, and these were just those that Harry could see.

Here and there a member of the medical staff floated quickly from patient to patient, trying desperately to cope with the unexpected flood of casualties. At the end of the corridor Harry thought he spotted the blond hair of Emma Granger, but she was gone from sight before he could do anything to attract her attention.

"Harry!"

Harry turned to see Emily Shacklebolt pushing her way through the press of casualties, a frantic expression on her face.

"Healer Shacklebolt I have already sent Ginny to fetch every wand wielding adult we can find, although few of us have any medical training."

The look of utter relief that crossed the healers face would have been comical in a less serious situation.

The Burrow hospital wasn't St Mungos, it had never been designed to deal with walk-in patients like the magical hospital in London had, there was no reception area, or wards for specific problems. There were four main wards, with private rooms sprouting off from the interconnecting corridors. The burrow hospital had never been set up to deal with anything like the numbers it currently faced.

"At this stage Harry I'd accept someone that could cast a simple cheering charm, thank you."

There was the sound of movement in the doorway behind him.

"I was hoping you would say that."

Harry head jerked up at the sudden loud screams, many of the injured were screaming wildly and pointing at him, or rather pointing past him at the entrance, several had even produced wands.

Harry spun around expecting to find a mass of Death Eaters entering the hospital behind him, instead the entranceway was filled with heavily armed and equipped muggle soldiers dressed in woodland camouflage.

Apparently not all muggles failed to see wands as a threat because all but one of the soldiers were pointing a weapon at one of the magical folk with a wand.

OoOoO

**SHACKLEBOLT RESIDENCE, KENT**

Shacklebolt slowly climbed to his feet and starred at the corpse of the man. He felt nothing for the man, he had been a threat to his life and that of his daughter, and Shacklebolt had acted accordingly. However he had just used an unforgivable, and taken a life with it, and regardless of the circumstances, he couldn't help but feel as if a line had somehow been crossed, a point of no return reached. Things would never be the same again.

"Daddy!"

Shacklebolt picked his daughter up and hugged her, for a long moment he held her to his chest, to reassure himself that she really was more or less unharmed. He revelled in her arms tightly wrapped around his neck.

"Its ok pumpkin, the men won't scare you again. We are going to see mummy now, would you like that?"

A little head bobbed up and down, and a thumb had been thrust into the child's mouth, a gesture not seen in several years.

"Ok, I'm going to put you down now, be a good girl and hold Maddie's hand ok."

Another bob of the head, as he lowered her back to the ground, Shacklebolt smiled gratefully as the house elf came up beside the taller child and took firm hold of her hand.

Bending down carefully, Shacklebolt felt for a pulse on the still form of the French teenager, her eyes were closed and she was covered in dried blood and bruises, but he couldn't see any serious injuries. Sure enough the girl had a weak thready pulse.

He took off his Aurors robe and gathered the unconscious girl up in it, he stood hardly feeling her slight weight in his arms at all.

"Rachel, I want you to hold tight to Maddie and close your eyes, can you do that for me sweetie."

"Yes dada."

Rachel spoke without removing her thumb from her mouth.

"Good lets go, stay close behind me Maddie."

He led the way through the kitchen and out onto the porch, studiously ignoring the dead man in a pool of blood in the kitchen and the headless corpse in his flowerbed, and descended the steps.

"Hold it right there Shacklebolt!"

Two proper Death Eaters, with face masks on and everything, stood in the garden, wands trained upon him. Shacklebolt felt a sense of despair as he realised with the girl in his arms he had effectively disarmed himself. He had no option left but to surrender, any fight would undoubtedly result in his daughters' death.

"Our lord has expressed a special interest in spending quality time with you Auror."

The Death Eaters both laughed, and Shacklebolt felt his heart sink, he had failed his daughter. He closed his eyes and bowed his head in defeat.

There was the sound of something falling to the floor and a scream of pain that cut off as suddenly as it started, and as Shacklebolt opened his eyes he was more than a little surprised to find both Death Eaters seemingly dead at his feet. One had some kind of small axe protruding from his back, while the other had two metal needles sticking in him connected by thin metallic wires to…

"What? Did you actually think we were going to let you come here and face these guys on your own? We're Aurors! We look out for our own."

Aurors Dawlish and Proudfoot stood there, looking quite pleased with themselves. Dawlish was carrying a yellow muggle weapon of some kind, connected to the Death Eater by the wires, even as he watched Dawlish pushed a button and the Death Eater' body jerked uncontrollably.

"You just have to love those muggles, the tazer, what will they think up next?"

Proudfoot bent and retrieved the axe from the Death Eaters back, its handle was finely crafted and multi-coloured and the head had feathers attached.

"Never knew my tribal tomahawk would come in so handy."

Shacklebolt just nodded, knowing this was probably the longest conversation he had ever had with the American Indian. The Auror moved to the second Death Eater, paused for a moment before bringing the tomahawk down on the back of his neck, killing him.

Dawlish frowned at the American but said nothing, he dropped the yellow weapon to the floor and drew his wand.

"Now I think its time we got out of here, nearly everyone is heading for the burrow Shack."

Shacklebolt shook his head, he knew he still had a duty to perform before he sought safety.

"Here take the girl."

He handed the unconscious female to Dawlish and turned to his daughter.

"Rachel, daddy has to go and see someone who may be in trouble just like you and Maddie were, will you go with Auror Dawlish to see mummy."

The child, in shock at how her ordered life had just been turned upside down only nodded and gripped the house elf's hand even tighter.

"Take my daughter to the burrow, get them both medical attention. Tell whoever is in charge there that Proudfoot and I will be arriving shortly, and possibly bringing a VIP with us."

Dawlish looked as if he would argue, but in the end just nodded, he then popped away, followed by the house elf.

"So where are we going?"

Proudfoot asked, fingering his bloody tomahawk.

"We are going to see a man about saving a country."

OoOoO

**GRINGOTTS BANK**

Ragnok moved towards the large council chamber mentally preparing himself for the meeting ahead. He had requested a gathering of the Goblin tribal council's chief executive, four senior tribal leaders, to discuss the further use of force to aid Harry Potter.

Sending Goblins into battle was never something undertaken lightly, every Goblin life lost was keenly felt because the reproductive rate of Goblins as a species was much slower than that of humans. But Ragnok had a wider view of the world than most of his species, money and wealth were all well and good, but if the land was ruled by a power mad psychopathic killer it wouldn't do you any good.

In the short term, aiding Potter didn't exactly make financial good sense, despite the fact it was the right thing to do. However in the long term if Voldemort could be defeated, the financial benefits that could be reaped from closer ties to a Potter influenced government and Wizarding society far out weighed the risks. For such a long lived race, Ragnok never ceased to be amazed by how short sighted the majority of Goblins could be.

He reached the council chamber and because of his musings he never noticed the hostile looks he got from the armed guards on either side of the door. The doors slid soundlessly open, and Ragnok entered...To find the room considerably more crowded than he expected.

The entire Goblin tribal council were arrayed around the chamber, and it was not a comfortable fit in a room of that size.

"What in Helm's Deep™ is going on here!"

Ragnok exclaimed, his gaze travelled from Goblin to Goblin, to his surprise not even those who would have been counted among his supporters could meet his gaze.

"Ragnok Thuras, you stand accused of abusing your position. Specifically, of involving the Goblin Nation in an internal Wizarding struggle. You have already sent one company into combat and have prepared three more for immediate service in a non profit making endeavour against the properly elected Wizarding authorities…What do you have to say for yourself?"

Ragnok looked at the Goblin that was sat in his rightful seat and snarled, he should have known, he should have listened to his advisors and had Rocksplitter put to death all those years ago, shortly after the vault cave in accident that had killed his father.

Despite the fact that the elder Gromas and he had been rivals for many things down the years, including his mate, there had always been respect, and the knowledge that neither would act against what was the best interests of the Goblin Nation. There was none of that wisdom in the youngest Gromas, just the burning light of fanatical madness in his eyes.

"By what authority do you question any decision I make Rocksplitter Gromas?"

Even though he had stepped outside of his remit by the strictest of definitions, the defence of the Goblin Nation was still his purview, and everything he had done could be justified under that title of defence. Ragnok saw the look of triumph cross the face of his adversary, and wondered what kind of gas pocket he had stumbled across.

"The authority granted to me by being the rightful bearer of this."

Rocksplitter lifted an item that had been hidden under a cloth on the table. Ragnok starred at the object in sudden and sick comprehension, he wasn't here being asked to explain his actions to the tribal council, he was here to be replaced as the head of the Goblin Nation, and this was in fact a coup.

"Ragnok you are hereby stripped of your position and titles and are to be placed under arrest pending the results of a full inquiry by the tribal Council. Furthermore the orders you have given to the three companies presently mustering in Wiltshire have been cancelled, the company already in the field has been recalled…we can only hope this has been done before lasting harm can be done to the human – Goblin relationship that seems to matter so little to you."

Ragnok's mind had ground to a complete halt, all the plans he had made, the preparations he had made to take the fight to Voldemort's followers, it was all falling apart.

Harry Potter!

The withdrawal of support to Harry would strike the teenager as another betrayal in a long line of betrayals, without the Goblins to secure his base of operations Harry would be hard pushed to be able to fight off a Death Eater assault that might come.

Might come! Who was he kidding, Voldemort assuredly had a hand in his downfall, and therefore already knew of the Burrow's weakness. Harry was unlikely to be able to ride out this particular storm when it reached his shores.

"Take him away!"

Ragnok shrugged aside from the hands that grasped his arms and walked from the chamber to start his imprisonment with his head still held high.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW**

Harry froze, a look of shock on his face, he wasn't sure what to do, apparate away, drop to the floor and become as small a target as possible, or make an attempt to stop the promised violence before it actually got started started.

Luckily for him the decision was taken out of his hands in an instant.

"THAT IS ENOUGH!"

Thomas Bell pushed his way to the front of the soldiers, he alone hadn't produced a weapon, although he was still carrying one, which indicated he wasn't under arrest just at that particular moment.

"22 STAND DOWN!"

Harry had seen Thomas Bell angry before, but had never seen him in command, at Azkaban he had been just another warm body, but despite his supposed fugitive status there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was the one in command. He seemed to have somehow grown taller, and there was a confidence in his manner that Harry hadn't see before.

Under his words of command the seven other soldiers, Wilky included, raised their weapons to point at the ceiling and relaxed. Thomas came forward, hands open and raised.

"Healer Shacklebolt we are here to offer you our services, my men and I are all trained in battlefield first aid, two of us are combat medical technicians, it seems like you could use the help."

Thomas shrugged and folded his arms across his chest as he waited for a response, it wasn't long in coming.

"As I have already told Harry, at this point I'd accept the help of just about anybody with good intentions, thank you, all of you."

Healer Shacklebolt answered before Harry could, and giving the exact same response. Thomas grinned and looked over his shoulder at the soldiers arrayed behind him.

"You heard the good healer, go to work."

The soldiers immediately slung their weapons and began pulling medical supplies from various pouches in their vests, then under healer Shacklebolt's direction the men began moving amongst the injured wizards, bringing comfort and pain relief where they could.

Harry shook his head and smiled at the shocked faces of the wizards and witches, as the muggles moved between them, such co-operation was unheard of, and the very fact that they had taken a first small step boded well for the future.

"Healer Shacklebolt what can I do to help?"

Emily frowned and nodded her head back down the corridor she had just come down.

"First ward on the left, there is a group in there that have been most insistent on speaking with you since they arrived, members of your student militia are holding them under guard."

Harry frowned, and began making his way down the crowded corridor, aware of the significant presence of Matt Hobart at his shoulder. Luckily enough his identity went undiscovered by the masses until he had reached the indicated ward and he pushed his way inside.

There were a large number of people stood around in the ward in what passed for civilian clothing among pureblood wizards, Harry recognised several of them immediately as Aurors he had dealt with before. Principle among these was Ryan Savage, the leader of the team Tonks belonged to. Harry had last seen Savage in the Ministry of Magic the night he and Tom had sprung Wormtail from custody.

The new arrivals were being watched discretely by a small group of the D.A. consisting of Hannah Abbot, Jimmy Peakes, Laura Madley, Sarah Fawcett and the Creevey brothers, their wands were drawn, but held down at their sides, they were relaxed but alert and Harry suddenly wondered if any of the Aurors now present had been involved in the prisoner round up. It was something that could rise up and cause them all major problems.

Ryan Savage looked up as the doors opened and moved towards Harry, he was stopped short by the loud warning growl that came from the back of Colin Creevey's throat. Harry smiled warmly at the boy's ever ready loyalty to him, and nodded to the youth let him know it was ok to let the Auror through.

"Potter, my group seeks sanctuary under your protection and medical attention for our wounded. We will accept any security measures you deem necessary."

Harry frowned, he didn't know yet what had happened, but there was a note of total desperation in the man's tone that he had never heard before from an Auror, and judging from his ragged appearance and that of his group it was clear something fairly traumatic had occurred.

"Fine, I will offer you a safe haven, however there will be some restrictions placed upon you, the last time I checked you and your colleagues were my enemies, once I am convinced that has changed I will return your freedoms to you."

If Harry thought there might be resistance to his demand he was disappointed, Ryan Savage immediately held his hand out to Harry with no hesitation at all. Harry hesitated just a moment, and a glimmer of understanding past across the Aurors face, Savage was in the process of withdrawing his hand when Harry reached out, took it and the two men shook.

"Harry, I have bad news for you…"

Given the single person that linked him and Savage together, Harry knew instinctively what the man was about to say, and felt his body grow suddenly cold.

"Tonks?"

Harry asked quietly, Savage looked down at the floor, pain and sadness written all over his face, the man slowly shook his head then pointed to the figure in the nearest bed with his hand. At this moment the doors to the ward were pushed open and Ginny entered, followed by Marcus Washburn striding along in her wake.

Harry shut his eyes for a moment trying to put his racing thoughts into some kind of order. This war was starting to escalate out of any ability to control, it was dragging more and more people into the conflict and every death and every injury was like a blow to his soul.

From the moment he had first met her at 4 Privet Drive, Harry had liked the young Auror, she had been young enough that her youthfulness and her boundless energy had been a counterbalance to the other adults in his life. She had quickly become a surrogate aunt to the vulnerable teenager, his protector and his confidant, and it had hurt him deeply when he had learnt she had betrayed them all to continue working for the ministry.

But he had felt extremely proud when he had found out she was in actual fact one of Marcus's Auror spies, it was an incredibly dangerous position to place herself in, but a vital one nevertheless.

It took only a few seconds to clear his mind of all the thoughts buzzing around inside his head, but when he opened his eyes he found the others watching him intently, waiting for instructions.

Not for the first time he wondered why everyone just expected him to step into the leadership position every time, his classmates were among the most intelligent people he knew, did they really require him to do their thinking for them.

"Neville, find Remus, get him here as fast as you can."

Neville nodded, and without a further word ran from the ward.

Ryan Savage immediately stood up straighter in the presence of his former superior, Harry didn't wait to hear what the two said to each other, and he moved over to the bed and looked down at his friend and one time protector.

Tonks was terribly pale, the dried blood on her face standing out and indicating by comparison just how pale she was. Her clothes were torn and wet from the blood loss, and although for the sake of her privacy, he wanted to keep his eyes averted from her body Harry couldn't help but look at the terrible wound in her chest between and just below her breasts.

"Wotcha Harry"

Her voice came in ragged gasps as she spoke through the pain, Harry couldn't imagine what this young woman was going through. Her arms and legs had been restrained by magically summoned straps to stop her injuring herself further.

"Oh Tonks."

Harry found himself gripping the woman's hand, his eyes welling with tears, Tonks squeezed his hand hard and tried to smile but the expression came out as more of a grimace.

"Tell Remus…"

"He's on his way Tonks I promise, you can tell him yourself ok?"

The woman just nodded and closed her eyes tight against the pain.

"Mr Potter you should still be in bed."

Harry looked up as Madam Pomfrey appeared at the end of the bed frowning at him, behind her shoulder was the specialist trauma healer Augustus Pye and another man. Madam Pomfrey turned her attention to the injured figure in the bed and the healer gasped in shock and quickly drew her wand.

"Nymphadora, what have you done to yourself?"

Harry wondered why he felt so surprised to discover that Poppy Pomfrey knew Tonks well enough to use her first name, in hindsight it shouldn't have come as such a shock seeing as how Tonks had always been one of Dumbledore's favourites and had in fact only left Hogwarts a few years before he had started. They must have had contact many times over the years.

The newcomer stepped up to the bedside, his hands and clothes were covered in blood, and Harry knew without a word being said that it wasn't his own blood.

"Healer, my name is Tucker. I'm the field medic with this group and I desperately need your help, I have tried everything I can think of to stop or slow the blood loss, but nothing is working."

Madam Pomfrey nodded and turned and gave Harry a significant look, making a shooing motion with her hand. Harry nodded.

"Tonks I have to go, Remus is coming soon, Poppy is right here to help and I shall be back as soon as I can."

Tonks opened her eyes, and to Harry's amazement she winked at him despite the pain she must have been in. He smiled and squeezed her hand again before laying it back on the bed. Stepping back, Harry wiped his face and turned away from the bed, he felt numb inside at the sight of his seriously injured friend.

There was a sudden flash of light and Fawkes gently alighted onto the injured woman's bed, somehow the Phoenix seemed to know his talents were required, which probably meant that Hermione was sleeping, Fawkes rarely left her side while she was awake. The flame feathered bird butted his head at Madam Pomfrey's hands and she pulled the covers away from the hideous would in Tonk's chest

The phoenix leaned over the wound examining it closely, before tilting his head to one side, several tears fell into the open wound and Harry found himself holding his breath, watching for the signs of the wound closing….It never came, the tears touched the wound and they became steam before they had a chance to undo some of what had been done.

Fawkes squawked in indignation at being denied and dropped yet more tears into the wound, with an equal amount of success. The phoenix turned its head towards Harry and he thought he could see the distress behind those intelligent black eyes.

Fawkes looked over at Ginny who had approached while his attention was fixed on Tonks, and began crooning gently to her, Harry noticed with surprise the look of wonder that came over her face.

"Fawkes says that whatever caused the wound used very old and dark magic and that his tears are having no effect at all."

Harry smiled sadly and gently stroked the top of the amazing birds head.

"Thank you for trying Fawkes, you did your best."

The bird launched itself into the air and began to sing its song, filling everyone's hearts with joy and strength, before disappearing in a flash of light.

Before he had taken two steps away from the bed he found himself locked in a comforting embrace, Ginny had waited patiently in the background knowing Harry would need her, but somehow having the maturity to also know Tonks in that moment needed him more.

It was moments like this that reinforced in Harry's mind just how intelligent and sensitive his girlfriend actually was, she always somehow instinctively knew what to do in such situations.

"Tonks is in good hands Harry, if anyone can help her, its Madam Pomfrey, you should know that better than anyone."

Harry responded to Ginny's hug and words of encouragement by gently resting his cheek on the top of her head and pulling her body in tighter to him. The warmth of her body provided a comforting presence in his arms that he knew he would never grow tired of.

He heard the doors to the ward open but ignored them as he tried to leech as much love and comfort from Ginny's embrace as he could. He was tired, not physically tired although he did ache, his soul was tired from the constant fighting, the need to be alert and in charge, he was sick of it and longed for its end.

"Harry?"

Harry raised his head from the embrace and looked up to see Remus, his godfather was pale and his face was still heavily bruised from his ordeal at Wormtail's hands. He looked almost as bad as the morning after Harry had saved Sirius, when Buckbeak had nearly killed him.

Remus was leaning heavily upon the shoulder of David Wilks, the tall soldier didn't seem to feel the werewolves weight at all. Behind them were stood Draco and Thomas. Seeing Harry's attention on him, Remus straightened up and moved forward on his own. His steps were slow and faltering, but the determination on his face was something to behold.

"Remus, I'm so sorry."

Harry grabbed hold of the older man, and for a moment the two of them just clutched onto each other trying desperately to take strength from the other. The last Marauder and the-boy-who-lived, son of a Marauder, what a ragged pair they made Harry thought to himself.

"How is she?"

Remus asked, his voice quiet.

"Not good, she has lost an awful lot of blood."

The former professor nodded in understanding at what Harry hadn't said, the fact that Tonks was so badly injured he wasn't sure she would live or not.

"Thank you Harry, I'm going to sit with her for a while, you are welcome to stay?"

Harry shook his head.

"No, you two need to spend some time alone, or as alone as present circumstances allow."

Harry indicated the three members of the medical community that were treating Tonks, a small smile crept onto the face of Remus Lupin and he nodded. Harry gripped his friend's arm then looped his arm around Ginny's waist and moved towards the doors.

Harry looked up to find Marcus beckoning him over to where he and Savage were stood, it was the look of anger and hatred on the face of the former Auror that froze Harry's insides. Harry didn't think he had ever seen the normally mellow and laid back former Auror so angry. Washburn's anger blazed like the beam of a searchlight, his eyes sweeping around looking for the target of his wrath. Harry was fairly sure that person wasn't at the Burrow, although he had been here, twice.

Taking Ginny's hand, Harry led her over to the Auror and the ex-Auror, Marcus looked as if he was ready to kill something, and Savage just looked exhausted with worry about his team member.

"Harry we have a situation, it seems as if Scrimgeour has lost his bloody mind! He is trying to remove the entire DMLE in one go and he does not seem to care how he does it. Tonks was injured when she faced off against Voldemort and his inner circle on her own, brave girl, along with a huge dollop of stupid. There are a lot of Aurors that are now on the run out there Harry."

Harry rubbed a hand over his face, trying to take in and process this new piece of information, he needed some time to get a grip on the new and rapidly changing reality he was facing, but Voldemort was determined not to give him that time. It meant he was always reacting to the moves of Voldemort.

He looked into the expectant faces of the two law enforcers, he knew what they wanted him to say, but he was weighing up the consequences of such an action. There were many at the burrow that would not welcome the arrival of the very Aurors that had placed them in Azkaban prison, but on the other hand it could provide a large number of potential allies, allies they desperately needed.

"Alright Marcus, go save as many as you can. I will offer sanctuary here to any Auror or other Ministry employee, as long as they agree to my terms about certain restrictions upon their arrival. While I trust your people without question, I'm not willing to extend that trust to the entire DMLE, they are my terms."

Marcus studied him for a long moment, almost as if he was trying to read Harry's mind via Legilimency. Satisfied by what he saw in Harry's eyes Marcus smiled crookedly and then nodded once.

"Ryan I'm going to need every one of your people that are still fit for duty and I need them right now! I am mobilising every single man at my disposal for a rescue and recovery mission. Harry, with your permission I shall leave you the D.A. and the Goblin company for Burrow defence, if there is going to be any kind of DMLE after today we are going to have to move very fast."

Harry nodded in confirmation and Marcus swept from the room with energy of a newly awakened volcano, followed by Savage and those uninjured Aurors that had arrived with him, numbering around fifty. Some had apparently already left to gather up their own families. Harry could still hear Marcus issuing orders as he strode purposefully away up the corridor.

Stood to one side of the door, Matthew Hobart looked torn, between his promised responsibility to protect Harry and his loyalty to his former comrades that needed his help. He solidly held his position, but his entire body seemed to vibrate from a need to be located else. Harry looked over at him and nodded his understanding.

"Matthew, Marcus will need as many men as he can get, go on, I'll be safe enough here."

Matthew Hobart's face went blank for a moment as he struggled with his conscience, then he nodded once briefly in gratitude before hurrying from the ward after the mob of Auror's.

"Is it always this busy around here?"

David Wilks quietly asked Thomas as the two soldiers lent up against a wall, blending effortlessly into the background, and observing the scene before them. Thomas smiled slightly at his friend and shook his head.

"Nope, at the moment we are enjoying a quiet spell, you should see this place when it gets really busy!"

Wilky just raised his eyebrows silently at the comment, and started to revise his opinion on what was happening around him.

OoOoO

**NO. 10 DOWNING STREET**

The fireplace flared green and Kingsley Shacklebolt stepped into the Prime Minister's private office, quickly followed by Auror Proudfoot, to find it rather more crowded than he was accustomed to.

The room appeared to be filled with armed men, most of whom were now pointing their weapons at the two of them, and despite the fact he was known by all of the men, none of them relaxed their postures or lowered their weapons in the slightest.

The Prime Minister was sat behind his desk with his fingers laced tightly together in front of him, regarding the Auror with an intensity and anger that Shacklebolt knew didn't bode well.

"Prime Minister we need to evacuate you to a place of safety, I have information that there will be an attempt to take you into custody, supposedly for your own protection."

It struck Shacklebolt that nobody in the room seemed the least surprised by his statement, in fact there was a spark of grim humour in several of the pairs of eyes that currently regarded him.

"What's going on sir?"

"I was about to ask you the same question Auror Shacklebolt. Earlier this morning on my way back from seeing her majesty my motorcade was attacked by six individuals claiming to work for the Ministry of magic."

Shacklebolt prided himself on his cool demeanour but this news shocked him so much he barely even noticed that the Prime Minister had used his title and that of the Ministry in front of so many people who didn't know anything about the magical world.

"It gets worse Shacklebolt, one of the members of your detail was aiding the attackers, causing my car to crash and my driver to be killed."

Shacklebolt just looked at the man blankly, Williamson and Connor had been on duty and he couldn't believe that either would have betrayed him in such a manner. Seeing his stunned expression the Prime Minister's tone softened slightly as he continued.

"The attackers claimed they were there to arrest your other bodyguard, and to place me in protective custody. During the attack several of my men were severely injured, as was Auror Connor."

Shacklebolt gasped at the news, during the short time they had worked together he had become quite fond of the young Auror, he respected her skills and valued her opinions, now what had she gotten herself into? And Ayden Williamson a traitor, if he had turned then nobody in the entire department was above suspicion.

"Don't look so worried boss, I'm not expecting a visit from the grim reaper just yet. Besides, you look worse than I do!"

Shacklebolt spun around at the sound of the weak, pain filled voice, there laid on the sofa behind him was Auror Lauren Connor, she appeared so pale he could almost see through her and there was dried blood on her face and hands.

He approached the sofa and went down on one knee, being careful to avoid hurting her, Shacklebolt lifted the blanket that had been placed over her.

She had been undressed to allow someone to bind her wounds, the one to her shoulder was not the result of any spell he was familiar with, the wound to her chest and side was an uncommon spell causing the victim to be temporarily paralysed.

"To give Auror Connor her due she managed to incapacitate four of the attackers before she was laid low herself, one of my officers was forced to kill the remaining two. However the fact remains they claimed to work for the same organisation as you do Auror Shacklebolt, can you shed any light on this matter?"

Shacklebolt turned away from the injured Auror and looked at the most powerful muggle in the country and tried to find the words to express the full horror that had been unleashed this day. It took several moments to get his emotions under control.

"I'm sorry to say Prime Minister it means that the Ministry of magic has fallen to the enemy and can no longer be trusted, it is now actively aiding the dark wizard Voldemort in the war we are currently fighting. The odds are definitely not now in our favour. We should leave here, immediately, it's an obvious target."

As if to give counter point to his argument, there was a terrible screech of metal under stress and something slammed into the front of the building. The lights flickered and dimmed for an instant before regaining their normal brightness level.

"Time to go"

Proudfoot spoke his first words since his arrival, his solemn and deep voice seemed to spur the Prime Minister into motion.

"Very well, we are evacuating!"

Shacklebolt bent down and supported Lauren Connor as she unsteadily climbed to her feet, one of her hands pressed to her side, keeping the dressing over her wound, her other hand tightly clutching her wand.

Two of the bodyguards moved to the door and pulled it open, they led the party through the door and into the outer office where two frightened secretaries huddled watching the procession pass.

There was a sudden sound of an explosion that shook the building down to its foundations, dust fell from the ceiling and the walls seemed to groan under the pressure. Shacklebolt could hear the sudden buzz of radio traffic as several of the armed men cocked their heads to one side to listen.

With all the magic being casually tossed about it was a wonder the muggle radios were working at all.

"Prime Minister, the Stronghold has been breached! Intruders are now in the building, we have to go."

Several men moved forward to cover the outer door, one of them opened the door and stepped out into the hallway beyond the outer office with his weapon raised, only to be thrown back inside the room as a Reducto curse slammed into his chest. The man fell to the floor and lay still, his chest a smoking crater from the spell impact.

Another of the bodyguards fired his handgun wildly at a dimly seen black shape, the sound was loud in the small room and caused one of the secretaries to scream, the fire was returned by a nauseatingly familiar green curse which hit the man and dropped him to the floor without so much as a sound.

"Back, back inside the office!"

Shacklebolt shouted, and the two of the surviving bodyguards literally picked the Prime Minister up and carried him back inside his office, the remaining bodyguards began firing at the doorway in an effort to suppress whoever was trying to gain entry.

"Come on, get inside!"

Shacklebolt called to the two secretaries, but both of them cowered under their desks and shook their heads, too scared to move the few feet required for their own survival. Despite his feelings, his responsibility lay in protecting the muggle leader and the other two Aurors, and with anger, frustration and guilt he turned his back on the two women, fairly sure he was condemning them to death.

Another two bodyguards had fallen to well aimed curses before everyone was back inside the Prime Minister's private office. But this was no normal office, it had been designed to be the Prime Minister's panic room in the unlikely event Downing Street came under attack. The heavy reinforced door slammed shut and the remaining bodyguards activated the thick countersunk locking bolts, closing the door caused hidden metal shutters to fall, covering the windows.

Shacklebolt just looked down at the body of one of the fallen police officers at his feet and scowled, more deaths, their enemies had now made their intentions quite plain and they were deadly serious.

Shacklebolt turned and examined the room, there was only the one door and using that was now out of the question, despite his reservations at exposing further muggles to the magical world it seemed they were out of options.

"Prime Minister, do you have a secure location you could go to if I can manage get you out of here?"

Tony Blair nodded, suddenly glad his family were away visiting his wife's parents. He was supposed to have been hosting a cabinet meeting after his return from the palace, he hoped the cabinet members had managed to get to the bunker that was located under the building.

"Yes, there are several locations set up as command posts that I can use in an emergency."

"Right then I guess its time for us to leave, everyone please gather around the rug on the floor."

"Just a moment Auror Shacklebolt, how do I know that I can trust you, this could all be a set-up to ensure I go willingly to my fate!"

Shacklebolt starred at the man for a moment trying to find words to go with his astonishment. They did not come easily.

"Firstly my young colleague here nearly died keeping you safe this morning, secondly I have never been anything but honest with you, and thirdly at the moment I don't see you having much of a choice!"

Shacklebolt spun away without a further word and walked to the sofa where he had replaced the wounded woman. He picked up Lauren Connor, she was surprisingly light, and carried her to the desk. Setting her carefully down on the desktop, he stepped back and drew his wand, aiming it at the rug on the floor, concentrating hard he pictured his destination in his mind and cast the spell.

Many magical wards protected the room and the building as a whole, but since he was the key master to them all it took no effort on his part to dispel the ward that prevented the use of portkeys.

"Portus!"

The rug glowed blue for a moment before returning to normal.

"Everyone take a firm hold of the rug, unless you want to be left here of course."

The door suddenly rang like a bell as something struck the other side, the heavily reinforced door shuddered slightly but held firm, however the reminder of hostile forces attempting to gain access prompted quicker movement on the part of the muggles.

One of the men spoke quickly and urgently into his handheld radio.

"Jericho, I say again Jericho!"

A dozen pairs of hands took a firm hold of the rug and lifted it to waist height as Shacklebolt lent forward and swept up the wounded Auror in his arms and tapped the top of the rug with his wand twice. In a blinding flash of light the rug and all of the room's occupants disappeared.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

"Lord Potter, may I speak with you?"

Harry's head shot up from the wound he had been trying to dress with mediocre success, fortunately the witch was already unconscious so could not complain at his mishandling. The number of casualties was astonishing, a small percentage of the victims were made up of Aurors and their families, with an assortment of other Ministry employees and their loved ones making up the bulk of the numbers.

It seemed that Voldemort, through his pet Minister of magic, hadn't just targeted the Aurors, he had struck out at those whose politics put them at odds with his 'grand plan', whatever the hell that was. The attacks looked to an uninformed observer to be entirely random, just a madman lashing out to cause pain, but Harry was fairly certain that wasn't the case at all.

Voldemort never did anything without moving towards an end goal, the dark wizard had spent an entire year plotting to get Harry to the cemetery at Little Hangleton for the resurrection ceremony, when he could have had Crouch Jnr just try and snatch him much earlier in the term. But that would simply have lacked a certain elegance that Harry had come to expect from any plan of Voldemort, violent, cold and ruthless, but elegant none-the-less.

Whatever Voldemort was doing, it wasn't just acts of random violence.

"Lord Potter?"

Harry snatched himself back to the here and now, his mind had wondered while his hands remained busy. Turning, he smiled in recognition as he saw the Goblin company commander.

"I'm sorry Gutripper, it's been a busy day. What can I do for you?"

Harry's smile died on his face as he saw the solemn look on the Goblin warriors face, he was clutching a parchment in his hands so tightly that his knuckles had gone white.

"My lord I have bad news."

Harry didn't say a word, nothing really surprised him any more, it was high unlikely to be good news, that wasn't how the trend had been going lately.

"Go on, tell me."

The Goblin took a deep breath, then looked up at Harry.

"My company has been recalled, all combat operations are to halt immediately…"

"But your Uncle!" Harry interrupted forcefully.

"That is what I don't understand, the letter is not addressed from my uncle, it is in fact addressed from the tribal council. Who it must be said, do not of themselves have any command authority over the Armed forces of the Goblin Nation…Which is why I will send a letter back requesting clarification of my instructions."

Harry smiled, the Goblin had in other words stalled for time.

"And how long do you think it will take for…clarification to reach you?"

The Goblin seemed to consider the question carefully.

"Given the state of the owl mail system lately it could take…days."

Harry nodded sagely, seeing the amused twinkle in the Goblin's eyes.

"Very well, keep me informed, let me know if there's anything we can do…to help with your preparations to depart."

OoOoO

**OPERATIONS CENTRE, STIRLING LINES, HEREFORD**

"Jericho, I say again Jericho!"

Sgt Kara Watson sat bolt upright at her workstation and reached up with her hand, pressing the earpiece of her headset to her head, as if that would help give her answers. For a stunned heartbeat she hesitated, not from indecision, because indecisive soldiers do not become watch keepers in the Operations Centre of the finest Special Forces Regiment in the world, she hesitated because the code phrase she thought she had heard so faintly had only one meaning, and that meaning signified an unparalleled disaster in the making.

"Unknown station, this is Firebreak, repeat your last, I say again, repeat your last."

Nothing, no voice reassuring her that despite her worst fears, all was well in the world, no sound at all, not even static, there was no-one there. She tried again, with the same level of success, she was sure the watch keepers sat either side of her could hear her heart beating away loudly in her chest.

Taking a deep breath, she reached out to her station and switched channels that allowed her to speak to the duty Ops Officer. With only a few words into her boom mike the man was stood at her shoulder listening to the rewound message, all communications that passed through the Ops Centre were recorded as a matter of course.

The Operations Centre, codenamed 'firebreak', along with many of the actual working areas of the camp, were built underground in a series of secure bunker complexes', for security, safety from any attempted attacks, whether conventional or nuclear, and because Special Forces liked to do their business away from prying eyes.

The Ops Centre under Stirling Lines, affectionately called 'the Kremlin' by the relatively small number of troops that knew about it, was a high tech battle management space, manned round the clock by highly trained and skilled Soldiers whose job it was to control the deployment of Special Forces around the world. Its job was also to monitor communications lines that had a direct bearing on the security of the nation.

Those that served in the Kremlin didn't just know how to fly a desk, they had to have to seen active duty first, because any bad decision made inside those walls could easily kill a team out on the ground.

Kara Watson watched the Ops Officer as he heard the played back message. The man pulled the headset off of his head, sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. Captain Reynolds was a troop commander with one of the sabre squadrons, he was on duty in the 'Kremlin' because he was recovering from a gunshot injury accrued during a recent mission.

Like all the Special Forces soldiers he liked to pretend he was invincible, but he still walked with a slight limp, and winced occasionally when placing his weight upon his left leg.

"Right. Kara, get the old man down here, this is now way beyond my pay grade."

Kara picked up the handset of the phone on her desk and dialled the extension number of the Commanding Officer, with half an ear she listened as the Ops Officer began issuing instructions to the other watch keepers.

"Alright listen up. I want this camp locked down immediately, nothing in or out, make the alert status of all those Squadrons' presently in camp an Amber. The duty troop is to stand to, suit up and await further instructions, I want Pagoda moving to its London readiness position and the RAF to have four helicopters in the air on their way here in five minutes to pick up follow up troops."

Kara winced, she had been hoping this was some form of drill, but that seemed less and less likely with every passing second.

'Pagoda' was the codename for the Counter Terrorist Response Team, this was The Regiment's rapid response unit tasked with dealing with any terrorist attack on mainland Britain, the duty Troop were the follow-on troops to support the CRT. Each of the Sabre Squadrons rotated through providing the men for Pagoda and the duty troop on a six month cycle, currently it was the men from A Squadron in the frame, before that it had been C Squadron.

The other watch keepers immediately picked up phones or spoke into mikes to make the Ops Officers instructions a reality.

"CO"

The gruff voice at the other end of the phone sounded bored already, the CO had a brain that worked at light speed, and he expected everyone else under his command to either keep up or be ahead of him.

"Sir, Sgt Watson. The Ops Officer requests you come down to the 'Kremlin' immediately."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone, she couldn't tell him more, not over an open line, not for something this important, but the fact the Ops Officer wanted him in the Ops Centre immediately told him enough, somehow, somewhere, the shit had just hit the fan.

"Very well Sgt Watson, I shall be there shortly."

Kara hung up, knowing from experience that there was already no-one at the other end of the phone to upset. She gave a nod to Captain Reynolds to let him know the boss was on his way.

Reynolds gave her a tight smile before turning to regard the Regimental status board. It was an electronic visual representation of all the duty elements. As she watched the Pagoda and the duty troop moved from amber to red, the rest of the Squadrons represented on the board moved from green to Amber, meaning personnel on leave were being recalled and the units held at a higher readiness to deploy. The other squadrons were hours away from being ready, Pagoda was permanently on immediate notice to move, and the duty troop could be ready in under ten minutes.

"I hope to hell that this is someone's idea of a joke, but let's plan for a worst case. Kara I need you to find me an asset that can get eyes on 'Stronghold', someone nearer than Pagoda, it'll take them over two hours to be in a position to do anything, find me something closer, anything."

Kara turned back to her computer, and started looking intently for a miracle she didn't really believe existed.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

They were losing her, they of course hadn't said as much, but the despair was written as plain as day across all of their faces. Tonks had fought for hours against whatever it was that had wounded her, but her race it seemed was nearly run.

As Remus stood there holding her small, blood stained hand, it seemed if anything that Tonks looked even younger than her twenty five years of age, she was blessedly unconscious at this point, beyond even the extreme pain the wound seemed able to inflict.

"I have never seen anything like this Remus. Whatever did this ranks amongst the darkest magic I have ever heard of? The sword, or whatever the weapon was, has been enchanted so that the wound it inflicts cannot be healed by magical means, and causes massive internal bleeding and extreme pain in the victim, while at the same time introducing blood replenishing agents into the victim to prolong the suffering."

Poppy Pomfrey was beyond anger and disgust. That should a thing could exist was an affront to her very being, how anyone could possibly dream up and construct such a weapon was simply beyond her.

"Is there nothing you can do?"

Remus knew the despair in his voice matched that on the faces of both the healers and the medic. He knew they had tried everything, he had watched them do it. But he kept hoping one of them would dredge up some last minute miracle from the back of their minds.

"No, I'm sorry Remus, all we can do is make her comfortable before the end, which I'm sorry to say won't be long in coming now."

He nodded and glanced back down at the woman that had stolen his heart, against his better judgement.

Once again he had dared to dream about a future he had thought lost to him forever, and now this, she was being snatched away from him again, this time permanently. It made him want to throw his head back to howl and scream at the unfairness of it all.

"Hi Remus."

The voice was so quiet that Remus at first thought it had been a product of his own imagination. Looking down he found he was being regarded by a pair of dark, twinkling eyes, which somehow despite everything the young woman had gone through retained a spark of humour.

"Hey, good looking."

Remus smiled down at her, even though all he wanted to do was cry.

"Not so good looking at the moment I think."

Reaching down, Remus gently ran his hand through her short pink hair and then he kissed her forehead.

"You will always be good looking to me. I have missed you Nym."

Tonks smiled at his use of the pet name he had assigned her, if anyone else had used it she would have probably have killed them outright, but coming from Remus it had just seemed…right.

"I'm sorry I had to leave, it was the hardest decision I have ever had to make, I am so sorry I hurt you."

Remus shook his head, feeling the tears starting to once more roll down his cheeks.

"It was the right thing to do, the brave thing to do, I should have had more faith in you. All the horrible things I said, that I thought about you. Its I which need your forgiveness."

Tonks smiled tiredly, her eyelids drooping as she fought to stay awake, to stay alive.

"I wanted to grow old with you, be the mother of your children, I want you to know I love you Remus John Lupin, I always will."

That was too much for the ex-professor, werewolf, dark creature and soldier of the light to take, he wrapped his arms around the frail body of the woman he loved and held her tightly, as if he could physically hold her to him, prevent death's victory in this one sided battle. He couldn't bear to lose her again, it just wasn't fair, she was his one true chance at redemption.

She had always seen the man, not the wolf that lurked inside of him, the monster he truly was, how could she love that? The raging beast inside him that would rend flesh and spill blood if it got the chance, that couldn't be killed unless it was by silver.

…Couldn't be killed!

"Leave us please…"

Remus looked at the three healers and when none of them so much as moved, his temper finally snapped.

"Get out, GET OUT, NOW!"

In the face of his out of character rage the three healers left the private room that Tonks had been placed into in a hurry. As soon as the door had shut behind them, Remus raised his wand and locked it, then he began placing the strongest wards on the room that he knew. He layered them, one of top of another, not so much to keep anyone out, but to keep something truly monstrous in.

"What are you doing?"

Tonks asked, her voice weakening.

"Nym I need to know how much you want to live, how far you are willing to go, because I have a plan that might work, but if it works it will change your life forever."

OoOoO

**OPERATIONS CENTRE, STIRLING LINES, HEREFORD**

Sometimes no matter how hard you stare at a screen, inspiration just won't come. Kara Watson had gone to the coffee machine in the corner, more in order to stretch her legs than because she actually wanted a drink.

The board behind the coffee machine was thickly decorated with numerous postcards from various locations around the world, the postcards were sent by members of The Regiment as a sign of endearment for the Kremlin Ops room staff who controlled their deployments and sometimes their lives.

One particular postcard caught her eye, it was from Los Angeles international airport and showed a Boeing 747 taking off.

The half filled cup of coffee tumbled from her hand as her brain made the vital connection it had missing, and she ignored the smashed cup and the spilt coffee as she hurried back to her desk. Without even taking the time to pull her chair out and sit down, she leant over the back of her chair and began furiously hitting keys, searching for a piece of information that at the time had little bearing on the daily routine.

"Yes! I think I've got it!"

"And what is it that you think you have Sgt Watson?"

Kara turned to find the Commanding Officer stood alongside the Ops Officer, Lieutenant Colonel John Simmons looked at her in the direct and forthright manner he was renowned for, for those that didn't know him it was intimidating, well actually even for those that did know him it was intimidating.

But all that was swiftly put aside, there were more important things to consider.

"Sir I just remembered that Lt Hastings and his team arrive back today from the deployment in Germany, his flight should have landed at Heathrow, about an hour ago!"

"Get him on the phone, right now!"

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

Harry woke at the touch upon his shoulder, he was laid on one of the empty beds in the now mostly quiet ward, most of the less serious casualties had been assigned quarters in the housing blocks, which were now approaching capacity. Someone, and he had a very good idea which someone, had placed a sheet over him, he had kept working until his body began to tell him he really needed to stop, not being long out of a hospital bed himself.

He had only laid down to rest his legs, but the days exertions had caught up with him and he had fallen into a fitful sleep.

Rolling over he found himself face to face with Andy Dawlish, the Auror had not been with those that had arrived with the casualties, nor had he left with the group that accompanied Marcus Washburn.

"Potter, I'm sorry to wake you, but I need an update, I seem to be the only Auror here, where did everyone go?"

Harry sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

"Not exactly sure where to start."

"The beginning is normally the best place."

Harry smiled at the sarcasm evident in the man's tone. He quickly briefed the man on the rescue attempt underway by the bulk of the Auror personnel, until the moment he had gone to sleep no-one had returned to the burrow.

"And what about Tonks?"

Tonks had been moved to a private room, her condition listed as critical, Harry had seen Remus crying earlier, but hadn't wanted to intrude on his privacy.

In return, Dawlish told Harry about the day's events, Harry had laughed at the man's rendition of Tonks' trying to single handed arrest Voldemort's inner circle, including snake-face himself, then the mission to hurry after Shacklebolt and rescue him and his daughter.

"So Shack went after the Prime Minister?"

Dawlish nodded.

"He took Proudfoot with him, after all someone needs to keep that big lug out of trouble."

"Hopefully it won't come to that, I'm heading to the burrow, are you coming?"

Dawlish shook his head.

"I'm going to check-in on Tonks, I'll catch up with you later Potter."

Harry nodded and absently waved his hand. As he left the ward he never saw the evaluating gaze he was getting from Auror and undercover agent of the crown, Andy Dawlish.

OoOoO

**VARIOUS PLACES**

"Hastings."

"This is Firebreak, standby for Sunray."

Lt Hastings took a deep breathe, it was highly unusual to have the Commanding Officer, whose code name was Sunray, phone him out of the blue, something was definitely out of kilter. The team were currently in the back of a black Hackney carriage on their way to the British Rail station and then home.

"This is Sunray, I have an immediate tasking order for you, are your team armed?"

"Negative, we flew commercial, the only equipment we have are secure team radios."

"Roger that, your first priority then is to arm yourselves."

Hastings quickly ran through the Army barracks within easy reach, his credentials would allow him quick access to any of those armouries.

"Roger that, Woolwich Barracks is probably the nearest available armoury."

There was a pause at the other end of the phone, then the CO's voice came back, quieter and harder than it had been before.

"You misunderstand me, you don't have time to ask permission, ten minutes ago we received a Jericho call, you are the only asset we can get on scene within an hour, and we need to confirm the status of 'Stronghold', Pagoda is moving already, but you are the eyes on the ground."

Hastings swallowed hard, his very ordinary day had just taken a turn for the horrifying. He didn't have to ask what the call sign Jericho indicated, everybody in The Regiment knew

Jericho signified that there was a successful armed attack underway on the Prime Ministers official residence, No10 Downing Street did not have the code name 'Stronghold' idly, the place appeared fairly innocuous, but was in fact built like a fortress. The very idea that a hostile force could assault the building was so utterly ridiculous that The Regiment could be forgiven if the response plan to such an incident was not much more than a skeleton outline.

However, that was not the case, if Jericho was confirmed, then all hell would break loose. All around the country elements of the British Armed Forces, along with the police, would start reacting to the new circumstances. Government buildings would be immediately locked down, Members of Parliament and the House of Lords quickly located and moved to secure areas. A news blackout would spring into place in an effort to keep the public calm and off the streets for as long as possible.

Military bases up and down the country would be placed on Bikini Red alert, indicating a potential terrorist attack. Airports closed, all outbound flights cancelled. The Navy, its surface fleet already at sea, would to implement its plan to blockade the main ports to foreign traffic.

And all this on the word of a lowly Lieutenant…so, no pressure then!

"Understood, Hastings out."

Hastings ended the call and looked over at the broad shouldered Sergeant who was looking at him expectantly.

"We have a tasking from Sunray, first we need to find some guns, and quickly, and apparently it's ok if we don't ask nicely."

There was a moment of silence as the rest of the team soaked up that piece of information.

"Er boss, don't those guys have guns?"

Hastings looked at where Trooper Exley was pointing and groaned, placing his head in his hands.

"Yes they do, why oh why do I let you guys talk me into things like this?"

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

Dawlish, having taken several wrong turns finally arrived at the private room that had been allocated to Tonks and found several quite irate healers stood outside.

"Don't get me wrong, because I know nothing about the medical arts, but to care for a patient don't you first have to be in the same room as her?"

"We would be if Remus Lupin hadn't thrown us out and warded the door behind him."

Poppy Pomfrey ignored Dawlish's sarcasm, even at the supposedly tender age of eleven she remembered him having an acidic tongue that matched his sharp intelligence and animal cunning. He had been two years ahead of James Potter, and as the sorting hat had placed him in Slytherin, should have been as an inviting target for the 'Marauders' as many of his house-mates were.

However she could not remember a single occasion when Andy Dawlish had ever fallen foul of a prank, it was if he walked around wearing an invisible sphere of protection, and then there all the times when one of the marauders had somehow gained access to the Slytherin common room to place a prank.

Dawlish reached out and touched the door handle, receiving a mild electric shock. Shaking his hand he turned and smiled at the healers.

"You want to get in? The obvious candidate to help you actually lives here, I'll see if I can find Bill Weasley, after ancient tombs and the wards at Azkaban, this should be a snap."

Madam Pomfrey starred at the back of the retreating Auror, mentally kicking herself, why hadn't she thought of that?

OoOoO

**LONDON**

"Don't glare at me like that, as I told you earlier, we are only borrowing your equipment, it's for a very good cause and we'll bring it all back when we're finished."

James Hastings looked down into the angry faces of the two Metropolitan police constables, laid in the bottom of the large wheeled bin. They were bound hand and foot, their mouths covered in tape, dressed in just their underwear.

Letting the bin lid close over the two angry men, Hastings looked around at his team. All four of them were now dressed in black, one piece overalls with the word POLICE written across the back, they all had body armour, but most importantly they were all now armed.

They had stopped the cab and approached the police armed response vehicle, which was easily identifiable if you knew what to look for, it had only taken a moment for the four special forces soldiers to over power and subdue the two police officers and open the boot of the car. Inside were a mixture of submachine guns, shotguns and pistols, enough for the soldiers to not feel quite so naked.

"Right time to mount up,"

Hastings pointed to the high powered patrol car the officers had been sat in, it was the fastest means of transportation they could lay their hands on, after all everyone moved aside for a police car with its lights flashing and siren wailing.

As the four of them clambered inside the patrol car, Sgt Barnes turned to the young officer.

"I think we may have just set back relations with the Metropolitan police about fifty years."

Hastings grinned at his team and inclined his head in agreement.

"And just think team, the day's not over yet! We have hours left yet in which to piss people off!"

OoOoO

**THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC**

The corridors of the Ministry of Magic were filled with smoke and debris, the bodies had yet to be moved and still lay where they had fallen, here and there small fires burned unattended, started by an errant curse or hex. The small number of prisoners were on their knees, facing the wall, hands interlaced on top of their heads

None of this concerned Voldemort as he strode menacingly down the hallway, his robes billowing out behind him. Death Eaters and Ministry thugs quickly stepped out of his path, not wanting to draw attention to themselves and perhaps trigger his ire.

It had taken time to gain entry to this floor, longer than Voldemort had wanted, because the desperate defenders had collapsed a large part of the ceiling, burying both attacker and defender under the rubble in a last ditch stab of defiance.

From ahead came the familiar sounds indicating an exchange of spell fire, Voldemort increased his pace and swept around the corner. Three Death Eaters were taking cover outside a door and throwing spells into the room, from inside came shouted incantations and spells slammed into the door frame and the wall opposite.

One of the Death Eaters saw Voldemort and straightened to give a report, at that instant a curse from inside the room struck the Death Eater in the side and threw him screaming to the floor.

"Aurors, at least four of them."

The Death Eater gasped out, trying to stem the flow of blood from a wound in his side.

Voldemort glanced at the sign outside the office for a moment.

_**IMPROPER USE OF MAGIC OFFICE**_

Taking his wand out, Voldemort snarled, the only place he wanted to get to was the only place where there was any remaining resistance.

Slamming the doors open with his outstretched arms, the dark wizard ducked under a cutting curse and deflected a bone crushing hex. Inside, he took in the scene at a glance. All the desks and filing cabinets had been over turned, forming a crude defensive barricade behind which several defenders were sending a steady stream of curses in his direction.

With a sweep of his arm the office furniture exploded, and the pieces slammed backwards into the defenders, driving them to the floor and revealing them for the first time.

Voldemort took one look at his opponents and snorted in disbelief.

"Get in here, you incompetent fools!"

The Death Eaters in the corridor advanced cautiously inside, in no particular rush to feel the heat of their dark masters anger.

"Look at your opponents, and tremble at their mighty skills."

Lying unconscious and bleeding on the floor were four young Auror cadets, each of the youngsters were covered in dust and dried blood alongside more recently gained injuries. They had obviously dug themselves out from under the ceiling collapse and continued fighting. Brave, but ultimately futile.

"If I was not in such a hurry I would punish all you for the level of incompetence you have just displayed, instead only one shall feel my wrath…Choose!"

The three Death Eaters looked at each other, faces frozen in shock, then they turned and all tried to get out the door at the same time resulting in a dark wizard pile up in the doorway, there was a brief flurry of elbows and knees, before the already wounded wizard cried out and sank to the floor unconscious, allowing the other two to gain exit from the room.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Voldemort shrugged, simple survival of the fittest. Turning, he stepped over one of the Auror cadets, catching as he did so the barest hint of movement from the corner of his eye.

"Diffindo!"

One of the cadets, a petite attractive, Auburn haired girl, had not been as unconscious as she had led him to believe, Voldemort waved the curse away with his wand tip, casually deflecting the curse into the body of another cadet. With another wave of his hand he had picked the girl up and tossed her across the width of the office, where she struck the wall with bone crunching force, leaving an indentation in the wall, and slid down it to land in a bleeding heap on the floor.

"Ah the impetuousness of youth, I remember it well."

Without sparing the cadets a further thought Voldemort approached the far wall, and without stopping walked right through it.

OoOoO

**LONDON**

The high powered police car screeched to a halt at the entrance to Downing street. The large wrought iron gates that normally barred the end of the street and kept the curious well away from the Prime Ministers residence were conspicuous by their absence. There were a number of bodies laid upon the ground, tourists, Londoners and uniformed police, none showed any sign of life what-so-ever.

"Firebreak, this is Red knight, I confirm we have an incident in progress at stronghold. Investigating."

The secure radios had been recovered from the hand luggage, and now each soldier wore a headset. The four soldiers left the car, engine running, doors open, they moved forward in pairs, two moving, the last two providing covering fire. They ignored the bodies on the ground, casualty extraction was a job for others.

Halfway down the street they found part of the gates, buried deeply in the side of a building, they also appeared as if they had been partially melted.

The entrance to number 10 Downing street was perhaps the most famous doorway in the world, but now it lay in ruins, the door had been blasted from its hinges and had exploded inside. The bodies of two more uniformed constables lay just inside the doorway, both missing their heads.

The four soldiers stood still for a moment soaking in the scene, imagining the amount of explosives that would be required to cause such a level of damage. The strange thing was the lack of physical evidence of a detonation, even a shaped charge would have thrown debris in a much wider arc than was evident.

"Alright team lets go. Quarter and clear by pairs, lethal force is authorised, but watch your shots, who knows what's waiting inside."

Hastings took a deep breathe, then stepped inside, quickly followed by the remainder of his team.

OoOoO

**MINISTRY OF MAGIC**

"So, how exactly does this device work?"

Voldemort ignored the sobbing woman and traced a finger across the delicate metallic runes inlaid into the surface of the large device. It sat in the pride of place upon an ancient stone table in the midst of a well lit stone chamber.

The device seemed to be constructed in equal parts metallic, organic and mineral, and the magical aura it produced was simply stunning, Voldemort could still see its outline with his eyes closed.

"I will never tell you…you…you monster!"

Mafalda Hopkick shouted, he had interrupted her attempts to destroy the device, no doubt as aware as he was what could be accomplished with such a finely constructed instrument. She had even engaged him in an exchange of spell fire despite knowing his identity, and that was what was deeply worrying Voldemort.

In the old days his very appearance would destroy any resistance, none but the very strongest of opponents would dare duel with him, and only then under the direst circumstances.

Now in the space of ten minutes he had come under fire from an Auror cadet barely out of her teens and a Ministry drone that had never been out from behind her desk. He laid the blame for this outbreak of public bravery squarely on Harry Potter's shoulders, the youth had somehow managed to stumble from one encounter with him to another, barely alive each time, but this annoying durability that Potter displayed was making members of the public think they too could challenge him for dominance and survive.

The quicker he killed Potter, the faster that the Wizarding public would fall into line, and now he had the means to do just that.

"Oh I think you will tell me, in fact not only will you tell me, you will operate the device for me."

Raising his wand, Voldemort grinned evilly.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW**

Harry had barely set foot over the threshold of the burrow before the youthful bundle of energy that was Helen Bell had hit him below waist height and had wrapped her arms tightly around his legs, hugging so tight that he knew his toes would eventually go numb and fall off.

"Hi short stuff, it's so good to see you."

The affectionate term 'short stuff' had now become Helen's official title among the assembled teens of the D.A. Reaching down, Harry ruffled the child's hair, which as always caused Helen to erupt into a fit of giggles.

The sound was contagious and Harry felt himself smiling despite the recent traumatic events, there was something about this little girl that always managed to lift his spirits. He hadn't seen her since Azkaban, although he now knew of her part in the blood transfusion process that had saved his life.

Grunting with the effort of moving his still sore limbs, Harry dropped down to one knee so that he could look Helen in the eye.

"I wanted to thank you Helen, by giving up some of your blood for me you helped save my life, I promise you I won't ever forget it."

Helen beamed at him and threw herself into his arms so hard that she nearly knocked him onto his back, she wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder. Harry looked at the side of the girls head in surprise, he still hadn't gotten used to the idea that people would actually want to hug him, he had gone for without for so long. Hesitantly he placed his arms around her carefully, Harry lifted her up and stood.

"Merlin Helen, you're getting heavy, I'm not going to be able to do this for much longer, you great big lump!"

Harry looked up at the sound of adult laughter from the kitchen and smiled warmly in greeting at the room's occupants. Dan and Emma Granger were sat around the table with a tired looking Hermione, Ron, Arthur and Molly.

Ron and Hermione seemed especially pleased to see him, they had no doubt been as worried as Ginny when they had heard about his unexpected departure from the communal kitchen, he smiled broadly at them, he really was so lucky with his choice of friends. Hermione remained seated while everybody else rose to their feet, she still looked a little as if she had been trampled by a herd of hippogriffs.

"Harry dear, it's so good to see you actually awake, we were so worried about you!"

Molly and Arthur had both stood to greet him. Harry with a flash of precognition quickly spun and passed Helen to the waiting arms of Thomas Bell, who had entered the kitchen behind him alongside Wilky, before the child could be crushed by an infamous Weasley hug that was fast advancing towards him.

As it was, he still had the air crushed out of him by the tight Weasley embrace, as his eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets from the pressure, he was aware over Molly's shoulder of Ron, Hermione and Ginny grinning at him like a bunch of witless idiots.

Once Molly had released him Harry stumbled, and only Arthur's steadying hand saved him from crashing to the floor.

"We're both very proud of you son, for what you did at Azkaban and for everything else you have done for this family and others. Thank you Harry."

Harry opened and closed his mouth several times but couldn't really think of anything intelligent to say in response to Arthur's praise, in the end he just gave up the task when Ginny moved swiftly in front of him and on tiptoes placed a kiss on his lips.

His arms automatically snaked around her waist and he pulled her into his own, pale imitation of a Weasley hug, bending his head down he kissed her back. The kiss started off gently, with his lips barely brushing hers, touching and teasing with its pressure.

Then he moved his hand from her waist until his fingers were loosely intertwined with her hair and he pulled her tighter to him, his lips pressing against hers now with utmost urgency.

"Oi Potter! That's my baby sister you're slobbering all over, get a room!"

Ron's mock indignant cry broke Harry's concentration and he looked up to find Hermione trying to hide her wide smile behind her hand, her parents were just beaming widely at the pair of teenagers. Arthur and Molly were trying to look stern and disapproving, but both of their eyes were twinkling at suppressed humour.

"Yes Ron I am well aware of who I am kissing, but thank you for pointing out the obvious! And for your information I have a room, its upstairs."

Harry stated, placing his hands on his hips.

"Oh Harry, he's just jealous because his best friend is a much better kisser than he is, wouldn't you agree Hermione?"

Ginny smiled at Ron to take any sting out of her words, Ron spluttered helplessly for a moment, before his mature side took a long walk in the country and he just stuck his tongue out at his younger sister.

Hermione was now laughing so hard she was holding her sides and trying desperately hard to not fall off her chair. With a calm and unusual dignity Ron turned and walked slowly around the table until he was stood beside Hermione's chair, then he bent down and gently lifted Hermione's face up and lent down and kissed her passionately.

The kiss went on for several minutes and when Ron finally stood up he had a look of intense satisfaction on his face, Hermione on the other hand was breathing heavily, blushing and her expression could best be described as glassy.

"That was…bloody brilliant!"

The entire group burst out laughing as Hermione used Ron's favourite and common compliment, her voice still left a little husky from the kiss.

"Harry, are you going to introduce us?"

Turning to where Molly was indicating, Harry smiled. Wilky was being introduced to the youngest of the Bell siblings by the oldest, and it was obvious the man had very little experience with children, and looked slightly intimidated by the small bundle of energy. The fact that a small child could scare this tall, confident soldier brought a large smile to Harry's face.

"I'd like you all to meet David Wilks, he is from the same military unit as Thomas and is also from what I gather, his best friend."

For some reason this news seemed to affect Emma and Dan Granger more than anyone else in the room, they were studying the newcomer with a strange intensity and a certain measure of respect.

Harry occasionally forgot that they both had served in the Army, and probably better than anyone else at the burrow understood what a great asset men like this could be in the struggle to rid the world of Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

"Wilky, these are my best friends Ron and Hermione. This is Arthur and Molly Weasley, Ron, Ginny and my parents…I'll explain later, long story. This is Emma and Dan Granger, Hermione's parents."

David Wilks studied the Grangers for a moment, there was something about the way they were looking at him, some twitch of recognition and respect in their eyes, it seemed they knew who and what he was, which from his admittedly limited experience so far, ruled them out as wizards.

"Sergeant David Wilks, 22nd Regiment Special Air Service."

Dan had stood up and lent over the table holding out his hand, which Wilky took and the two men shook.

"Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Dan Granger, Royal Army Medical Corps, and my wife Captain (also retired) Emma Granger also RAMC, its good to meet you."

"Likewise"

"So what are you, some kind of pilot?"

Arthur asked excitedly, thinking he could finally find out the answer to one of his most troublesome muggle problems, 'what kept muggle aircraft in the air'.

"Sort of"

Wilky answered cryptically and evasively, Dan and Emma just smiled at each other, knowing that the only interaction these men had with aircraft was jumping out of them or blowing them up, and they were pretty good at either task.

"Now that introductions are out of the way, who would like a cup of tea and a bite to eat, what about you Harry dear?"

Harry opened his mouth to reply to Molly's question but was stopped from speaking by what sounded like a dozen angry Hungarian Horntails roaring, the sound was absolutely deafening.

Harry winced and clapped his hands over his ears, everyone reacted the same way, Helen Bell fell to her knees, her face locked in a grimace of pain. He remembered something about children's hearing being much more sensitive than adults and moved to place his hands protectively over her ears, but the sound faded to silence before he could get there.

"What in Merlin's name was that?"

Harry asked, noticing that his voice sounded far too loud in the silence that followed the alarm.

"I think it's the portkey alarm"

Emma Granger answered, looking over at Molly for confirmation, the Weasley Matriarch just nodded, looking slightly concerned at who else would be arriving at her house.

"Are we expecting any more visitors today?"

Dan asked the kitchen in general, when no one offered up an answer to him he casually reached down behind his back and pulled out his large black pistol from the waistband of his trousers and placed it on the table. Emma looked at him and frowned.

"Dan I'm not sure that's necessary, let's not over-react here."

Dan shook his head and grinned at his wife.

"Honey lets recap, Attack on our house, Death Eater attack on the burrow, Helen and Ginny Kidnapped, arrest attempt on Harry, Azkaban attack, and now Aurors getting rounded up by their own ministry. Just what point in these proceedings would you think this was necessary?"

Emma Granger cocked her head thoughtfully to one side and studied her husband through squinted eyes.

"Well Dan since you put it that way…"

"Better to be safe than sorry, don't you agree guys?"

Harry spun around to find that both Thomas and Wilky had also drawn their pistols from the holsters under their shoulders, and were stood holding the weapons pointed down at the floor. Both men grinned back at the retired soldier turned dentist.

Harry sighed heavily, and turned towards the door. He wanted nothing more at that particular moment than to curl up somewhere with his girlfriend held tightly in his arms and get some well deserved rest, it seemed however that fate had other plans in store for him.

As he moved purposefully towards the door with Ginny as always right at his side, he was aware that Neville and Draco moving in unison had already drawn wands and had fallen into flanking positions on either side of Ginny and himself.

Ron and Hermione were moving around the table in an effort to catch up to the other teens, Hermione was wincing with every step and clutching her side, but the look of determination brooked no disagreement on her involvement. The adults, both magical and muggle followed the teenagers outside at a more sedate pace, apart from Molly Weasley that is, who had taken charge of the overly curious Helen Bell.

There was a sudden blinding flash of white light, and the space directly outside the kitchen door was suddenly filled with nearly a dozen large men brandishing muggle weapons, all stood holding a large rug.

In a furious few seconds of activity there were the overlapping metallic sounds of multiple weapons being cocked, those in the group with wands all snapped them up into aiming positions.

Harry found himself pointing his wand at a large man dressed in a suit holding a black pistol aimed squarely at Ginny's chest. Ginny, off to his left had reacted much quicker than him and immediately dropped to one knee to present a smaller target, her wand held out before her in a two handed grip.

Out of the corner of his eye Harry could see the utter determination and Gryffindor courage blazing wildly from Ginny's face, it was possibly the most sexy thing he had ever seen, and he knew that she would stand at his side regardless of the danger. Despite their current situation, at that moment Harry wanted to lean over and kiss her very badly.

There was shouting now from both groups, each demanding the other side put their weapons down, and from the rapidly escalating volume and the obvious tension in the air Harry knew there would and could only be one outcome from this stand off.

Then something extraordinary happened, Harry felt someone reach out, place a hand onto his forearm and slowly push his wand arm down towards the ground, he fought against the pressure, but the person was simply too strong.

Harry turned angrily to find Thomas Bell stood beside him, his own weapon hanging limp and forgotten down by his side, the expression on his face was one of utter disbelief. Off to his right Harry could see Wilky wearing a similar expression and pushing Dan Granger's weapon arm down also.

Then the two soldiers did something completely unexpected, both holstered their weapons, then snapped smartly to attention, and completely in synch with each other the two men saluted.

The wizards, seeing this movement slowly and hesitantly lowered their wands. The armed new arrivals relaxed their postures slightly, however their weapons remained up and pointed in a threatening manner.

An unarmed, non descript man with a dark receding hair line stepped out from behind the large armed man Harry had been covering, he placed his hand onto the man's arm and the larger man immediately stepped smartly aside.

He looked vaguely familiar to Harry, but the youth could not place where he had seen the man before, Harry heard both Emma and Dan gasp with astonishment as they recognised the man, so Harry had to assume he was a muggle.

"Sir, Sergeants Bell and Wilks, 22nd Regiment Special Air Service. Welcome to the Burrow Prime Minister."

Harry stared at the scene in front of him open mouthed in astonishment, he now recognised the man stood in front of him from the muggle news reports and the newspapers he had read. Prime Minister Tony Blair was the single most powerful muggle in all the country, he had the power of the entire British armed forces at his disposal.

And here he was, stood outside the burrow surrounded by bodyguards and wizards, looking quite overwhelmed, small and unimportant alongside the military and magical might arrayed all around him.

"Who is in charge here?"

The words were spoken softly, in a quiet and well educated tone that nevertheless was used to being obeyed.

Arthur Weasley looked over at him and raised one of his eyebrows quizzically. Harry almost unnoticeably shook his head, it would be enough of a shock for the man to be suddenly landed in the midst of so many wizards, let alone to discover the one supposedly leading them was not yet even seventeen.

Catching the movement understanding its meaning, Arthur strode forward his hand outstretched.

"I suppose I am Prime Minister. Arthur Weasley, former department head of the Ministry of magic, this is my family home, it seems to have become a bit of a focal point."

Arthur waved his hand in the air generally to indicate where they stood, the Prime Minister looked around him and frowned.

All Wizarding properties including Hogwarts and the burrow were spelled with anti muggle enchantments, they made the buildings seem to be ruins to a muggles eye, it kept the nosy away.

Arthur saw the look in the man's eyes and grinned in understanding, raising his wand in a non-threatening manner he quickly removed the charm for those present allowing them their first proper view of his home.

Harry remembered his first view of the burrow before the start of his second year, from the back seat of the Weasley's airborne Ford Anglia, Ron and the twins had just rescued him from his bedroom in Privet drive.

Even as far back as then the building had felt so much like the home he had longed for his entire life, a lot of that was to do with the family that lived within, but at least some of it was down to the building itself.

It was not the usual mundane box that most muggles seemed content to own, the burrow was clearly built using magic as the ground floor was wildly over hung by every other floor other than the fifth where Ron had his room.

The burrow resembled nothing less than a giant set of children's play bricks that had been dropped in a random fashion from a great height. The physics of construction required that the building immediately collapse in on itself, but that was the beauty of magic, where magic was concerned physics just shrugged its shoulders and took a walk.

"Very…interesting building"

Arthur beamed with pride at the muggle leaders back handed compliment. Harry smiled to himself as the Prime Minister hesitantly shook Arthur's outstretched hand, the head of the Weasley family had always been fascinated by all things 'muggle' and Harry knew he would be brimming with questions.

"Sorry to interrupt this little gathering, but I have wounded here!"

Harry's head snapped around as Kingsley Shacklebolt's commanding voice demanded attention. He was stood on the other side of the rug and had been hidden from sight by the hulking bodyguards. In his arms was a pretty blond haired young woman about the same age as Percy or the twins, she was pale and blood stained, and appeared unconscious.

"Dobby!"

Harry found himself calling for the loyal house elf before he had even thought about it, his cry drew the attention of everyone present and Harry felt himself blush under so many pairs of curious eyes.

"Harry Potter calls and Dobby is here sir"

Dobby had appeared at his side utterly without warning causing several of the muggles to stare open mouthed with shock at the little creature. But to Harry's complete amazement the Prime Minister regarded Dobby with a flash of recognition.

"You…so this is the one who you serve, Harry Potter, the individual whose very existence manages to so upset Minister Scrimgeour?"

Harry grinned at the man weakly, never in his wildest dreams did he envision that the Prime Minister would actually know his name.

"Dobby can you make sure Auror Shacklebolt and his wounded friend get safely to the hospital and are seen by the healers please."

Dobby nodded and raised a hand, with a quiet click of his fingers a half dozen other house elves appeared and took a firm hold of the edges of the rug. Shacklebolt gently laid the unconscious woman down upon the rug and without a further word they all disappeared.

Dobby bowed low before Harry and smiled a toothy grin before disappearing himself in a puff of smoke.

"Well that takes care of that little problem…now would you two like to explain your presence in this magical community, I wasn't even aware that the military even knew about the existence of the magical world."

The two soldiers had been stood stock still, rigidly holding their salutes without a flicker of movement, their backs ramrod straight, eyes never wavering from directly in front of them.

Neither man spoke in answer to the Prime Minister's question, but rather than be annoyed at the silence the PM just smiled slightly and appeared as if he was quite used to the attitude of the military, it was if he found it almost comforting in bad times.

"Oh for heavens sakes Sergeants, stand at ease and answer the question."

Thomas and Wilky dropped their arms and relaxed their postures slightly, Wilky looked over at Thomas and the two shared a pained look, neither wanting to bring the small matter of desertion up in front of the PM. Thomas sighed deeply and took a step forward.

"Well sir, the military as a whole isn't aware. I personally know of the magical world because I was born into it…"

"You! You're a wizard? I have an SAS trained bloody wizard?"

"Yes sir."

"Alright, that's an interesting development, but that does not answer the question of what you are doing here."

Thomas looked extremely uncomfortable, unsure how to tell his commander-in-chief that he had abandoned his post in order to look after his family, it was a decision he had not made quickly or easily, but he never thought for a moment he would have to justify that decision in front of the PM.

"I was serving overseas when I was informed my parents had been killed and my home destroyed by those serving Lord Voldemort, I have two sisters sir, the eldest is not yet nineteen, the youngest is only five. Although I was a virtual stranger to them they are the only family I have, I had to return and ensure they were safe, they needed to know that someone would be there for them."

Thomas looked over at Arthur and grinned.

"As it turns out that I needn't have worried, my sisters have been informally adopted into the ever expanding Weasley clan, they have a home here and more security than I could give them."

"So you're admitting to the fact that you are AWOL from a theatre of deployment, and involved in totally unsanctioned combat operations against a legitimate government agency."

"Yes sir."

Thomas looked utterly shell shocked and stricken as the reality of the situation seemed to hit him, Harry felt desperately sorry for the man, but he couldn't intervene. Taking a deep breathe Thomas squared his shoulders and began to speak.

"Sir, you need to understand that the British magical community is at war, a war that the Ministry of magic seems to have no interest in fighting. Given Voldemort's views on wizard supremacy being what they are sir, it is only a matter of time before this war spreads over into Britain's general population, and once that happens the only defence those defenceless people have are the wizards gathered here. I swore an oath to defend this nation from all enemies, both foreign and domestic, this war needs to be fought now, with everything at our disposal, before this becomes an inferno we have no hope of containing."

The Prime Minister stared intently for a long time at the tall soldier stood in front of him, there may even have a glint of admiration in there somewhere. The silence was uncomfortable and was grating on Harry's nerves.

"And you soldier, what are you doing here?"

This question was directed to Wilky.

"Sir, I am in charge of the team detailed to return Sergeant Bell to Hereford for questioning sir."

The Prime Minister nodded to himself and smiled at Wilky.

"Sergeant…Wilks isn't it? Am I correct in assuming that the rest of your team are not too far away, and that you can gain secure communications to firebreak?"

"Yes, although it will take a while, for some reason our gear doesn't like being around magic, we'd have to get clear to get a signal."

"Sergeant I need you to get word to firebreak that I'm here and require transportation, I need to get to a secure communications facility as soon as possible so I can re-establish some form of control over the government."

"Yes sir, I'm on it."

Wilky spared a concerned look for his friend before turning away from the group, on his way to carry out his orders. Harry didn't know where the installation was they were talking about, but he assumed it would take some time for transportation to arrive.

The Prime Minister turned back to the lone soldier stood in front of him.

"Well Sergeant Bell I suppose what's done is done, and it may yet all turn out to be for the best. One thing is for sure, I think we all need to sit down and have a long talk about recent events and where we go from here, and your unique insight will be invaluable. Mr Weasley if you would be so kind"

Arthur nodded and led the way inside the burrow, quickly followed by the PM, Thomas and the Grangers. Two of the bodyguards went inside and the rest spread themselves around the exterior of the building, their weapons stayed visible and ready to use in an instant.

Harry had no real interest in attending any such meeting, the Weasley's and the Granger's, along with Thomas Bell, had enough of a handle on the situation to ensure the Prime Minister was well informed. He was fairly sure his part in the growing conflict would come up, and he didn't need reminding again of everything he had lost, of everything he stood to lose unless he could defeat Voldemort.

"I thought that the Goblins had warded the property to stop unannounced visitors using portkeys or Apparation?"

Harry turned to face Hermione, trust her to have ignored the fact the Prime Minister of Great Britain had just arrived at the burrow, she was more concerned in the manner he had arrived! Harry couldn't help himself, a smile of affection crept onto his face, as always Hermione's priorities seemed slightly wrong to those who didn't know her well.

"They did, Auror Shacklebolt was keyed to allow entry to the wards when they were originally created, and since he personally created the portkey it allowed him passage through, the only reason the alarm sounded at all is because the portkey also carried with it someone or several someone's who hadn't been cleared. It's all just a question of adjusting the ward to detect individual magical signatures, that's quite a simple process actually."

Harry looked at Ron with surprise, that had actually made sense, Ron had never been known for giving long winded explanations for anything except Quidditch and chess. Harry looked around and saw he wasn't the only one that was looking at Ron in amazement. Hermione's mouth was positively hanging open in shock.

"What! My eldest brother is one of the leading curse-breakers in the country, other than Quidditch what did you lot think we talk about?"

Ron sounded indignant, that lasted as long as it took Hermione to cover the ground between them and throw her arms around his neck.

OoOoO

**OPERATIONS CENTRE, STIRLING LINES, HEREFORD**

Lieutenant Colonel John Simmons was having a very bad day, possibly the worst he could remember in a long and distinguished military career.

He had a now verified attack on 10 Downing Street on his hands, the results of which were still being investigated by a team on the scene. The Special Forces made a habit of being prepared for worst case scenarios, but in this case the worst case scenario was the complete destruction of the government as a functioning body.

This could be the prelude to an invasion, hoping that the Armed Forces would be too paralysed to mount any kind of defence, if that was the case someone would get a big surprise because the military was now at its highest peacetime readiness level, it would only take a call from him to place them firmly on a war footing.

"Firebreak, this is Red Knight, Stronghold has fallen, I repeat stronghold has fallen, there are approximately fifty fatalities, some of those are category one, High Tower is not present.."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees with the utterance of those few words, and nobody thought that this was an exercise any longer.

Simmons reached up and squeezed the bridge of his nose, fighting against the headache he knew from experience was looming on the horizon. Category one was someone of cabinet level or above. The fact that the Prime Minister, whose code name was 'high tower', was not amongst the fallen didn't mean anything, he could have been taken prisoner.

"Right this is what I want to happen, Pagoda is to secure stronghold until the civil authorities have managed to pull their heads out of their arses and re-established control. I want the duty troop redirected to Buckingham Palace to secure Her Majesty, because if someone has the balls to takedown 'stronghold', then they might be dumb enough to try a clean sweep."

Simmons began pacing as he continued to relay orders.

"I want London closed down immediately, use the M25 motorway as the perimeter, I want troops, supported by armour, on every junction within an hour, if the police get in the way, drive over them. We have only one chance at containing this situation before it becomes our worst nightmare."

The Ops room sprang into action as the watch keepers hurried to carry out his orders.

"Sir, I have Bo Peep on the line for you."

Simmons closed his eyes and mentally scrolled down the list of teams he currently had deployed, their code names, the names of the team commanders and the missions they were carrying out. Once he had all the details he needed he took the headset from the watch keeper and placed it on his head.

"Bo Peep, this is Sunray, did you find my lost sheep?"

There was a delay that was too long to be explained away by the distance and the secure encryption, as if the man on the other end was carefully thinking through his answer. Sgt David Wilks was many things, but he could never be described as a deep thinker, he was a man of action.

"Sunray, Bo Peep, we have found the lost sheep, he is safe, ready and willing to return to the flock. Sunray, we also have High Tower in this location."

Simmons hesitated, his mouth hanging open. He must have misheard, maybe the encryption software had slipped for a second.

"Bo Peep repeat your last"

"We have High Tower and his security detail at my current location, high tower requests transport to your location with immediate priority."

Simmons turned to the electronic map board, Bo Peep's location was marked by a small flashing symbol. It made no sense, none-what-so-ever.

"Bo Peep, would you explain to me how the man got from London to Ottery St Catchpole in Devon faster than I can get my immediate response team to London on a helicopter?"

There was another pause, longer this time before Sergeant Wilks responded.

"Trust me on this one Sunray, there are some things in this life you are just better off not knowing!"


	21. 21 Duty, Honour and Sacrifice

"Why is it the more wars we fight, the younger are those who are called upon to do the fighting?"

Unknown politician during the Vietnam war

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE: DUTY, HONOUR AND SACRIFICE

**THE BURROW**

As the appointed time of the Memorial service grew ever closer, Harry became more and more uncommunicative with those around him, he didn't especially need reminding of the fact that he had led the massed blind charge to Azkaban, the resulting deaths were a direct consequence of his stupidity and rash actions.

He had wondered away from the burrow and the rest of his friends, wanting nothing more than to be alone with his pain and sorrow, he of course hadn't counted on the presence of one very perceptive red head who despite being snapped at, wouldn't leave him alone.

"Damn it Ginny, I'm fine, I just want to spend a little time alone, I don't need you to always be there to hold my hand!"

Harry increased the pace of his stride, hoping the red head would take the hint and leave him alone. Why couldn't she see that his actions had caused her personal injury, as well as the deaths of so many. She shouldn't be anywhere near him, he had been right when he had left them all behind on the express, but he should have done it earlier, and never come back, his presence and only made things so much worse.

With his back to her he missed the hurt look that crossed Ginny's face, and he never saw the look of determination that quickly followed. The petite red head drew her wand, aiming at her boyfriends back.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Harry found himself in a full body bind, tottering for a moment before gravity won its battle and he crashed face first to the ground. Ginny levitated him over onto his back then stood over him, her hands balled angrily on her hips.

"You think you are the only one suffering? You think you have the sole right to feel hurt and alone? In case you hadn't noticed, the entire Wizarding world is coming unravelled around us, but wait, everybody stop and let Harry have his sulk…Will you just grow up!"

Ginny had started to pace, knowing Harry was a captive audience.

"You blame yourself! Let me tell you something, not one of those that died at Azkaban were forced to go, they all went of their own free will, and because it was the right thing to do. Their sacrifice allowed over three hundred innocent people to escape. They would all be dead now, or at least wishing they were dead after the Death Eaters had finished with them."

Ginny was so busy ranting that she never noticed that Harry had wandlessly countered her body bind wand was laid on his side, his head resting on his hand watching her.

"You think that you are the only one who blames himself for what happened? Marcus blames himself for every one of his Aurors that died, Mad-eye feels responsible for the Order, Bill hasn't stopped beating himself up over Fleur's injuries since he returned. Gutripper…well, actually, now you mention it Gutripper is celebrating the loss of his warriors, but I suppose that's Goblins for you…"

Harry's chuckle stopped Ginny mid rant and she spun around to find her boyfriend knelt up.

"How did…what…when did…How long have you been free?"

"Long enough for me to understand at least some of the lesson that my girlfriend has been trying to teach me. Ginny I'm sorry for what I said, I cannot help feeling the way I do sometimes, whether my feelings are justified or not I should not have taken it out on you, forgive me!"

Harry climbed to his feet and waited for her decision, it wasn't long in coming.

"You are forgiven"

Ginny's voice was muffled because her mouth was pressed against his chest, her arms were wrapped around Harry, just as his were wrapped around her.

"I suppose we should go, we don't want to miss the memorial service."

Harry snorted.

"Don't tempt me. But, you're right, let's go."

Taking Ginny's hand, Harry led the way towards the hospital.

The memorial ceremony was to take place in a specially created clearing in the woods near the hospital building. The memorial itself took the form of a giant piece of polished black obsidian that had been carefully inscribed with the names of all those that had lost their lives at Azkaban.

As he approached the clearing, Harry found his pace slowing until instead of him leading Ginny, their positions were reversed, and she was almost dragging him along. Even though there was a quarter of an hour before the service was due to start, the clearing itself was already packed with people, many more than the three hundred that were currently guests at the burrow. The seating was in two blocks with a central isle running up to the monument itself, but the isle was full of closely packed talking people blocking Harry's continued progress.

Someone at the edge of the press of wizards must have became aware of Harry's presence and nudged his neighbour, and like something he had once read straight out of the bible, the press of wizards parted before them and the chatter of conversation died to a muted buzz.

Walking slowly up the isle between the press of people, Harry was painfully aware that every eye was now on him, and if not for the warmth of Ginny's hand in his and her barely audible words of support he would have turned and run from the mass of staring people.

Here and there scattered in the crowd he spotted his friends and family, he suspected that the scattering wasn't as completely random as it at first appeared, DA and Order members had been placed in the crowd just in case of trouble.

Harry nodded and smiled at Susan and Terry, Draco was at his usual place sandwiched between the Bell sisters, Hermione was sat between her parents and Molly and Arthur Weasley, of the other red heads there was no sign.

Despite the numbers of people, there were some notable absences other then the majority of the Weasley's, Remus was missing, and Harry strongly suspected another name would soon have to be added to the memorial.

There was also no sign of any members of the British Army, the muggles were however well represented by the Prime Minister and several members of his security detail.

The muggle leader was stood at the front in deep conversation with Arthur Weasley, Amos Diggory and a younger brown haired witch that Harry hadn't seen before. Several members of Hogwarts Faculty had also arrived, and at one point professor McGonagall caught his eye and gifted him with a rare smile.

Even the Goblins had attended in small numbers, despite the fact they wanted to carry out their own funeral rituals in private, their own beliefs were that a warrior's death should not be mourned, but celebrated as reaching the pinnacle of martial achievement. For this occasion they had put aside their armour and the majority of their weapons, choosing instead to wear suits not unlike those worn by the tellers at Gringotts, except the tellers didn't normally carry axes or swords.

As Harry approached the monument itself he couldn't help but notice the amount of space that had been left blank, perhaps to be filled in at a later time.

There was a tall figure stood at the monument itself, his back to the crowd, supporting himself by leaning heavily on a cane.

"Dean!"

Ginny cried out and ran forward to embrace her ex-boyfriend, Harry found his face breaking into a genuine smile, the first for much of the day. He hadn't seen his dorm mate since he and Draco had come across his shattered body alongside that of Lavender Brown's at Azkaban.

Dean Thomas slowly turned, his stance unsteady and hugged Ginny with his free arm, he smiled, but Harry saw that the smile never quite made it as far as Dean's eyes. To Harry it was like looking in the mirror, Dean's eyes carried an age and sadness in them that hadn't been there before Azkaban.

"Ginny, Harry, how is love's young dream?"

Dean's voice was level, and maybe Harry was imagining things but he could have sworn he detected a hint of bitterness in the teenagers tone.

"All the better for seeing you, how are you, I mean how are you really?"

Ginny was smiling up at the dark skinned youth. A flicker of anger crossed Dean's features, it was so fast Harry wasn't sure what to make of it, from her bright smile Ginny hadn't picked up on the instant of hostility.

"You don't know? Well I suppose you did have your own medical problems to occupy your attention. It's my leg…"

Dean tapped his left leg with the cane, it made a hollow knocking sound that was distinctly not made by anything flesh and blood.

"…they couldn't save it, something to do with complications caused by severe artery damage."

Dean's voice had gotten quieter as he spoke, his head dropped until his chin was on his chest. It was only when Dean's shoulders began shuddering that Harry realised he was silently crying. Harry placed his hand on Dean's arm and squeezed, trying in some small way to show his support.

"They took my damn leg Harry!"

The anger Harry had seen earlier had finally blazed its way to the surface, and Dean's eyes were filled with fury that seemed to burn away his tears. Harry grabbed hold of his friend and pulled him into his arms, for an instant Dean fought, but it didn't last long.

Ginny wrapped her arms around the both of them, her tears joining Dean's.

"Promise me something Harry."

Dean whispered from Harry's shoulder.

"Anything"

Harry whispered back.

"Kill them for me, kill them all."

Harry paused for a moment, shocked at the viciousness in Dean's voice. He couldn't promise every Death Eater would die, some would be apprehended, some might even escape for a short time. Even if it was what Dean wanted to hear, he would not lie to his friend.

"They will all get the justice coming to them, but that's the best I can do Dean, if we start killing them out of hand we become as bad as them."

Dean nodded his understanding and straightened up, he then wiped his eyes dry and gave them both a grin, which while only a shadow of its former self, was a step in the right direction.

"I want you to know that I'm…we're here for you Dean, whatever and whenever you need us."

Ginny smiled and nodded in agreement at Harry's change of direction, it was taking its time, and she freely admitted Harry James Potter was a work in progress, but he was coming around to the idea that he wasn't alone, that people, and especially her would always be at his side.

"Thanks guys, your support means a lot. My parents are here, they don't really understand why all this is happening, and they just seem to cry a lot. I guess you will need a new chaser come the start of term, I'm bugger all use to anyone now."

Harry noticed the bitterness has made a fresh appearance, not that he could blame his friend at all, he couldn't imagine having such a disability forced upon him, although he probably didn't want to know the number of times he had nearly been in Dean's position.

"At the moment Dean, Quidditch is the last thing on our minds…well, except for my darling brother Ron that is, he never stops thinking about Quidditch, or food."

Dean grinned at Ginny's comment and awkwardly turned and began to slowly and painfully make his way back to his seat, Harry watched him until he was seated next to the couple that had to be Dean's parents.

Harry looked around for two spare seats, and to his embarrassment found the Arthur Weasley was beckoning him over to two free seats on the front row, only a few seats down from the muggle Prime Minister. He looked over at Ginny, who was eying the seats with a good deal of trepidation as well.

"Oh well Gryffindors forward!"

He muttered loud enough for Ginny to hear, she snorted with amusement as they made their way to the empty seats.

"Harry, Ginny, I want to introduce you to Bronwyn Edmunds, she is, or was, the head of the Health and Education department, she and Amos are the only Department heads to reach us so far."

Arthur moved aside and the brown haired witch stepped forward, Harry was surprised to discover how young she was, she appeared to be about the same age as Tonks. He was in fact taller than the petite witch, but there was a strength and intelligence behind her eyes that reminded him of Hermione.

"I'm pleased to meet you both, I just wish it was under better circumstances. I'm very impressed by the facilities that have been constructed here so quickly, I have already spoken at length to the Goblins with an eye to improving St Mungos when this current crisis is over. We shouldn't be held back just because the idea didn't come from the mind of a wizard."

Harry grinned and shook the young woman's hand.

"I think you and I are going to get along famously."

As he sat, Harry found himself in eye to eye contact with the Prime Minister, the man regarded him without any noticeable warmth, like a predator assessing its prey, it was a distinctly uneasy feeling, being on the receiving end of such an examination. Then the muggle smiled slightly and nodded slightly as if making up his mind on some matter and he turned away.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, if you would please take your seats, the service will start shortly."

Amos Diggory's amplified voice silenced the mass of wizards and witches, and everyone started to take their seats, it was organised chaos, but eventually everyone had found a seat, or conjured a new one.

"We are gathered here today to pay tribute to and remember those that gave their lives…"

Harry found himself tuning out the man and those that followed him, as he half listened to those giving the readings Harry was forced to wonder how many of those sat there around him at the ceremony would end up as just names on the memorial.

It was only when Kingsley Shacklebolt moved away from his wife and the girl that must have been his daughter, and stepped up to the podium, that Harry refocused his attention on what was being said.

"…Our friends didn't give their lives at Azkaban in vain, they believed in something that seems more attainable now than at any time in recent memory, they believed that their efforts could build a better world, a world without fear and persecution just because of who your parents are, a world without Voldemort!"

Harry was surprised to notice that very few in the crowd gasped at the mention of Voldemort's name, perhaps finally he had started to break that little Taboo.

"Duty and Sacrifice are just words bandied about by politicians, they do not do justice to what our friends lived and ultimately died for, deeds are what are remembered, passed down from generation to generation. The deeds of those whose names appear behind me give us all hope for a brighter tomorrow."

Shacklebolt paused for a moment, his gaze fell upon Harry and he smiled sadly.

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We shall remember them,"

There was a moment of silence, followed by many in the crowd repeating the last line quietly to themselves.

"Detail! Detail, by the front, quick march!"

A line of camouflaged men marched down between the two seating areas, arms swinging in unison, rifles held tight on the left shoulder, each footfall in perfect step. Upon reaching the memorial stone the line of soldiers moved around it to the left, passing in front of Harry and the other gathered dignitaries, finally stopping some meters to the side of the memorial.

While they moved a soul felt tune echoed across the silent crowd, played on a horn or a bugle, it sounded mournful and sad, finally fading away into a disturbing silence.

**BANG.**

Unnoticed by the crowd, the eight men soldiers had taken position and pointed their weapons at an angle into the sky, they had all fired at once, making the entire crowd jump. This was repeated four more times, with utmost precision, as each of the soldiers moved as one.

"Detail! Shoulder arms, right turn, quick march!"

The Soldiers replaced their rifles onto their shoulders, turned smartly to their right and retraced their steps down the isle. Many of those in the audience wore thoughtful expressions, as they pondered what the muggle involvement meant for the future. Harry on the other hand was just staring at his feet, wishing the whole thing was over.

"And now in typical Weasley fashion, a tribute to those friends who cannot be here with us today, they are all sorely missed."

Harry glanced up to where Shacklebolt was pointing, in the sky high above the clearing, five relatively slow moving specks could be seen approaching on brooms. As they got closer each of the specks could be seen to possess flaming red hair.

They were flying in a tight arrowhead formation, and knowing how good each of the Weasley siblings were when mounted on a broomstick Harry was interested to see what intricate piece of flying was going to be performed.

As they neared the edge of the clearing, one of the broom riders, Harry had a sneaking feeling it was Charlie, pulled sharply up and out of the formation and disappeared from sight, climbing vertically into the late afternoon sun. The four remaining riders continued on in a straight line, leaving the gap of the missing rider open. Harry remembered Thomas talking about 'the missing man formation' and he now understood the significance, for every loss they suffered, the remainder had to press on, or all the sacrifice and the loss would have been for nothing. For all its understated simplicity, it hit home hard, and as the broom riders disappeared overhead Harry was far from the only one to have tears streaming down his cheeks.

"And now Luna Lovegood will sing Amazing Grace"

Today was full of surprises. Harry had never heard Luna sing, and he smiled encouragement to her as she left Neville's side and moved to stand in front of the memorial, she looked completely unfazed by all the attention that now focused upon her. But to those who knew her well she was extremely nervous, her pale skin was flushed and she was taking long deep breaths.

And then she opened her mouth and the first pure notes came out.

Harry nearly fell off his chair when she started singing, Luna had the voice of an angel, the fact she had kept it hidden for so long was a tragedy. There was utter silence from those listening n the crowd, as no one could believe this young woman who so often seemed to have very little grip on reality could produce sounds so pure and beautiful. The entire audience was utterly captivated.

From somewhere behind the crowd a solitary bagpipe added its mournful voice to melody, seeming to complement Luna rather than detract from her voice. She didn't bat an eyelid so she had obviously expected the instrument to join her.

There was a flash of light above the memorial, and Fawkes gently landed on the top of the black obsidian and cocked his head to listen, Harry thought he heard a gasp come from somewhere over by where Hermione was sat.

Fawkes returned his attention to Luna, and then he leaned back and opened his mouth and began to sing as well. Luna smiled widely in surprise as the Phoenix melody mixed effortlessly with her own and that of the bagpipes, and the song lifted towards the heavens. It was the first time that Harry had heard Fawkes singing a recognisable melody, and just as when he trilled his own tune everybody in the audience felt immediately lighter and happier.

For many years afterwards no one would forget the song that seemed to resonate through the souls of those gathered there, it was beautiful, filled with sorrow and yet somehow uplifting at the same time.

OoOoO

**SOMEWHERE OFF THE SOUTHERN COAST OF ENGLAND**

Riding calmly at anchor on the tidal swell, the Russian cargo vessel _**SS Vasily Gryaznov,**_ registered in Murmansk, was the very image of efficient normality. There was no outward sign on the neat, well maintained upper decks of the threat the ship represented to the people of Britain, or danger that the ship carried in her cargo holds.

The ship had not drawn any attention to himself, meekly awaiting his turn to be called forward to pass through the small Royal Navy blockade to reach Southampton. But this was no ordinary cargo vessel, in fact he wasn't even supposed to be crewed by civilians, the vessel had only one purpose when he was constructed, and that purpose was to deliver and support covert troops in the opening rounds of a shooting war.

Other than the numerous exercises down the years, the ship had never been used as he was originally intended, mainly because the shooting war that he was supposed to support had never materialised. But now for the first time he (Russian naval vessels were always he) was doing the job that he had been built to do, just not for the people he was supposed to be doing it for.

In a cost cutting measure the Russian navy had sold off the _**Vasily Gryaznov**_ several years ago, but the company that had bought the vessel was not quite the civilian shipping concern it had pretended to be.

So now here he was, at anchor off the southern coast of England, looking for all the world as nothing more than an innocent cargo vessel, while below decks sixty eight men formerly belonging to the KGB trained sabotage regiment codenamed 'VYMPEL' began preparations to go ashore and wreak havoc.

OoOoO

**OTTERY ST CATCHPOLE**

It was a very mixed and disparate group of people that made its way slowly along the track that led away from the Weasley property.

In the centre was the group that surrounded the Prime Minister. Arthur Weasley was escorting the muggle from his land, answering many questions the leader had as they walked, these ranged from how day to day chores were handled in a Wizarding home, to the inner workings of the Ministry of Magic.

Also in the centre, only a few feet away from the muggle, was Kingsley Shacklebolt. He had whispered to Harry that no one had officially relieved him from his protection duties, so he felt obliged to see the muggle safely into the arms of the British Army.

Circling around the three men were the dozen policemen of the Prime Ministers muggle protection detail. These men exuded a serious air, and Harry knew they had learned much from the last day. Wizards were a known threat now, indeed the Auror team of Shacklebolt, Proudfoot and Dawlish had shown the muggles all the various methods of Wizarding transport, and the advantages and disadvantages associated with each method in the hope they were better prepared for any future attack.

Beyond the protective detail were the older members of the DA, Harry wasn't sure what was going to happen in the future, but he was sure that having the Prime Minister die while under Wizard protection and on wizard property was a sure way to kill any fledgling alliance before it started.

Occasionally he looked over and found the eyes of the Prime Minister studying him, and Harry still didn't know what this promised for the future.

The rumours within the DA ranged from the entire British Army placing itself under Harry's personal command, which was pretty ridiculous, to the muggles deciding to leave the Wizarding world to battle it out amongst themselves. Harry hoped the truth lay somewhere in the middle, perhaps the help of some rather special individuals, some of whom he had already met…

As if to provide counter point to his thoughts, a dark shape appeared momentarily between the trees that ran alongside the mile long track that led down towards the village of Ottery St Catchpole. The man paused for a second, scanning the way ahead, once satisfied he disappeared back inside the tree line. The muggle soldiers were the outer most screen of security, and a nasty surprise to anyone trying to impede the muggle leader.

Finally the group reached the end of the long track, at the junction the track met with the B3174, the main road into the village, the wards protecting the Weasley property were several hundred metres behind them. To the left was a large, flat field that had been chosen for the meeting site, because of its size and for the fact it was well outside the wards and muggle technology would function normally that far away from the magical wards.

"So I guess this is it, at least for now."

Harry spun around, Thomas Bell had appeared at his side, it was if he had suddenly sprouted from the ground at Harry's feet.

"I wish you would stop doing that, I'm too young to have grey hair"

Harry groused good naturedly, he reached out and offered his hand to the soldier, Thomas took it and the two shook.

"I wish you could stay, I have gotten used to having you around. Even if I don't always agree with your idea of fun, the burrow will be a much quieter place without you."

Bell grinned, and gripped Harry's shoulder.

"You never know, I may be back before you even realise I'm gone, keep your head down and stay out of trouble Harry."

Thomas looked at him for a moment then shook his head.

"Who am I kidding? Stay out of trouble, you, Ha! Let me give you a word of advice young man, if you have to fight, never fight fair, always cheat, cheat big!"

Thomas laughed as he walked away from Harry, he crossed to the centre of the field and threw a familiar looking cylinder. Instead of the explosion Harry had been expecting, a column of orange smoke rose from the canister, swirling in the light wind.

"What's he doing?"

Arthur Weasley asked, Harry just shrugged in puzzlement, he had no idea what was going to happen.

"The smoke is used to indicate wind speed and direction, the pilot needs that information to land, I've done this a few times now."

The Prime Minister smiled slightly as he glanced sideways at Harry. There was a sound in the air, growing steadily louder, it was unlike any sound Harry had heard before, a low rhythmic thumping sound that he could almost feel as well as hear.

Turning, Harry was just in time to see a large flying machine rise over the crest of Stoatshead hill, seeming to clear the hill's wooded brow by scant feet, and move directly over the village at the height of several hundred feet.

The machine was long and wide, with a large three bladed propeller at the front and the rear, the blades were so long that they over lapped, and Harry could only wonder at the mechanical precision required to ensure they didn't strike each other.

Beside him, Arthur Weasley stood in open mouthed shock at the appearance of the muggle flying machine, if he had been in wonder at the idea of aeroplanes, this must have blown his mind.

The flying machine immediately picked out the orange smoke against the green background and made a slight course correction towards the centre of the field. Then with a grace and elegance that belied its large size, the machine approached the field and began to circle, keeping its nose pointed at the centre of the field. Then with a final adjustment the machine began to descend.

Even for those stood at the edge of the field, the down force created by those huge spinning blades was immense, dust and debris were picked up and flung away from the machine, and Harry had to raise a hand over his face to stop his eyes from running from the windblast.

The machine spun until its rear was pointing at Harry, the inside of the machine was hollow and a ramp at the rear was already in the lowered position. As soon as the machine touched down the eight soldiers were moving, escorting the muggle leader and his protective detail up the ramp and into the machine.

Thomas Bell was the last one up the ramp, he turned as the machine began to lift off the ground and waved once before the machine rose vertically into the air, dipped its nose towards the far horizon, and accelerated back the way it had come.

OoOoO

**GRINGOTTS HIGH SECURITY CELLS**

Ragnok sat on the low stone bench, his back pressed against the stone wall of the cell. He had been roughly handled on his way to the cells, and had been beaten twice since his arrival, but despite his magical skills the wounds inflicted still bled freely. The high security cells had been especially designed to hold priority magical prisoners, and had certain measures built into the structures to contain them, one of those measures was an anti-magic dampening effect that absorbed magical energy even as someone tried to use it.

All a prisoner could do was sit alone in the darkness and conserve what little magical power they had, and hope that whoever was holding them remembered to feed them.

Ragnok knew there was little chance of starving to death, such an end would not provide Rocksplitter with the example he required to ensure a solid grasp on the Goblin leadership. Goblins did not as a rule believe in martyrs to a cause, there was little profit in it, all Rocksplitter had to do was kill him in front of those that still supported him to ensure their loyalty.

Ragnok also knew that few of those that supported him would be inclined to intervene on his behalf, it was hard for a Goblin to build up a successful portfolio of stocks and shares if the Goblin in question was missing his head. Leadership contests tended to be very quick and bloody events, not the long drawn out affairs of other races.

There was a sound from outside the cell, a scuff of material against stone, followed by the metal of a blade being drawn. Ragnok eyed the door with a resigned acceptance, this was in fact quicker than he had been expecting, but his death had been assured from the moment that Rocksplitter had seized power, in some respects it was a welcome release.

The door creaked open and Ragnok raised a clawed hand to block the light from several torches held aloft, after hours of darkness his eyes took several moments to adjust, another sign of age.

"Director."

Ragnok smiled as he recognised the first figure that entered his cell.

"Rotgut, it is indeed good to see you unharmed."

The night security custodian of Gringotts looked a little out of place in the armour and weapons of a Goblin soldier, but not nearly as out of place as the Goblin that stood behind him. If Griphook was forced to ever use the battleaxe slung over his shoulder, that was nearly as tall as he was, then it would probably be as wise for his allies to avoid him as his enemies. The bank teller was nearly white with fear, but his lip still curled upwards with determination.

"You need to come with us Director. We have secured the route between here and the Floo terminal, once clear of the bank you will be able to muster sup….."

Rotgut trailed off as he noticed that Ragnok was calmly shaking his head.

"No Rotgut, my running now would only postpone the inevitable, and reveal those of my supporters still remaining loyal to me, if I thus denied Rocksplitter his moment of triumph he would then seek to revenge himself upon those closest to me, and his wrath would be terrible. You know of whom I speak."

The night custodian bowed his head for a moment before looking Ragnok squarely in the eye.

"Those of us that truly believe, that a better world that gave us parity with the humans is possible, we will stand with you no matter what, to the very end. What do you wish of us?"

Ragnok rose and placed his hand on Rotgut's shoulder, his eyes filling with moisture, however his voice remained strong.

"Oh my most loyal follower, I wouldn't burden you with everything I wish for, but know this, you loyalty has gladdened the heart of this tired old Goblin. Go from this place, resume your duties, weather the coming storm, and place yourselves above suspicion. When the time is right, my heir will raise my banner again, heed his summons, for he will need all of your support."

Ragnok turned and retook his place on the stone bench. Resigning himself to the course set out before him.

"I ask one more boon of you, my most trusted companion. I need you to carry a message to Gutripper, his company is now the only one deployed, and on his young shoulders now rides the fate of us all. Tell him he must do now as he thinks best, and that his…father loves him dearly."

Rotgut nodded and thumped his left breast with his right fist in a traditional salute, Griphook closely followed suit, both Goblins held the salute for far longer than protocol demanded. Then without a further word the two left the cell and relocked it behind them, once more leaving Ragnok alone in the dark.

OoOoO

**THE COTTAGE, BURROW GROUNDS**

Harry hated being blindfolded, he had never been comfortable with having to surrender that much control to another, too many things had happened in his life for such a loss of control to be either particularly easy or desired.

The one exception to this rule of course was if that blindfold was placed upon his head by Ginny Weasley, he trusted her absolutely, and her hand placed lightly on his elbow to guide him was enough to give him Goosebumps and at the same time make his heart race.

"Its alright we're here, you can take it off now."

Her voice was soft by his side, somehow serious and yet playful at the same time, she had taken hold of his hand and was gently squeezing it, trying to tell him something without actually saying anything. Harry reached up with his free hand and pulled the material from his eyes.

He found himself stood in front of a small single storey building in a wooded clearing. He smiled as he recognised where he was, it was clearing where he had first shown Ginny his new talent, the clearing where the blue wild flowers grew.

The building had been tastefully designed, and was set back in the trees in such a way that it seemed to blend into its surroundings, almost as if a powerful disillusionment charm had been cast upon it.

Outside, to one side of the door stood a covered rack for broomsticks that had been enchanted with weather repelling charms, to keep the elements at bay. Harry smiled at this attention to detail, but this was nothing to what he would find inside.

It had been carefully set out and designed for two, the small kitchen, the dining area with its small table, the lounge with the single over large armchair and large fireplace. Everything about it was designed just for the two of them, it was intimate, cosy, and Harry loved it.

"I don't know what to say."

And he really meant it, everywhere he looked he could see Ginny's hand in the design, and he knew that he could be truly happy in such an environment, he already felt completely at ease and relaxed inside.

"Wait until you see the bedroom."

Harry grinned and indicated she should lead the way, and he took a last look around before he followed her, shaking his head and smiling.

"Wow!"

The bedroom was large, nearly the size of the rest of the cottage combined, it had en-suite facilities, more comfortable chairs and an antique wooden study desk and leather chair under several empty shelves. But it was the bed that took his breath away.

It was a monster, built in the same style as the dormitory beds he was so familiar with at Hogwarts, constructed out of dark wood, with enchanted curtains that could be pulled closed to seal off the entire bed. Harry smiled when he realised the bed also included a warming charm that could be turned on and off, which would help with any injured muscles.

"So what do you think?"

Ginny asked in an unusually timid voice, Harry realised she was genuinely worried what his reaction would be, he tried to keep his face straight, to keep her guessing for a little while longer, but it was a hopeless cause, he was grinning so widely it actually hurt the corners of his mouth.

With a whoop of joy Harry collected Ginny under his arm and threw himself onto the bed. Rolling so he was on his back, he sighed in pleasure at just how comfortable the bed was, It also served to remind him just how exhausted his body still was, and how much work he still had to do to recover from his injuries.

"It sure beats hospital…"

Harry yawned massively.

"…beds, sorry. I didn't realise how tired I still am."

Ginny laid on her front, propping herself up on her arms and regarded him with big brown eyes, she was smiling at him in a fashion as if she knew something he didn't.

"Everyone knows where you are if they need you Harry, just lay back and get some rest, Merlin knows you deserve it."

Another massive yawn stopped his immediate answer, but he rolled slightly until her face was in range of his and he lent closer and gently kissed her on the lips, it was the gentlest of touches, but it stirred something inside them that there had been no time for in recent days, and within seconds Ginny was pressed against him, their limbs intertwined, their tongues searching, probing with a kind of primeval urgency.

"Sleep, who needs it."

Harry commented some time later, immediately refuting his own claim by yawning so widely he imagined he could have swallowed crookshanks whole.

"You do idiot, now lay back and close your eyes, if you are really good I will give you a back rub."

Harry playfully batted at her nose with a handful of her own fiery locks, he had missed the opportunity to just spend time alone with Ginny, and he never felt as relaxed as he did just being near her.

"Promises, promises."

Harry took a handful of her hair from each side of her head and attempted to tie the hair into a knot in front of her face. Ginny swatted his hands aside and laughed at his playful antics, it was a sweet sound he had not heard often enough lately.

Laying back onto the bed, Harry pulled Ginny tightly to him, wrapping his arms protectively around her slender frame, revelling in the feeling of having her warm body next to his, oh he had so missed this companionship.

"I love you Ginny."

"I love you too, you big lug"

Harry grinned happily and closed his eyes, not even attempting to delay the onrushing sleep, here he was safe in the arms of the girl he loved, and life didn't get any better than that.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

With the sudden and rapid departure of almost every able bodied ex-Auror in a desperate effort to rescue as many of their former colleagues as possible, and the Goblin company still at slightly under half strength from injuries sustained at Azkaban, things had changed significantly at the burrow.

Where before security patrols had been conducted by fully qualified and experienced Aurors and battle hardened Goblins, now with the constraints on available manpower it now fell to the teenagers of the D.A. to patrol the halls and corridors of the newly built complex.

Wherever possible one of the younger students was teamed with one of the older, founding members of the D.A. but it wasn't always possible given the large area that had to be patrolled, besides the threat level was considered low, the likelihood of anyone penetrating the Goblin wards undetected was small, the patrols were just really a formality given recent events.

This was how Laura Madley from Hufflepuff found herself to be patrolling the hospital corridors with Jimmy Peakes of Gryffindor. They would both be starting their fourth years at Hogwarts after the summer break, assuming the school remained open at that point, and neither had been among the founding members of the D.A.

Laura Madley was a tall, gangly and painfully shy girl with long black hair that often hid a face that had just started to hint at the beauty she would become. Jimmy Peakes was a short, broad chested youth, with straw coloured hair, an avid Quidditch player, who very rarely stopped talking long enough to pay attention to what was happening around him.

Hence it was not at all surprising that it was Laura and not Jimmy that noticed the slightly open door to one of the potion store cupboards, a door that should most certainly have been shut and locked. Laura halted, frowning mightily at the door, as if her frown would instantly produce answers, she had long ago learned to tune out Jimmy's incessant babble.

Without taking her eyes, narrowed with suspicion, from the barely open door in front of her, Laura pointed her wand at the still completely oblivious Jimmy and fired off a silent mild stinging hex. Through experience, she had found it was the fastest way of getting the talkative youth's attention, the yelp of pain the youth emitted was somehow almost soothing to her.

Having finally gained his attention, Laura indicated the open door ahead of her, pointed to herself and motioned tip toeing up to it. Jimmy nodded his understanding and moved to the other side of the corridor to cover her with his wand as she approached the door, to Laura it sounded as if her heart was pounding loud enough to be heard clear all the way to Diagon alley.

Halting at the open door, Laura very carefully eased her head around the frame to listen at the door, ready to snatch it back in an instant. Two voices carried out of the storeroom, one was an adult female, a high pitched fluttery voice, the other an adult male voice, high and cold sounding, a voice that instantly filled the student with fear.

"You have done well to remain undetected thus far, why have you taken this action now, with its high risk of exposure? What could be that important?"

This was the male voice, even though the tone was even there was something menacing and decidedly dangerous about the voice.

"My lord, I had to inform you of the fact that the burrow presently stands open for attack, the renegade Aurors have departed, trying to save as many of their former fellows as they can. The Goblins have many injured from the battle of Azkaban, leaving only the Hogwarts students to protect the area."

Laura was sure that there was something familiar about this female voice, something at the back of her mind was telling her she should know who it belonged to.

"And what of dear Harry?"

"Back on his feet my lord, although still suffering heavily from his injuries."

"Excellent work, however you should be aware that you have a little eavesdropper."

There was nothing at all wrong with Laura Madley's reaction speed as she yanked her head savagely back from the doorframe, an instant before a curse exploded the frame apart where her head had been.

Startled at the sudden assault, she back-pedalled so fast that she managed to trip over her own feet and landed heavily on her rump on the floor. Her wand tip however never wavered from pointing at the door, if she had learnt nothing else from her time with the D.A. it was to never, ever relax your guard.

The door was flung violently open and Laura gasped with astonishment at the familiar figure who stepped out of the storeroom, it was someone that she knew definitely did not go with the voice she had heard moments before, someone who was holding a wand on her in a way that suggested she was about to use it.

Laura was shocked and horrified to discover that her wand had automatically dropped at the appearance of a familiar figure, she tried to recover, to reverse the direction her arm was moving in order to bring her wand back into play.

But her hand had barely moved to bring her own wand up to defend herself when something struck her sharply in the chest, flinging her bodily across the corridor. She smacked hard into the far wall with a cracking sound that brought red hot pain knifing down her back. Then she slid down the wall until she came to rest up in a bloody heap on the floor leaning sideways up against the wall.

Laura had never felt pain like it in her entire life, her eyes filled with tears as she tried to get up, to roll over, to do something, but she found she was unable to move or speak. Above her, a shadow was moving, Jimmy Peakes had moved until he was stood over her body, his wand held at the ready, bravely defending her.

She wanted to tell him to run, to get help, to save himself, but there was nothing she could do, as much as she tried to speak no sound came out. Laura started to panic, wondering if this was what people who were dying experienced.

"Reducto!"

The high pitched female voice screamed.

"Protego!"

Jimmy calmly replied in an unexpectedly unflappable voice, Laura was impressed, she hadn't realised the boy had that sort of coolness in him. She immediately felt badly that she had so terribly misjudged him. The shielding charm had been one that all those in the D.A. had learnt courtesy of Harry Potter, the blasting spell deflected off the powerful charm with the sound of a bell being struck and up into the ceiling.

"Stupefy!"

Jimmy fired back, Laura could not turn her head to see the result of his attack, but from the frown on his face it had not succeeded.

"Stupefy!"

He fired again, this time he smiled slightly, but the smile quickly became another frown. Another blasting spell deflected off the teenagers shield charm, into the wall this time and then a third, each of the spells having utterly no effect on the shield charm, and then the boy smiled with sudden overconfidence.

"Avada Kedavra!"

No! Not that! Laura wanted to scream, but nothing came out. There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as if some vast force was moving through the air. The last thing that Laura Madley felt before the blackness reached out for her, was the weight of Jimmy Peakes' body coming to rest on top of her.

Kingsley Shacklebolt stopped and knelt for a moment just short of where the corridor intersected with another, he was certain he had found the area from where the sound of recent spell fire had emanated. The smell of ozone and the small wisps of smoke coming from the corridor on the left were all the clues he needed.

Behind him, in a covering formation, Dawlish and Proudfoot, the only other Aurors left at the burrow, watched over the small rag-tag team of students he had drawn together to investigate the disturbance, he nodded his approval at the spacing's they had adopted on both sides of the corridor, to keep them as safe as possible from incoming spell fire. An Auror team could not have done it any better.

Since he had first heard the distinctive sound of spell fire coming from inside the hospital he and the other Aurors had managed to gather three pairs of patrolling teenagers that had been racing towards the sound. As the only able bodied Aurors still present at the burrow the students had quickly followed their orders.

The three older teenagers, Hannah Abbot, Seamus Finnegan and Ernie Macmillian, founding members of the D.A. all, had orders to back him up, their patrol partners, the younger teens in the group, Richard Coote, Kevin Bundy and Natalie McDonald had been tasked with protecting Amanda Coombs, Shacklebolt had dragged the healer from the ward he had been leaving when the incident occurred.

The sound of rapid footsteps to his front from the corridor directly opposite his own snapped his attention back to the intersection, he lowered his wand and breathed a profound sigh of relief when he saw the red hair and stocky frames of the Weasley twins come running around the far corner.

The two men were accompanied by Angelina Johnston and Alicia Spinnet, all four had their wands out and on seeing Shacklebolt and his team at the junction they slowed their pace and quickly took up matching positions across the intersection from him.

Fred, or was it George? Motioned for Shacklebolt to take a look around the corner while he covered the man, the Auror nodded and held up three fingers and began to count down. Once all his fingers had dropped the two men rose and stepped as one into the corridor from opposite directions, wands out in front of them.

The far end of the corridor was a mess, there were spell craters in the ceiling and walls, and debris was spread in a wide area all over the floor. And then Shacklebolt saw the two prone figures lying still against the wall, he couldn't recognise them from here, but it seemed as if one was laying atop the other, covering the body almost protectively.

"Right, I want you three to secure this intersection and guard the healer, whatever happens and whatever you see, I want you to wait here until I or one of the other Aurors call for you, do you understand?"

Shacklebolt studied the three youngest teenagers carefully, they appeared frightened but also seemed very determined, while he didn't want to have to rely on them in any sort of fight, he knew having any kind of backup was better than having none at all.

Three nods with varying degrees of confidence answered him and he smiled reassuringly at them.

"Ok, the rest of us split into two teams, I'll take the twins and miss Spinnet. Andy you're with me, Proudfoot watch the others. As hard as it will be we have to ignore the casualties until we have secured the corridor, if we rushed down there we could possibly be leaving an enemy to our rear, then we all become casualties."

Shacklebolt knew that all they wanted to do was rush down the corridor and deal with their injured friends, only his years of experience stopped him acting on the same feelings.

"The teams will take a side of the corridor each, search each room and clear it in turn, go steady and be careful, don't get ahead of the team on the opposite side to you, we may need to support each other. Everybody clear what we are doing?"

Seven teenagers and two Aurors nodded grimly at him, each one fingering their wands. Shacklebolt nodded in return then indicated they should adopt their positions.

The two teams moved down the corridor steadily, when they came to a doorway the team would 'stack up' or line up along the wall, the first person would throw open the door and move inside with the rest of the team following. Each room was searched and declared clear in turn, until Shackle bolt found himself stood over the bodies.

"Secure the intersection."

The twins ran to the far junction and took up positions facing outwards, sparing the briefest of looks at the two figures lying untouched on the floor.

Only once Shacklebolt was satisfied that both ends of the corridor were held securely did he drop to one knee by the two bodies.

The first one was male, although still only a child, and from his open staring eyes it was plain to see that he was dead, there was no obvious physical injury, putting Shacklebolt in mind of the killing curse, but ever the professional, Shacklebolt felt for a pulse anyway even if it was to no avail.

Gently, he rolled the dead boy carefully off the second body underneath, it was a female of around the same tender age as the dead boy, she was laid spread eagled on her back, her head canted over at an impossible angle, her long black hair covering her face. There was a deep spell injury to her chest and Shacklebolt could see the ivory of bone in the wound, possibly caused by a Reducto or a similar curse at point blank range.

Whichever way you looked at it the girl was dead as well, sighing sadly Shacklebolt gently used the tips of his finger tips to brush the long black hair back off the girls face. She was not even a decade older than his own daughter and the hair colour was almost the same, it was not an image he was at all comfortable with.

When the supposed 'dead' girl moaned softly Shacklebolt nearly fell over backwards in surprise, he had had been so sure she was dead that he hadn't bothered to check her pulse, he had overlooked the basics of battlefield casualty assessment, no one was dead until a medic told you they were.

"Doc, I got a live one here!"

In the heat of the moment the normally unflappable Auror had forgotten he didn't have an Auror field medic, always referred to as 'doc', but an actual fully qualified healer. Amanda gave no sign that she had heard the slip as she came running up the corridor, her satchel of supplies bouncing on her hip.

She threw herself down beside Shacklebolt and drew her wand.

"Don't waste too much time on the boy doc, he's gone."

Shacklebolt slowly stood up, the only sign that he had been affected at all by the death of a child and the mortal wounding of another was the tightening of his lips into a thin straight line, and a certain set of his shoulders. For those that knew him well enough to recognise the signs, they would know that to whoever had committed these terrible crimes, Kingsley Shacklebolt had just become the most dangerous man on the planet.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW**

Ask any member of Slytherin house when you would attack an opponent and you would get exactly the same answer. When you have the advantage and not your opponent, whether that advantage is gained by numerical superiority, because your opponent is distracted, or because he is not expecting it, that's when you attack.

Only Gryffindor's, with their stupid ideas on courage would attack a prepared enemy who knew you were coming and who outnumbered you.

The attack was coming, Draco could feel it deep in his soul. He didn't know what form the attack would take, and he didn't know where the attack was coming from, but it was coming, and soon.

The burrow was as undefended as it had been at any time since the start of this unfolding drama, what with the Aurors away, and half the Goblins still injured, only the D.A. were providing security for the burrow. This was the time he would attack if he was a Death Eater.

He hadn't shared his concerns yet with the others, he had needed some time alone to think, to try and use some of his Slytherin cunning to try and spot potential weaknesses. What would he do if he was tasked to strike at the burrow?

Intelligence would be vital, Voldemort would need an agent at the burrow, someone to report back when the compound was at its weakest, perhaps even stage a distraction or two to keep the defenders busy looking the other way, at least that was what he would do.

If he had been a Death Eater, something that had not that long ago seemed inescapable, and he was tasked to attack the burrow, Draco knew deep down that the moment of the attack would be now.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

"Right, this is what I want to see happen, and I want it to happen quickly. I want the whole D.A. accounted for and mobilised, I want to begin a search of the burrow buildings, starting with the hospital. Work in fours, no more patrolling in pairs, use whatever force you deem appropriate to the situation, and for Merlin's sake be careful."

With nods of understanding Hannah and Seamus dashed off in the wake of Dawlish and Proudfoot in order to organise a search. The three younger teens were still discharging their duty, despite the near proximity of the bodies of two of their friends, and were guarding the healer, Amanda Coombs as she struggled to stabilise her patient.

"Fred, George, I need you to find Harry and Draco and have them find me here. The last time I saw Harry he was just about dead on his feet, so he's probably asleep somewhere in the arms of your sister, there is a killer on the loose and we need to take precautions, and you two, be careful."

The two red heads nodded once and sprinted away to carry out their instructions.

"Alicia, Angelina, I want you two to go to the burrow, find Charlie and Percy Weasley. Search the house from top to bottom and then hold it secure, nobody in, nobody out, we are going to need somewhere safe to use as a headquarters."

The two females nodded their understanding of the task given to them and turned away. That left him left alone with Ernie Macmillan, the three younger teens and Amanda Coombs.

"Well doc, how are we looking?"

Amanda didn't look up at him when she answered him, concentrating on trying to heal her severely injured patient.

"Severe spell damage to the chest, and a spine fractured in two different places, one of them just below the skull, internal damage caused from blunt force trauma and bone fragments. In short, she's a mess, why she's still alive now I don't know, she's one hell of a fighter."

Amanda sounded less than hopeful of the girl's prospects, but if the child had managed to hold on this long, then perhaps she could produce a further miracle, and hold on a while longer.

Shacklebolt moved away from the healer and the little group around her and turned to study what was now a crime scene as dispassionately as he could manage. He was of course a fully qualified investigator and he needed to get it clear in his own head what had happened.

Noting the position of the bodies when he had first found them, opposite the door to the potions storeroom, which had been wide open when they had arrived, and the female child's abandoned wand near the door, he began to piece the events together, talking out loud as was his custom at such times.

"They patrolled down the corridor, the girl was in the lead and was hit first…"

"Her name is Laura"

Shacklebolt started in shock, he hadn't even noticed that Ernie Macmillan had followed him and the fact the lad had corrected him had surprised him, the boy had always seemed slightly overwhelmed by him when they had met in the past.

The Auror regarded the teenager thoughtfully and then just nodded to say he understood, it was the right thing to do, to give the victims their names, it showed respect for fallen warriors.

"Laura was hit first, but she was not taken by surprise, she was fully facing her attacker when she was hit, you can see that from the position of the wound to her chest. The spell hit her and she dropped her wand, the spell, a Reducto curse or something similar I think, threw her across the corridor to where she is now, the boy…"

Shacklebolt turned and raised his eyebrow questioningly at Ernie and the teenager smiled sadly.

"Jimmy"

"…and Jimmy moved to stand over her, protecting her. Jimmy and the attacker exchanged spell fire, he deflected at least three curses, probably also Reducto curses, that struck the walls and ceiling around him, his shield charm was very strong."

Shacklebolt turned and closely examined the walls either side of the door, there were slight scorch marks around the frame and on the walls.

"Judging by the scorch marks he also managed to get a couple of his own off in reply which were also blocked, but by the lack of visible damage I'm guessing he was only using stunners. I'm guessing that the attacker panicked, knowing the sound of spell fire would bring others running, the attacker had to end it quickly to escape and resorted to the killing curse."

"Why leave Laura alive then? Surely it would have taken little extra time to kill her as well?"

Shacklebolt regarded Ernie for a moment, he was starting to like the way this teenagers mind worked, a potential Auror in the making possibly, and after what Scrimgeour had done to the Auror force that day they would need as many new Aurors cadets as they could get their hands on.

"It's my guess that the attacker made the same mistake I did, and wrote Laura off due to the extent and appearance of her injuries, thinking she was already dead."

Shacklebolt was fairly sure he had the sequence of events right now, but something was still bothering him, why had Laura been facing her attacker without defending herself, and why had the attacker been in the potion store in the first place. The vials were important, but hardly essential, and there had been no obvious damage to any of the potions inside.

Shacklebolt moved inside and turned in a slow circle, studying every detail of the store, there was a strange smell in the room, but it was a potions store after all, that was to be expected.

On one wall there was a strange red circle that could have been drawn in blood, but he had no idea why anyone would want to do that. If he had something to compare it to he could do a DNA comparison, but as it was at the moment it didn't help him identify the killer.

Then he saw it. On the inside of the doorframe, a large chunk of wood had been blown off and lay on the ground, he moved to the doorframe and touched it. It was just below the level of his shoulder, which would have put it at about the right height for the head of a young teenage girl.

"The curse that hit Laura wasn't the first thrown, the first curse thrown was this one, from inside the room. The attacker was in here doing something unknown, Laura heard something and caught the attacker in the act. She placed her head just there to listen to what was going on inside."

Shacklebolt pointed to the door frame, Ernie was impressed at the man's eye for detail, because to him it just looked like a lot of random spell damage.

"The attacker was taken by surprise and fired off a quick curse that struck the frame, missing its target. So the attacker entered the corridor to finish the job, but that does not explain why Laura and Jimmy didn't immediately return fire, they had more enough warning, what would make them hold their fire?"

"Maybe because they both froze?"

Ernie added helpfully.

"It's possible I suppose, but from what I have heard about the Azkaban raid not one of the D.A. froze in combat, so I have to assume that didn't happen here either. What else would make them hold their fire?"

Ernie was silent for a moment frowning mightily, the frown was still on his face when he answered.

"Because they thought their attacker was a friend?"

"Because they thought their attacker was a friend! Mr Macmillan you are a certifiable genius, well done. Please spread the word, don't trust anyone, even other members of the D.A. as soon as possible we will start checking people's wands, and let's find this bastard before they can strike again."

**AN/ **Bit of a short one this time out, just over my self imposed minimum for a chapter. But don't fret, the next chapter will be coming along shortly.


	22. 22 Altered Realities

THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO CAPTAIN DANIEL SHEPHERD

11 EOD Regiment RLC, British Army

Killed in Action Helmand Province, Afghanistan 22nd July 2009

"What do we Bomb Disposal guys do when the bad guys run out of red wire?"

"I don't know, but that will surely be an interesting day!"

* * *

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO: ALTERED REALITIES

**THE COTTAGE**

Harry was sack bang in the middle of a fantastic dream, and he really didn't want to wake up, but whoever it was trying to wake him up was being annoyingly persistent, shaking his shoulder and calling his name. Couldn't they just leave him in peace, allow him just a few minutes of escape from all the care and worry he had to deal with while he was awake.

"Bugger off!"

But they didn't, if anything the shaking got even more violent. Finally, in disgust at the world, and bowing to the seemingly inevitable, Harry cracked open one eye to see what the fuss was about.

He took one look at the expression on Fred's face and was instantly awake. The twin was standing at the side of the bed, and looked like he was going to be physically sick, pale and ill, George, standing in the doorway to the bedroom, didn't look all that much better.

"What, what's happened?"

Harry asked, rubbing the last vestiges of sleep from his eyes, Ginny still lay cuddled up tight alongside him, an arm flung over his chest, as always in the moments before she woke Harry gave thanks for this extraordinary young woman.

"Harry, there's been an attack at the hospital, on two of ours…"

George looked in physical pain as he spoke, the word 'ours' had only one meaning in this context, 'ours' meant D.A.

"One is dead, the other might not make it either…"

"We were sent to fetch you…"

"Just in case the attacker has a pop at you."

Harry blinked rapidly and tried to take in the information he had just been given, a death, amongst the D.A. They were all so young!

"Who was attacked?"

To those that didn't know Harry as well as the twins his voice sounded level enough, on the inside however he was anything but level. He knew them all, they were his friends who had thrown in their lot with him despite the danger, he owed them everything, each and every one of them.

"Jimmy Peakes and Laura Madley. Jimmy was killed."

They were both so incredibly young, too young to be mixed up in this nightmare situation. He knew Jimmy quite well from his captaincy of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, the boy, along with Richard Cootes had replaced the twins as beaters when they had left. Harry had fond memories of Quidditch practises during which trying to get the lad to stop talking and concentrate had seemed utterly impossible.

Laura Madley he didn't know quite as well, she had been terribly shy during the lessons of the D.A. despite Harry trying to bring her out of her shell. Towards the end he felt he had been making progress, she would even smile at his terrible jokes.

He now knew why the twins looked so ill, Harry felt sick to the pit of his stomach at the thought of further injuries, especially to children who had just finished their third year of school, fourteen was too young to be mixed up in this conflict.

"Who is in charge over there, Draco?"

Fred shook his head.

"Shacklebolt is calling the shots."

Harry felt a small sense of relief, Shacklebolt was an immensely experienced Auror, and if anyone could get everybody doing what needed to be done it was him.

"Right, let's go then. Ginny, wake up babe there's work to be done."

Ginny groaned and rolled over, batting his hand away in an attempt to stay asleep, she finally opened her eyes and regarded Harry and the twins.

"Wassup?"

She asked sleepily, Harry grinned sadly at her, at any other time he would have enjoyed this moment, but he didn't have time now to be playful.

"We have had another attack in the hospital, it sounds like whoever cursed Amanda Coombs into attacking me has struck again, there has been a death, and we have to go."

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

Shacklebolt looked up as the last patrol reported back to him, the D.A. had searched the entire hospital from top to bottom, and checked every single wand in the building, including all of their own, the medical staff and even his own, all to no avail. They couldn't locate the wand that had cast the killing curse, nor did they have the identity of the mystery assailant.

There was a killer on the loose, and despite taking every precaution, they were no closer to finding him or her, the only witness to the attack was hovering between life and death with either option a very real possibility.

With a sigh Shacklebolt expanded the search to the other buildings in the complex, the two accommodation blocks and the operations building, which the goblins had not yet completed. He was not particularly hopeful of success, he felt sure that the killer had remained close, was at this moment still in the hospital, laughing at all the attempts to find them, and Shacklebolt hated being laughed at.

At his order, an inventory of the potions store had been carried out, to determine what if anything was missing from the shelves. According to Ernie Macmillian, all that was missing were several vials of burn healing paste, and a bottle of 'second skin', a paste that when spread over an injured area formed an infection resistant coating to allow wounds to heal.

What, if anything, this had to do with the attack, Shacklebolt had no idea, all just more pieces of the puzzle.

OoOoO

Draco stood leaning up against the wall just inside the door watching as Amanda Coombs and two other healers battled hard to save Laura Madley's life. He had originally come to the hospital to spend some time with Katie, who was still in bed, her head wound serious enough to demand a lengthy stay.

When he had found out about the new attack, Draco had felt his Slytherin 'spider sense' twitching violently. It wasn't a task he had been singled out for and given by Harry, but since he considered himself the sneakiest of those in Harry's inner circle, he had taken it upon himself to try and catch the spy.

There was a Death Eater agent at the burrow, the attack on Harry and Katie by the very healer he was now watching had not been a one off, and any agent would have some way of contacting their superiors. The Death Eaters would know by now how weak the defenders of this place were and that the attack could fall at any moment.

Somehow Draco knew, this terribly wounded girl held the key, she had to have seen…something that would help him find this agent, stop these attacks from happening, give them a fighting chance of surviving long enough to stop Voldemort.

Amanda groaned loudly, flexing her shoulders and moved away from the bed, the woman looked tired from her efforts, as she had pumped her magic into the wounded girl. The other two healers looked just as exhausted, they left the room without a word, they still had other patients to see.

"How is she healer Coombs?"

Amanda knew what he was really asking was 'can I speak to her yet?' and she flashed him an angry look.

"Well she's alive, which considering how badly injured she is in itself is no small thing, mainly down to her I might add. She's not out of the woods yet, we'll know more if she survives the night, she's semi conscious and drugged up to her eyeballs, I'm not sure you will get any kind of intelligent conversation out of her, certainly nothing helpful."

Draco nodded, knowing he had to try despite the healer's advice. He moved over to the bedside, Laura lay there, her body held rigid in magical body bind to allow her spinal damage to heal, she appeared so young and helpless that Draco suddenly felt very protective of her, it was the same feelings he felt for Helen, and he certainly wasn't used to feelings like that.

"Laura, can you hear me, its Draco Malfoy, Laura?"

The girl's eyelids flickered for a moment before opening, her eyes were glazed due to the amount of medication she was on, but Draco recognised the sudden fear that filled those brown eyes, he had seen it once before in the eyes of Ginny Weasley, his Death Eater heritage once more returning to cruelly taunt him. Tenderly he touched her forehead.

"Hi there Laura, how do you feel?"

The girl's mouth moved slowly, as if she was trying to form words but no sound came out, she swallowed a few times and tried again.

"I can't move, feel numb all over, why can't I move?"

The girl was plainly terrified, and was hovering on the edge of total hysteria, Draco smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner.

"You were hurt, your body has been put in a body bind to let you heal quicker, you are doing great, you will be out of here soon and driving all those boys wild again, I promise."

Laura looked up at him and smiled, and then her eyelids started to droop as the drugs began to pull her back under.

"Hey, hey Laura look at me, look at me, here I am."

Draco clicked his fingers and waved his fingertips in front of her eyes, Laura opened her eyes and slowly focused on him again.

"Do you remember what happened to you? It's important you concentrate Laura, Harry and I really need your help."

Draco had never wished he had Luna Lovegood with him more than he did at that moment, Luna could have taken the image right out of the girls mind, without having to interrogate a drugged and wounded girl.

"How is she?"

The voice from the doorway startled him, Draco spun to find Kingsley Shacklebolt standing there with a concerned look on his face. Suddenly Draco smiled as the answer to his problems landed in his lap.

"Auror Shacklebolt, I don't suppose you happen to have a pensieve handy you do you?"

OoOoO

Harry had sent the twins back to the burrow and he and Ginny walked hand in hand to the hospital. He was in no mood to make idle conversation, and Ginny picking up on this remained silent, watching him with concern.

Moving into the building, he allowed the D.A. patrol on the door to check his and Ginny's wands using the prior Incantatem spell, getting a little ticket stub to say their wands were clean of the killing curse. He strode through the corridors, nodding to his friends but not stopping to talk to any of them.

Laura Madley had been moved to a trauma room for immediate treatment, but the body of Jimmy Peakes remained where it had fallen, someone had at least covered the body with a white sheet, a last attempt to give the boy some dignity, even in death.

Harry dropped to his knees beside the body and slowly raised the sheet. Jimmy had his eyes closed, Harry wondered if someone had done that for him, Cedric's eyes were still wide open, staring heavenward accusingly, after he had died from the killing curse. The boy had a small smile on his face, reminding Harry of the cocky grin Jimmy would have after he had smashed a bludger into someone during a game.

But that boy was gone, and this was just an empty shell, dropping the sheet back over the body, Harry stood looking down at the pathetic sheet covered figure for a moment longer, before turning away, tears in his eyes.

Ginny thrust herself into his arms and he pulled her to him tighter instinctively. His business was now with the living, grieving for the dead could wait until later, but they would get justice, which was the least of what he owed to them.

Releasing Ginny, Harry wiped his eyes dry and looking about to get his bearings, he headed to the nearest private room, they would have taken Laura Madley to the closest room for treatment. But in all the stress of the moment, Harry had forgotten the nearest room was already occupied.

"Harry!"

When he was struck by a fast moving child shaped missile, his first thought was that someone had let Helen Bell into the hospital, which with a killer on the loose that was so not a good plan. But when he looked down he was very surprised to find not a pretty dark haired five year old, but an almost unnaturally pretty blond haired eleven year old, a girl he had not seen for over two years.

"Gabrielle?"

"Harry! Harry, the French are here…oh, I guess you already know that."

Harry ginned despite himself at the embarrassed look on Colin Creevey's face as he realised his news was delivered a little too late to be of any use. Looking around the room, Harry was surprised to see Fleur as the only other occupant. His one time opponent from the tri-wizard tournament lay in the bed with the sheet pulled up to her neck, she was as unresponsive as she had been the moment she had been rescued from Azkaban.

"Gabrielle, where are your parents?"

The blond girl looked up at him with a very serious expression on her face, Harry was instantly reminded of Hermione during their first year at Hogwarts telling Harry and Ron off for breaking another rule, or for not studying hard enough before a test. It was not an expression that really fitted such a young child, but it was amusing.

"Mama has been unwell recently, she is so worried about Fleur and she stayed at home, Papa went off somewhere with Bill to talk, I think perhaps that Papa is very angry with him."

Gabrielle added the last sentence in a staged whisper, Harry smiled and not the first time wondered why Gabrielle could speak English so much better than her older sister, who always managed to horribly mangle the language.

"Harry, what is wrong with Fleur, she is not right?"

Harry paused before speaking for a moment wondering how much to explain to an eleven year old that her older sister was mentally traumatised, it had been hard enough when the healers had tried to explain it to him, and he still wasn't sure he had completely understood.

"When the bad men took Fleur, they hurt her badly, her head is still mending, it will take time but she will get better."

Gabrielle looked up at him for a moment, analysing his words before she responded.

"How did the bad men steal her Veela power?"

"Wha…what did you say Gabrielle?"

"Fleur is no longer a Veela. She is my sister, as part Veela's and blood relatives, we can always sense each other when we are nearby, this is why she was so upset during the tournament, the merpeople's spell blocked my power and Fleur feared that I was dead. I cannot sense her magic the way I could before."

Harry frowned and studied the figure that was lying still in the bed, something cold trickled and flowed at the back of his head and down his neck, some sense of dread that refused to be ignored.

"What do you sense in this room Gabrielle?"

Gabrielle screwed up her face in concentration, her nose scrunched up just like Ginny when she was studying. The image made Harry smile, as he studied the younger Delacour.

"I can sense only you Harry, which is very odd, you are not Veela, you should not project power as a Veela can."

Harry frowned and closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he stretched out with his senses as he had done to examine the ward at Azkaban, he concentrated on those nearby, it took nearly all his focus. He could sense Gabrielle, could sense the ethereal Veela magical power that pulsed inside her in time to her heart beat, but when he looked at Fleur there was nothing to see, it was almost as if she wasn't there.

"Come with me"

Harry offered the French girl his hand and for some reason felt pleased when she took it without hesitation, he led her from the room and closed the door behind him, and with a casual gesture he silently locked it and placed a silencing charm over the door.

Ginny and Colin were stood in the corridor talking quietly together and looked up when he left the room. Both knew him well enough that they immediately picked up on the tension in his body language, and without a word both drew their wands.

"I think we have a serious problem."

OoOoO

Draco had never viewed a pensieve memory of someone who was drugged and in severe pain before, from the intense frown on the Auror's face neither had he. It was a unique and slightly disquieting experience. He had heard tell of muggle drug addicts and the strange things they saw while high on whatever substance they had taken, this had to be a similar experience.

The memory of the attack had become hopelessly intermingled with several other memories from Laura's past, and even when they were certain they were viewing the memories of the attack, parts were missing or jumbled up, or hard to make out, like watching something through a smoke filled room.

Ignoring to the best of his ability a memory of a much young Laura being savagely taunted by a younger version of himself, something he himself had no memory of, Draco tried to focus on what was happening in the corridor. A horse being ridden by a very much younger Laura came trotting down the middle of the corridor, between the images of Jimmy and Laura, giving mute testimony of the confused state of the girl's memory.

They could however clearly hear the conversation held between the two people in the potion storeroom, and Draco straightened up as the spark of recognition registered, he knew both of the voices taking part in the conversation.

The male was Voldemort himself, Draco had last heard the voice at Azkaban as he had duelled for his life. The woman's voice he hadn't heard in over a year, but he recognised it immediately, it was not the kind of voice you tended to forget, looking over at the Auror, Draco knew from the Auror's rigid posture that Shacklebolt also knew whose voices he had just been listening to.

Then in the memory the door was flung open and their attacker was stood there, both he and Shacklebolt gasped in surprise as they found themselves looking at a completely naked Fleur Delacour. For an instant Draco found himself envious of Bill Weasley, then he noticed that Fleur had her wand aimed at Laura, and then the memory became too disjointed to watch as Laura was struck and tumbled through the air.

"She's disguised herself as Fleur Delacour!"

It was the utter shock and indignant outrage in the voice of Shacklebolt that made Draco struggle to stifle a momentary bout of giggles.

"I know what you mean, it's just…wrong"

OoOoO

Harry led Gabrielle away from Fleur's room into the main ward, placing his hands under her armpits he lifted her onto one of the empty hospital beds.

"Gabrielle I need you to trust me, can you do that?"

The girl nodded her head, her lips trembling slightly now as she started reacting to the tension being projected by the three teenagers stood around her. They were tense, therefore she was tense.

"Good girl, I want you to stay here, Ginny will stay and keep you company, that's ok isn't it?"

Gabrielle nodded and Harry smiled and squeezed her hand to reassure the girl, then he stepped away from the bed, beckoning Colin and Ginny over to him.

"I don't know quite how to explain this to you, but whoever that is in that room, it isn't the Fleur Delacour we know, and may in fact be our killer. I don't want Gabrielle anywhere near that room, I've already had one child killed today. Ginny I need you to stay with her and keep her safe and entertained."

Ginny nodded, a serious expression on her face, Harry leaned and kissed her on the forehead.

"Be careful Harry, you don't want to be spending anymore time in the hospital."

Harry groaned, shaking his head at the thought of that possibility, like he hadn't spent enough time recently laid up in bed.

"I will do my very best to avoid that Gin, however I do enjoy having you nurse me back to health"

He grinned and waggled his eyebrows suggestively, both Ginny and Gabrielle burst out laughing for different reasons.

"Just go do what you have to do, and come back in one piece."

Harry bowed and blew her a kiss, before walking back out into the corridor with a madly grinning Colin at his side.

He halted outside the room and paused to get into the right frame of mind, he was about to confront one of Voldemort's servants cloaked in the flesh of a young woman that was very shortly about to become a member of his family. Which meant the Death Eaters still had Fleur somewhere, and he would go to any lengths to find out where they were holding her.

Taking a deep breath, Harry placed his hand on the door handle.

"Harry! Wait!"

Harry turned to find Draco and Kingsley Shacklebolt sprinting down the corridor towards him as fast as they could, arms and legs pumping hard. Draco slid the last few feet and came to a halt in front of him and began talking so fast that the words all came out in a rush.

"Harry, we know who the killer is, we got the identity from Laura Madley's memories, we used Auror Shacklebolt's pensieve to view the whole attack, the killer…it's…"

"Fleur Delacour"

Harry finished for him. Draco just stood there rooted to the spot, opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish for a few seconds without making any sound. If the situation had not been so serious Harry would have been laughing at that expression.

"Oh…well…ok, so much for my thunderous revelation, but it only looks like Fleur, we now know who it really is."

Draco leaned in closer and whispered a name in Harry's ear. Harry felt a wave of utter revulsion sweep over him as he remembered only too well what that person actually looked like. He could feel the bitter taste of bile rising in the back of his throat.

Fleur Delacour had the looks of an angel, and the natural grace of a highly trained ballerina, she could have just run ten miles across muddy fields in the pouring rain, and she would still have managed to look like a million galleons, the other person that Draco had just named would require extensive plastic surgery just to blend in with a crowd.

"That's…that's…"

"Just wrong, we know"

Draco and Shacklebolt both chorused together, grinning at him.

"Well that doesn't really change anything, we still need to go in there and detain her, question her until we can find out where they holding the real Fleur."

Draco was shaking his head in disagreement.

"In Laura's pensieve memory she told Voldemort about how weak we are here presently, there is going to be an attack, and it's going to be soon. But we can use the fact that we now know who she is to our advantage, arrange a little deception of our own, and maybe buy us some more time. Then, when they are not expecting it, we get our people back."

Harry looked at Draco for a long moment and realised that he had forgotten that he had been Slytherin, and when it came to being sneaky, cunning and deceptive Draco was always going to win hands down.

"I've just remembered why I keep you around here Draco, alright tell me your plan."

"Yes Mr Malfoy, please tell us your entire plan, I'm, as they say in this country 'all ears'!"

Henri Delacour appeared behind them from underneath an invisibility cloak, he wore a determined, angry expression on his face, and some of that was directed towards Harry. When he noticed everyone looking at him with expressions of incredulity he shrugged.

"What, I never said I cannot be a 'sneaky bastard' when I want to be, now please inform us of the plan that will save my daughter and expose that…that woman who has taken her form."

OoOoO

**STIRLING LINES, HEREFORD**

The motto of The Regiment 'who dares wins' and its world famous motif the winged dagger had been artfully engraved into a plate that had once upon a time belonged to the frontal armour of a German Tiger tank, and it had been hanging over the Commanding Officers door since The Regiment had been formed in world war two.

As Regiments in the British Army went, 22nd Regiment SAS was one of the newest, it had only been in existence for fifty six years, having been formed originally to carry out long range raids on Rommel's troops in the African desert.

Most Regiments in the British Army had been around for hundreds of years, and proudly displayed their many hard won battle honours upon large flags which were called colours, traditionally used to rally soldiers in the confusion of battle.

The SAS didn't have any colours, and if they did they would never be displayed as openly as another regiment. The SAS did however have battle honours, many of them, more than any Regiment so young in years could possibly expect to normally earn.

But then there had never been anything remotely normal about any of the men that had served in the SAS down the years since its founding on harsh desert battlefields. They had always been the handpicked elite of the British Army, only the best applied for the selection course, and only one in five of those passed it.

They came from every Regiment and Corps in the Army, chosen for their mental strength as much as their physical, and given the most extensive training and the finest equipment money can buy. Then these men were sent to the furthest corners of the globe to fight for British interests, normally outnumbered many times over, often operating without support or backup, these men were expected to excel and complete missions in conditions and terrain regular troops would have trouble just surviving in.

There was a sense of pride that came from being able to wear the sand coloured beret with the winged dagger and blue stable belt of The Regiment that couldn't be explained to an outsider. To be a part of a unit that was acknowledged to be the very best in the world at what they did, well it was an intoxicating and bewildering experience that defied explanation.

All this went through Thomas Bell's mind repeatedly as he stood, ramrod straight, ignoring the stabbing pain in his side, staring at that metal plate that had once belonged to a German tank above the door of his Commanding Officer.

He wondered how it would be to never have that feeling of belonging to something that special ever again, he knew with a strange, sick certainty that after today he would be extremely lucky to be able to remain in the Army for what he had done. His days in the Regiment were almost certainly over.

Despite the pain this caused him, he suddenly realised that he got the chance to do it all over again his actions would remain the same, he had acted to guarantee the safety of his family, and he didn't regret any of it. He had gotten to know both of his fabulous sisters, he would treasure those memories his entire life. He had also reacquainted himself with the world of his birthright, and made some good friends into the bargain.

No, despite his imminent punishment and disgrace he didn't regret anything he had done in the past few weeks, he would go to his fate with the certain knowledge he had done the right thing.

The door opening caught him completely unprepared, and he quickly schooled his face back into a neutral expression as he watched the Prime Minister come out into the corridor followed by one of his remaining bodyguards. The muggle leader paused for a moment as if he was going to say something to the condemned soldier, but changed his mind and walked on with a knowing little smile on his face.

"Sergeant Bell, get your flaming godforsaken arse in here, right Bloody now!"

Oh my god, thought Thomas, the old is **really** pissed at me. Stepping off smartly at the quick march, Thomas marched into the office at speed and stamped to a halt in front of the antique wooden desk, his right arm swung smartly up and he saluted his Commanding Officer.

Ask any retired staff officer of any rank, in any army modelled on the British Army, anywhere in the world, what rank they enjoyed most in their career, and the answer you would receive would be the same every time, Lieutenant Colonel.

Lieutenant Colonel is the rank of the officer that holds command over a Battalion or a Regiment of troops, the last time in an officer's career that he has direct command over a body of highly trained soldiers. Once an officer is promoted above this level he is relegated to moving counters around on a map, but those counters no longer belong directly to him anymore, they belong to some other officer.

Commanding 22 SAS was unlike any other Regimental command in the Army, not just because every single one of the two hundred and fifty soldiers placed into one of the operational squadrons, or 'Sabre' Squadrons for short, were highly trained, highly motivated, aggressive killing machines, although that of course helped.

The mission of the SAS was just about anything the British Government asked of them, Counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, conventional warfare, sabotage or Close Target Reconnaissance and Surveillance. The Regiment had the capability to carry out any number of functions, and to help it do its job the small unit had its own dedicated intelligence section, communications experts, engineers, mechanics and technicians.

Lieutenant Colonel John Simmons had an armoury that would make most small countries jealous, stocked with enough weapons and munitions to start, or stop nearly any small war in the world, and the trained men to use them. He had the authority to deploy teams around the world with just a phone call, and he could move against any foreign power that threatened British interests with a certain impunity.

It was a lot of responsibility for one man, but Simmons loved every minute of it, he was a soldier's soldier, he loved his rough band of rowdy killers, and they loved him. He was a harsh disciplinarian but fair and had the ability to strip flesh with one of his tongue lashings.

He understood how the world worked and he understood his Regiments place in it. Or at least he had until an hour ago when the Prime Minister, Tony Blair had entered his office and dropped his bombshell in Simmons's lap.

There was a secret war being fought on British soil, one that was claiming hundreds of lives, the war was being fought between rival groups of magicians, one bent on world domination, the other apparently seemed to be loyal to the crown. The loyalists were undermanned, under equipped and unprepared, and they desperately needed help, help he had been ordered by the Prime Minster and the Queen to provide.

Then on top of all that he had just been informed that one of his better junior sergeants was in fact one of the loyalist magicians, and that he had abandoned his post in order to fight in the war. It was just too much to take in, but he had little choice, time was short.

Simmons listened as the man marched in and halted in front of his desk, Bell threw up a crisp salute, which Simmons answered without looking up from the report he was pretending to read, it was a tactic designed to put people off balance. After a few minutes he looked up to find Sgt Bell still staring rigidly ahead.

"You deserted your post Sgt Bell. In the middle of an operational theatre, YOU DESERTED YOUR GODDAMN POST!"

Bell didn't even flinch Simmons noted with slight approval, maybe he's worth the effort of saving after all.

"Yes sir."

"Yes sir, what?"

"Yes sir, I deserted my post, and I shall face whatever punishment my actions bring."

Simmons stood up and slowly walked around his desk until he was stood alongside the soldier, who under military law was forced to keep his eyes straight ahead.

"Do you know what I can do to you Sgt Bell? I can strip you of rank and send you in shame back to your original Battalion, the Para's I believe wasn't it? I could also have you locked away in a cell in Colchester Military prison for so long that your youngest sister will have graduated from university with a Master's before you see the light of day again. You would do well to consider your statement on punishment very carefully."

Bell squared his shoulders and against all military law turned to face his Commanding Officer, he looked Simmons in the eye and to the officer's surprise, he smiled.

"Sir, my loyalty is to you, the Government and the Crown, and that has never changed. I was always taught that my job as a soldier is to protect the citizens and the interests of this country against all threats, both foreign and domestic."

Simmons regarded Bell for a long moment, before he spoke.

"You're a magician? How does that affect your loyalties?"

"I was born a wizard sir, I'm afraid that was a little out of my hands, but I volunteered to take an oath to become a soldier, my loyalties are unaffected. However my knowledge and background make me uniquely aware of the threat posed not just to the loyal wizards, but to all the citizens of this country."

Simmons nodded and returned to his seat behind his desk, he sat there looking up at the tall and extremely capable soldier who was about to receive probably the biggest surprise of his life.

"I'm fully aware of your unique knowledge and background, it's the only reason I haven't yet slung your arse out of my regiment. Believe me when I say if it was up to me I would want you put up against a wall and shot. As it is I am forced by circumstances to retain you on strength against my better judgement. Besides, I can hardly severely punish you for going off and doing the very thing that I have just been instructed to do by the Queen herself!"

Stretching, Simmons put his feet up on the desk and folded his arms behind his head.

"So for now at least you are off the hook Sgt Bell. So If you were being realistic, what size detachment would you ask for, to carry out the mission order I have been given? We are to provide military support and training to the loyalist wizards, to enable the criminal Voldemort to be brought to justice."

Bell frowned, Simmons could see his mind working at a furious pace, considering all the possibilities.

"If I could, I'd ask for the entire Regiment. But realistically given our current commitments, four teams and support personnel, say twenty-five men tops, with the option to call for more support from the wider armed forces should it be required."

Simmons nodded.

"And what rank should command a detachment of this size and importance?"

"Probably a Captain sir, it would have to be someone capable of cutting through all the red tape and of acting independently, someone with an open mind."

"And what sort of kit list would you want the detachment to take with it, I assume you have already put some thought into it?"

Bell nodded, of course he had, Simmons expected nothing less from his men, he reached into a pocket and withdrew several sheets of paper which he handed over.

Simmons studied the paper and his eyebrows rose higher and higher as he continued reading the paper.

"You don't ask for much do you! Some of this just cannot be done. My god man, you want both prototypes, the RAF and the Navy will have a fit! Explain the need for the two birds."

"Sir, although wizards have methods of travelling great distances in the blink of an eye, the detachments men won't, we will need our own integral transport, and if we use the prototypes we can cover it up as some form of service evaluation in field conditions, plus we will get the best idea of how good these birds are from real combat usage."

Simmons nodded, the request was well thought out and logical, despite the furore it would create with the other services, but that was neither here or there. Simmons came to a decision and reached into his desk draw, he pulled out the rank slide with a Captain's pips on them and studied them for a moment, before chucking them to the man stood in front of him.

"Bell, against my better judgement, I am awarding you a field promotion to Captain for the duration of this emergency, you will command the detachment we are sending to aid the wizard loyalists. I gave it to you, I can take it off you just as easily, don't give me a reason to do so. Congratulations Captain Bell."

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

"Where's Bill?"

Harry asked Henri Delacour over his shoulder as he entered the private room occupied by the false Fleur, he did his best to keep his facial expressions from giving the intruder any warning about what was coming.

"One of your healers needed him, something to do with removing some barrier wards from a room in the hospital, to tell you the truth Harry, I was so angry with him for allowing my daughter to be hurt that I didn't care where he was going."

Harry turned to look at the Frenchman with a hard look in his eyes, Henri stopped and held his hands up to stop Harry's rant before it started.

"I know, I know, none of this was Bill's fault, but I was a worried father and he was a convenient target, we can all be idiots when it comes to our families Harry."

"Yeah, that's true."

"I will of course offer him my sincere apologises later when I next see him."

Harry conjured a chair for himself, while Henri sat in the chair that Bill had almost lived in for the past several days. He reached over and began to stroke 'Fleur's' hair, which must have been an effort, when all he wanted to do was take hold of the woman's shoulders and shake until he found out where his daughter was being held.

"Have you had any success tracking down the bastard who killed your two children?"

Harry shook his head and sighed dramatically.

"No, and we have searched everywhere, we thought the healers might have been able to save the girl, she must have seen her attacker before she was injured, but she died on the operating table."

It had been Draco's idea to lie about Laura's death, it would put the woman wearing Fleur's appearance at ease, thinking she was still undiscovered.

The door to the room opened again and Draco and Kingsley Shacklebolt entered, they both had determined expressions on their faces, although Harry could see the humour in Draco's face, especially around the eyes. Harry realised with astonishment that he was actually enjoying himself.

"Is everything set?"

Harry asked Draco seriously.

"Yes Harry, the three Goblin companies have arrived and have taken up position on the perimeter out of sight. We have our own Aurors and the D.A. ready and we are holding them inside the hospital. All we are waiting for now are the promised French Aurors."

"Harry, you know we French like to be fashionably late and make a suitably grand entrance, it is in the blood, but do not worry, they will be here in good time."

Henri certainly sounded convincing, Harry nodded to them both and turned to Shacklebolt.

"So what do you think our chances are that old snake face has fallen for the trap Kingsley?"

The Auror looked thoughtful for a long moment as if weighing up all the factors.

"I think the chances are very good, to all outside appearances it would seem as if the teenagers are the only defence we have, a nice juicy target to attack, I think the coward will fall for it."

"Smashing, I want to thank all of you for your help setting this entire thing up, hopefully when old snake face shows up we can give him a beating the likes of which he will never forget. Right, who fancies some lunch, the house elves make a mean omelette?"

Draco's belly chose this moment to rubble in a fashion that could not have been falsified, giving added realism to their need to eat. Laughing they all trooped out of the room, conversing loudly as they made their way down the corridor.

OoOoO

**STIRLING LINES, HEREFORD**

"So, what did you get?"

Thomas hadn't heard the question the first time it was asked, he was still in a state of shock. He remembered standing in the office and putting his new rank slide on, shaking the CO's hand, saluting and marching out. The walk though the Regimental headquarters building and across the parade square towards his accommodation block had been as if someone else had been doing the walking.

"Tom, what did you get?"

Wilky put his hand on his friends arm and stopped him, from the shocked look on the man's face he knew it must have been bad news, kicked out of The Regiment, perhaps even jail time. He felt desperately sorry for his friend, the man had done the right thing by standing by his family, even if the military didn't agree.

"Come on mate, lets go down the bar and sink a few, get some beer in you and it will all seem better, then if you need me to I'll help you pack."

It was then that Wilky's eyes drifted over the front of Thomas' uniform shirt, to where his rank slide sat, where only an hour before the three stripes denoting a sergeant had been displayed. Now however there was a different slide.

It had three solid, diamond shaped pips, which in the British Army denoted a Captain.

"HE PROMOTED YOU! TO CAPTAIN! BLOODY HELL!"

Wilky slapped the palm of his hand dramatically into his forehead, now he too was in shock. It was not unheard of to be promoted from the ranks, and it was slightly more common in the Special Forces than in the regulars, but even so it wasn't exactly an everyday occurrence.

"You are one lucky bastard, you go into see the CO to be punished for desertion in the face of the enemy, and you come out a Captain. Maybe if I marched in there and punched him straight in the face he'd promote me to Major? What do you think of that plan?"

There was a moment of silence other than the sound of the birds in the trees.

"Nah, you're too ugly to be an officer, and the correct form of address is 'what do you think of that plan, **sir**' Wilky."

Wilky looked at his friend in astonishment, he couldn't have changed that much that he was demanding to be called sir, could he? Then Wilky saw the small grin Thomas was trying to keep from his face, and failing. He was being wound up.

"Git."

"knob jockey!"

"Arse Bandit!"

"Feel better now?"

"Oh yeah, much, nothing like insulting a superior officer to brighten your entire day, and I mean superior in the loosest definition of the term of course."

"Thank you Wilky, from you that means so much, no wait I was wrong, it means absolutely nothing whatsoever, but thank again for your input!"

The two men were grinning madly at each other, as the delicate status quo was restored once more to their relationship. It was true when the recruiters told budding soldiers that you formed the best friendships of your life while serving in the armed forces. In combat, to trust the man next to you with your life was not a bond forged lightly, or discarded easily, it was a bond that only strengthened over time.

"So, now what?"

Thomas laughed.

"If that was you're oh so subtle question 'are you going back to the burrow?' The answer is yes, the boss has given me command of the four team detachment that will be deploying to the burrow to aid Harry with his 'little problem'"

It was Wilky's turn to laugh, he had never heard a war being called an individual's 'little problem' before. Then an expression of concern crossed the soldier's face, one that let Thomas know exactly what he was thinking.

"And yes, you are coming with me, for some reason the boss has labelled you a troublemaker, and he says he wants to keep all his troublemakers in one place where he can keep an eye on them."

"A troublemaker, me? How would he get that idea?"

Thomas looked slightly guilty and looked down at the floor.

"I may have let slip that you knew about wizards and never told anyone, sorry!"

"Right, our team plus three others, who else and what do we tell them?"

"I will need a two man Royal Signals team, some Combat Med Techs and a Royal Engineer or two would be nice. Until we get to the burrow we tell them nothing, other than this is not an exercise. They would only think we are crazy if we did tell them anything."

"This is true"

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

"Twice in one day, to what do I owe this unexpected call?"

"My lord, I have discovered something vitally important, something I had to inform you of immediately!"

"And what pray tell was this piece of vital news?"

"The apparent weakness of the defences here at the burrow are a trap my lord, they intend to lure your forces in and destroy them."

"How, they barely have enough manpower to patrol the corridors!"

"They have received Goblin reinforcements, three companies. And French Aurors provided by that blood traitor Delacour! He is here leading them personally!"

"You have done well, and you shall be rewarded when you return to me. I shall not attack but leave the trap baited, this will make Harry look weak and foolish to his allies, they will lose confidence in him and desert his cause, well done."

Lowering her wand, which with carefully applied medical potions and a sticking charm had remained hidden on the inside of her thigh, she broke the connection, gasping slightly in pain. She was just about to use a Scourify charm to clean the circle of blood from the wall when she heard a sound from behind her.

Spinning quickly with her wand extended, she was shocked to find Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy stood behind her with their arms crossed and annoying smirks on their faces.

"I don't know about you Draco, but I think Fleur is suddenly feeling a whole lot better."

The blond haired youth nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Oh yes I agree Harry, a miraculous recovery, something for the medical text books, the lancet and the wand will be very interested in the case."

If they were trying to be intimidating it wasn't working, or at least not with Potter, Draco stood at least a head taller than his dark haired companion, and had learnt to look down his nose at people from his father, a very able instructor, he at least had a hard stare unlike Potter with his soft green doe like eyes.

Knowing she was caught, didn't mean she had to stay caught! Bring her wand up to point straight at Potter's half-blood heart, she began the incantation that would end his life and elevate her to pride of place in her lord's service.

"Avada Kedavra..."

Except, she wasn't holding her wand anymore, it had started in her hand, but at some point in the curse her wand had simply disappeared.

"Looking for this?"

Looking up, the woman was astounded to discover her wand being held up and waved at her in a cheerful fashion by Potter. She was astounded, she had never heard of such magic as this. She watched speechless as Potter lifted his own wand and pointed it at hers.

"Prior Incantatem!"

"No!"

She threw herself at Potter, hands outstretched hoping to reach his throat and wring the life out of the annoying little half blood, but before she was even halfway there Draco Malfoy casually unfolded his arms and pointed his own wand at her.

"Incarcerous!"

The magical ropes quickly bound her arms tightly to her side, allowing her little room for movement, it was all she could do to remain on her feet.

She was forced to watch as a ghostly circle of fire erupted from her wand tip. And then the image of a young boy, who would never again play Quidditch for his house team, his face locked permanently in an expression of surprise, thirdly a series of blasting curses deflecting off a shield charm, and lastly the image of a blasting curse striking the dark haired girl and throwing her across the corridor.

"Auror Shacklebolt, have you seen enough?"

Harry Potter's voice was low and even, but there was something deeply chilling in the tone, the hatred he felt for her was washing out of him in waves, and she suddenly realised not only did he know she wasn't Fleur Delacour, he actually knew who she really was.

Kingsley Shacklebolt stood behind them in the open doorway, casually leaning up against the doorframe, he was watching the events in the room intently, although his wand wasn't in evidence it was certainly not far away.

"Oh yes Harry, more than enough. Undersecretary Delores Jane Umbridge I am placing you under arrest for the murder by unforgivable curse of Jimmy Peakes, the attempted murder of Laura Madley, and possibly the abduction and unlawful imprisonment of Fleur Delacour!"

Shacklebolt sounded so smug and pleased with himself that it made her sick. He had no power over her, her master controlled the Ministry, there were no more Aurors, and the Wizengamot would never sit in deliberation over her case.

"The Department of Magical Law Enforcement has been disbanded, you have no right or authority to hold me, and I demand you let me go!"

Harry Potter leaned in close to her and whispered low enough only she could hear him.

"Professor Umbridge, I suggest you think very carefully of the alternative to Auror Shacklebolt detaining you, there are no Other Aurors here at present. I could of course have you guarded by members of my D.A. you do remember them right? You should, you tried to have them outlawed. You killed one of them today, and placed another within a hairsbreadth from death, I'm not so sure you would enjoy their company."

Potter leaned back and smiled coldly at her, and suddenly she felt her knees start to shake, as the reality of her situation struck her. The fear she felt running down her spine was very real, and she barely kept control of her bodily functions.

"Very well, Shacklebolt, take me away."

"Oh with great pleasure Umbridge, with great pleasure."

OoOoO

**SOMEWHERE ELSE**

Voldemort grunted slightly in brief pain as he broke the connection of the communications spell, and with a wave of his hand he banished the circle of blood from the wall of his chamber. He spun around to regard two of his servants that stood waiting his instructions.

"The attack will be cancelled, but not for the reasons that Potter thinks, he believes that I have fallen for his false information about the strength of the burrow's defenders. I have already taken steps to ensure that Potter shall receive no more support from the Goblins, there is only now a single under strength company of Goblins I need to be concerned about. As for the Aurors, the British Aurors are scattered and disorganised, and I'm willing to bet there is only one French Auror at the Burrow and that is Delacour himself!"

Severus looked up, puzzlement etched all across his face.

"I don't understand my lord, has Umbridge betrayed you?"

Voldemort chuckled, not an altogether pleasant sound.

"Oh no, poor Delores thinks she has passed correct information, but I'd imagine that at this very moment she is being detained and questioned, her cover was blown the instant she sent the message and her usefulness to me is at an end."

Bella shook her head and there was a wry smile on her face, it was well known that she had despised the Ministry employee, for her incompetence and for the lateness of her support for the dark lord. Umbridge had only joined them after the death of Dumbledore.

"And how do you know this my lord."

Severus sounded a little in awe, Voldemort toyed with the notion of not telling him, encouraging a belief of invulnerability in his powers, but it was better to have an inner circle that understood his genius.

"Simple Severus, I could see Potter and dear Draco in the background hiding underneath invisibility cloaks, the magic aura they were radiating was unmistakable. Given Potter's history with Delores, and his growing predilection for entertaining his inner darkness, it shouldn't be long before he finds out where we are holding the Delacour girl. Knowing Harry as we do, he will be sure to launch a heroic rescue mission in an attempt to firm up his relationship with the French.

This must fail, we cannot allow Harry to be backed by the French Ministry now we have worked so hard to gain control of this Ministry, so Severus I want you to take some extra Death Eaters, thirty should be plenty given how many we already have on duty, secure the building, kill as many of the rescue team as you can but most importantly, stop them from getting to the Veela bitch.

But have no fear, I still have my own agent in Harry's inner circle, a most dedicated individual who burrows further into Harry's trust with every passing day."

Bella and Severus bowed low and left the chamber, Voldemort went back to reading the book on ancient dark magic that Zuckov had sent him in the last delivery of artefacts. It was the second volume of four books and had already proved most useful in providing the recently used communication charm and the permanent disguise charm.

With another spell, he had placed his agent into Harry's midst, and when the time was right the agent would strike Harry down.

He wanted the other three books, Zuckov however was unsure of their location, they had been written by Salazar Slytherin himself over a thousand years ago, shortly before the civil war had ended, and they contained some of the darkest magic Voldemort had ever read. If the barely translated single volume he had in front of him had proved so useful, then who knew what could be done if he held the other three volumes.

The volume held in his hands had been found in the restricted section of the Salem Magical Academy in America, Zuckov's people had to kill several members of staff while recovering the book, apparently the Americans didn't know what they had been holding, or security would have been much tighter.

Now all he had to do was decipher the location of where the other three remaining volumes had been hidden away for safe keeping, and whether in the intervening thousand years those books had been moved. Ultimate power finally lay at his fingertips, and once it was within his grasp not even Harry Potter would be able to stop him.

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

Bill Weasley had always had a great deal of respect for Remus Lupin, for a supposed dark creature, he was the gentlest, most good natured man he knew. Well educated, intelligent and thoughtful, he was perfect teacher material.

But now Bill's respect for Lupin was almost boundless.

He had been grabbed by madam Pomfrey shortly after having his father-in-law-to-be tell him exactly what he thought of the man that had allowed his daughter to be so terribly hurt. Although Bill was angry at the frank exchange of opinions, he understood the worries of a distraught father, and knew the man would already be regretting his words. Besides the words were nothing to the blame he had already been directing at himself over Fleur's injuries.

But now he had been presented with another challenge for his ward bursting skills, and that challenge was Remus Lupin.

Bill had no idea that Remus had become so skilled at ward creation, so skilled that he a professional ward buster had been given severe pause for thought. It shouldn't really have been so much of a surprise, after all Remus had to spend three nights a month locked in a room for the safety of the innocents around him, and no one else would probably be willing to cast the ward for him.

The small size of the private room meant that Remus would not need to place ward stones like the ward at the prison, using the structure of the room itself as the ward stone.

This in some ways made the prospect of breeching the ward that much more difficult. He couldn't gain access to a ward stone to unpick the power strands, because the strands were inside the room, and he was outside.

With a discrete wave of his wand and a muttered incantation a yellow glowing lattice work sprang up to cover the area encompassed by the ward, at the places where the lines crossed a series red glowing dots appeared. The red dots pulsed, the faster the pulse, the stronger the ward at that point.

Pointing his wand at the red dot closest to the door handle, his only point of entry, Bill closed his eyes and began his struggle to break down the ward. His wand tip brushed against the dot and lightning flared, arcing across his wand into the ceiling and floor, silhouetting him against the blinding light.

OoOoO

**GOBLIN CAMP, BURROW GROUNDS**

Gutripper looked up from the pile of paperwork that dominated his desk as his second in command entered his quarters and snapped to attention. The Goblin company commander waved a clawed hand at his paperwork mountain and grimaced.

"They never mentioned the paperwork in basic training did they? How to maintain your armour and weapons yes, but how to fill in weapon requisition forms or ration returns, not so much."

Bloodspiller grunted in amusement, the older warrior never said very much, but his loyalty to Gutripper and his family was unquestioned, as was his skills with a blade.

"You have a visitor."

Gutripper narrowed his eyes and regarded his friend, trying to drag details from the soldiers' usual blank and stony expression.

"Show the visitor in."

Bloodspiller nodded and indicated to someone that had remained outside of his quarters. Gutripper looked up as Rotgut entered, the Gringotts night custodian looked especially grim. Gutripper felt the chills running up and down his spine, and almost instinctively he reached down and touched the hilt of the sword that hung at his side.

"You have news."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact. Rotgut nodded.

"Ragnok is in custody. He is to be executed within days."

Outwardly Gutripper was emotionless, inwardly he was seething. Now was not the time to get angry or lose control, that time would come, but it wasn't now. Cooler heads won more battles than those filled with anger, or so the old Goblin proverb went.

"Who now commands?"

"Rocksplitter. There is something else, he somehow has acquired the ancient sword of succession. The tribal council is split, half would still support…your father."

Gutripper eyes widened slightly in surprise. His parents had given him up at an early age for his own protection, his fathers many enemies would have struck out at him in an effort to weaken his fathers position. Politics in Goblin society was more like open warfare. His father would not have acknowledged him now unless he was convinced his own life was nearly at an end.

"You visited him in the cells."

Again it was statement. Rotgut nodded.

"He would not leave. Stubborn old fool, we could have protected him here."

"My father is many things, stubborn, liberal minded, but he is not a fool. For him to stay in the cells, knowing it would be his death means he truly believes our cause will be better off for it. As a Goblin warrior I am duty bound to abide by his orders….as a son who loves his father very much, I want nothing less than Rocksplitter's head."

The Goblin company commander had started to pace back and forth across his quarters, clawed fingers held tightly behind his back. The other two goblins watched, and couldn't help but be reminded of an older Goblin currently sat in a cell.

"What about trial by combat, could you convince my father to claim his ancient right as a clan chieftain."

Rotgut frowned, the ancient laws of the tribal council dating back into the mist of time, long before the first human wizard ministry had been formed, stated that a chieftain accused of a crime against the Goblin nation could claim trial by combat, and either face the trial himself or put forward his champion, the finest warrior in his tribe.

"That particular clause hasn't been enacted in twelve generations, but it is however still on the books, and your father would have a valid claim, those who support him would see to it that the council accept his right to trial by combat. Who would fight for him."

Gutripper looked at his second in command.

"Never let it be said that I regretted a Goblin warriors death on the field of battle for the cause of the Goblin Nation, but I wish Bodrod hadn't been in such a damn awful hurry to die, in single combat he was unstoppable, a force of nature. My company is indeed weakened by his loss."

Bloodspiller nodded.

"It is true, Bodrod was uniquely gifted in the killing department, but I have heard secretly whispered rumours that his first apprentice under arms was nearly as talented."

"Well we had better hope those rumours are true, or it won't just be my fathers life at stake in the coming days.

The two Goblin soldiers traded a private smile, then Gutripper turned and nodded to the Gringotts employee.

"I shall stand as my fathers champion before the judgement of the council, and I will strike down any who would besmirch my family's name by claiming my fathers guilt."

**OoOoO**

**THE BURROW**

"Look, this is the last time I am going to ask this question in a polite manner! Where is Fleur Delacour being held?"

The Kingsley Shacklebolt that Harry knew was a genial and friendly man without a malicious bone in his body, but if Harry didn't know better he actually believed that Shacklebolt intended imminent physical violence on the bound prisoner.

And from the way Delores Umbridge shrank back away from the Auror, she truly believed him as well. She was sat, bound by magical ropes to a chair, in the kitchen of the burrow, all the other chairs and the tables had been cleared to leave a large space around her.

The interrogation had quite an audience. Other than Bill, the entire Weasley family were present, along with Henri Delacour and Alastor Moody. The teens were represented by Hermione, Draco, Ernie, Susan and Terry, the younger generation of teens were still in shock over the death of one of their own, the older teens were just angry, very angry.

"I shall tell you nothing, you cannot gain anything by threatening me Shacklebolt, I fear the dark lord's wrath much more than I could possibly fear you."

Umbridge, perversely still appearing to be Fleur Delacour, was starting to grate on everybody's nerves with her whining voice and protestations of innocence. This had lasted precisely until the moment that Harry had recast Priori Incantatem again, just to show the room what the woman was capable of.

The questioning was getting them nowhere, and after an hour Harry had finally run out of patience.

"Right this has gone on for long enough, somebody get me some Veritaserum, we are going to get to the bottom of this whether she wants to tell us or not!"

It took Harry a moment to notice the sudden silence in the room, when he did he spun around and gave everyone a hard look.

"What?"

It was Shacklebolt that answered.

"The manufacture and issue of the truth potion is incredibly controlled, only a certified potion master is allowed to create it, and then only for Ministry use only, it is after all a liquid form of the Imperius curse."

Harry began to protest but Shacklebolt held up his hand to forestall his words.

"Yes, I know Dumbledore had some at the school, but he was breaking half a dozen laws doing it. You just don't find the stuff lying on a shelf, sorry Harry but we just don't have any!"

Harry felt his shoulders fall in defeat, then he swung around to the prisoner again and approached her with a smile on his face that he knew had nothing to do with humour. What he was about to suggest would not be popular, but they needed results desperately.

"In that case we will just have to start causing her real pain until she tells us what we want to know."

"HARRY!"

Molly Weasley, Hermione and Ginny all chorused at once. Horrified that he could suggest such a course of action, Harry just turn to look at them and shrugged angrily.

"We are running out of time, sometimes we have to resort to unpopular methods to get what we need, if our positions were reversed do you really think she would be still holding a debate on whether or not to torture me? Does anyone remember this, this woman made me do this to myself! SO DON'T 'HARRY' ME!"

He had pulled the right sleeve of his robes up and was holding out the back of his hand, although it had faded over time, still there for all to see were the pale words 'I must not tell lies' scarred into his flesh by the blood quill of the then 'professor' Umbridge.

There was a profound silence in the room, which was only broken by a small sob from Molly, he had always managed to keep the scar hidden from most people, he had been too proud to seek help at the time, and he knew he should have gone to Professor McGonagall as soon as the torture had started.

At that time Harry had never hated anyone with enough passion to cast an unforgivable curse, but he had hated Umbridge. For the lifetime Quidditch ban, confiscating his broom, the blood quill, for attempting to destroy the institution that was Hogwarts. In fact the only good thing that had come from Umbridge was that it forced the formation of Dumbledore's Army.

Yes he hated her, and the death of Jimmy Peakes had not done anything to sooth that sensation, he could quite easily cast an unforgivable curse upon her.

Harry smiled sadly, as the solution to all their problems seemed to drop in his lap, it was illegal and would cause revulsion in everyone he cared about, but it would get them Fleur back quicker than any other way he could think of, and that was the priority, to get Fleur back.

"Delores and I need some quiet, alone time to have a little discussion. Just talk amongst yourselves for a while, oh don't worry I won't harm her, we are just going to talk for a while."

While he was talking, Harry had been edging closer to the prisoner, and before anyone could say anything to stop him, he had put a hand on Umbridge's shoulder and with a loud angry crack they had disapparated.

OoOoO

**THE COTTAGE, BURROW GROUNDS**

"Where is Fleur Delacour?"

Harry's voice was almost pleasant, not at all threatening or intimidating. He was deliberately keeping things as calm as possible to start with, because if he became unglued now he had nowhere to escalate to later.

"What are you? Good Auror to Shacklebolt's bad Auror! Your interrogation technique needs more work Mr Potter, now return me back into the rightful custody of Auror Shacklebolt."

She was trying to tough it out, but her removal from the group had suddenly stripped her of any witnesses, and despite her brave words she was plainly terrified of what he might do.

"There is something I need you to know Madam Under-secretary, things have changed since our last encounter, my moral compass has taken quite a severe battering and I would not hold out much hope that it will work the way it once did if I was you. I now know that I am willing to do anything, absolutely anything to protect my family."

Umbridge regarded him with utter scorn, she was not listening to the words, only his tone of voice, she was ignoring the fact that he wasn't trying to scare her, he was in fact trying to warn her.

"Fleur Delacour is not related by blood to you, she is not a part of your family!"

Harry nodded in agreement and continued in a quiet and polite tone.

"No, you are of course correct, she isn't a blood relative, but then you pureblood racists always did put far too much store in blood. In all the ways that could possibly matter, Fleur Delacour is my family, so is Laura Madley, so was Jimmy Peakes. I will ask you one last time, where is Fleur being held?"

She tried to spit at him, but all she accomplished was to dribble down her own chin in a most disgusting manner.

`"Charming, did you learn that trick at one of your pureblood Death Eater meetings?"

"Go to hell Potter!"

Harry smiled suddenly without any humour and slowly stood, stretching his arms above his head to ease the slight cramp in his shoulders.

"You know what? I probably will end up in hell for what I'm being forced to do while fighting this war, but the thing that matters most to me about all of this…is that by the time I arrive there, the place will be very full with Voldemort and all the Death Eaters I will have sent there before me."

Harry pointed his wand at her, and paused for a moment knowing that what he was about to do would cross a line from which there could be no return. He just couldn't see another way out of this mess, he knew what had to be done, and knew no one else would be willing to do it.

So with a deep breath he focused on the utter hate he felt for her, and how much he wanted to cast this particular unforgivable curse.

"Imper…"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

For the second time that day Harry found himself in a full body bind, someone had entered the cottage and cursed him from behind. He hadn't even checked to see if the door was locked when he had arrived, if he could have moved his legs he would have kicked himself, If mad-eye had been there he would have done it for him, probably with his false leg at that, constant vigilance!

"You really don't want to start down that path Mr Potter."

The deep melodious voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt sounded close to his ear. Harry's heart sank, the senior Auror had caught him in the act of casting an unforgivable, he was in a whole world of trouble. Thankfully Azkaban was in no condition presently to hold prisoners, and the Wizengamot was in no condition to try his case at least for the foreseeable future.

"Oh thank goodness, Shacklebolt he was going to use an unforgivable on me!"

Delores Umbridge wailed in relief at the sight of the dark skinned Auror, Shacklebolt looked distinctly unimpressed with the former Ministry employee. He raised his wand to point at the woman still bound to the chair, he hesitated just an instant before…

"Imperio!"

Harry was so shocked he didn't even react when the full body bind was released, Shacklebolt had just cast an unforgivable right in front of him.

"There was a time, not so long ago, that even the thought of that particular curse would have driven me into a righteous fury. Its funny how quickly your outlook on life can be changed by one defining moment."

Harry found himself looking at the Auror in a new light, looking back he had indeed seemed different in the few times their paths had crossed in the last couple of days. Shacklebolt seemed somehow less harsh, and maybe even a bit sadder than he had been before.

"I don't understand."

Shacklebolt smiled slightly.

"Probably better that you don't. If we want to make any progress towards ending this war, then we need to stop handicapping ourselves by not using all the resources we have available to us, which includes unforgivable curses. I believe its our intentions that sets us apart from our opponents, our actions are in order to save lives, not end them."

Shacklebolt indicated the bound form of Delores Umbridge, the woman now had a slightly detached smile on her face, she looked all the world like someone who had been drugged with Sodium Pentothal, the muggle drug whose effect was closet to the unforgivable curse.

"We should get started."

Harry nodded, and moved to stand in front of the woman.

"Tell me where Fleur Delacour is being held!"

OoOoO

**ST. MUNGOS HOSPITAL, SECURE WING**

The small bespecled man, impeccably dressed in an expensive grey Saville row suit, pushed open the door and stepped into the St Mungos secure wing with all the confidence of someone who knew he belonged there and that no one else had the power to challenge him.

He completely ignored the two Death Eaters that stood guard on the entrance to the wing, disregarding the frightened, unsettled looks they gave each other and strode purposely towards the end of the corridor.

Another Death Eater was stationed outside a door that looked no different from the other doors in the wing, as the man approached the Death Eater knocked on the door, and it was pulled open from the inside. The man didn't even slow down, just swept majestically into the room, not even acknowledging the presence of another Death Eater, who quickly slipped from the room after he had entered.

The man placed a small leather bag onto the table situated centrally in the room and opened it carefully, with a strange precision the man reached into the bag and withdrew several objects, placing them onto the table. He spent several moments fastidiously straightening the objects on the table.

Finally satisfied with the layout of the table, the man removed his jacket and carefully folded it and placed it over the back of one of the two chairs in the room. It was only then that he even looked at the room's other occupant.

She was sat slumped, unmoving in the other chair, across the table from him. She was dressed in dirty and torn hospital issue Pyjamas that looked as if she had been wearing them for some time. Her arms and legs were restrained by heavy duty leather straps attaching her to the chair, and there were open sores where the straps had been rubbing on her arms and legs.

The man frowned heavily, and walked around the table, his every movement graceful and catlike. Squatting down beside her, he gently, almost tenderly, brushed back the long black locks of tangled hair back from her face. Seeing the fresh bruises and other marks of physical abuse on the girl's once pretty, oriental face, the man made a loud tutting sound at the back of his throat.

"Animals, why am I always forced to work with such animals?"

Although it was almost undetectable, the man had a slight French accent, despite the cultured English he employed.

The girl moaned piteously and her head flopped limply from side to side as she tried to raise it, which elicited another frown from the man.

"I know this has been very hard on you my dear, but I think we are making excellent progress, very soon this will all be over and seem like a distant memory. Right then, shall we make a start?"

The man stood and turned to retrieve an item from the table, it was a small syringe filled with a pale liquid. Tapping it a few times to ensure there were no air bubbles, the man approached the seated girl. She moaned feebly and struggled against the bonds holding her in the chair, but the thick leather bands were far too strong.

"You really shouldn't fight the process, you know you will only end up hurting yourself."

Grasping her arm to keep it still, he bent down and plunged the syringe into the girls arm and quickly forced the contents into her blood stream. The effects were nearly instantaneous, the girls head flopped back against the head rest as her dark brown eyes tried desperately to focus on what was happening in the drab and unfurnished room.

She frowned, and shook her head, trying to make sense of what was going on around her, as the drugs coursed through her body, dulling her senses and clouding her mind.

"Now then Miss Chang, why don't you tell me how you are going to get your revenge on your nemesis, Harry Potter…"

OoOoO

**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**

With a final outpouring of magical energy the ward protecting the private room finally fell.

Breathing heavily, Bill Weasley waved a female healer whose name he didn't know inside and lent back against the corridor, closing his eyes. He was exhausted, both physically and magically. It had taken everything he had to bring down the craftily constructed ward so quickly.

With Tonks lying critically injured on a bed inside the room, he didn't feel he had the time to delicately untangle the threads as he would have liked, instead he had to use brute force to bully his way through and now he was really feeling it.

"Bill, I need to speak to you!"

Bill opened his eyes and smiled tiredly at his younger brother Ron as he came hurrying down the corridor.

"Hey little brother, I could have used your help about ten minutes ago, you've missed all the fun."

Ron studied his older brother with concern, Bill sounded so tired he was actually slurring his words. He had accepted the responsibility to come and break the news to his brother about Delores Umbridge masquerading as his betroved, but it was not a job that Ron was relishing completing. Bill had been the only family member not present when Delores Umbridge had her identity revealed.

A scream from inside the room interrupted his line of thought and both he and Bill were across the threshold of the room, wands drawn before the scream had died away. The healer was stood looking down at the pale, naked figure lying curled up at the foot of the bed, a male figure.

"Oh Merlin, what have you done Remus?"

Bill asked in a shocked voice as he looked around the room. It looked as if a hurricane had ripped through it, the contents and furniture had been ripped and torn to shreds, the seats had all had the stuffing torn from them and scattered to the four corners of the room, and the paintings had been destroyed by something with claws.

The only safe haven in all this destruction was the bed and the figure in it. Tonks lay serene and untouched, she appeared angelic and peaceful. For an awful moment Bill thought she was dead, and then with intense feelings of relief he saw her chest rise and fall.

Bill had known Tonks a long time, his younger brother Charlie had been friends with the girl at Hogwarts, there might even have been something romantic there during those school years. He felt a little uncomfortable seeing her bare chest, it was like walking in and catching his sister getting dressed, which thankfully had only happened the once. However a part of his brain couldn't help but admire the small, perfectly formed breasts.

Her hair was a light brown, and not the bright colours he was used to, and her nose was slightly more upturned, her cheek bones higher, Bill realised that what he was seeing was the real Tonks, the face she had been born with, the face that for some reason she felt she had to keep hidden away.

Of the savage and deadly wound to her chest, the only remaining sign was a slight puckered redness to the skin and when Bill reached over and gently touched the wound site, it felt very hot. There was also a new wound that Bill hadn't seen before, up high on her left shoulder was a bite mark, made by what appeared to be a big dog…or a wolf.

"He bit her? He turned her didn't he?"

Ron sounded shell shocked, he couldn't imagine the quiet and gentle Remus Lupin actually hurting someone, especially not Nymphadora Tonks. He had seen them together before all this had started and they had seemed very happy together.

"As harsh as it seems Ron, it has to be better than Tonks being dead, madam Pomfrey said there was nothing she could do, Remus must have been distraught."

Bill gently moved the startled healer to one side and knelt down by Remus, he was as Bill suspected laid naked on the floor at the end of the bed, he was in human form curled in the foetal position, and he looked as if he had been mauled by another werewolf. His back and sides were raked with claw marks, and his arms and legs were covered in large bites.

"Did Tonks do this to him?"

Ron asked quietly, as Bill reached up to cover the unconscious man with a blanket.

"No, she won't change into a werewolf until the first full moon…in ten days, as much as I hate to say it, this is all self-inflicted."

"But why would he do this to himself, I don't understand."

Bill tried to remember everything he had learnt about werewolves while at Hogwarts, he had covered them in his third year, but that had been a very long time ago. Ron's knowledge was much more up to date. Snape had taught that particular lesson, during one of Remus' monthly 'absences' hoping to expose Remus to the school by dropping hints.

Only Hermione of course, had been smart enough to pick up on them, and being muggle born she had none of the bias that a pureblood witch or wizard would have.

"He wanted to bite her, to turn her, but not maul her badly or possibly kill her. Once the blood rage has fully set in a werewolf is almost uncontrollable, the only thing that is safe from a werewolf in that condition is its mate."

Ron looked askance at Bill.

"You're telling me that even in wolf form, on some level Remus knew and recognised Tonks as the woman he loved. He did this to himself to prevent himself hurting her further?"

Bill shrugged, it was the best explanation he could come up with until Remus woke up and could answer the questions himself. And Bill knew there would be many questions to be answered.

The healer finally managed to compose herself, and had pulled out her wand to begin treating Remus' many injuries. Bill stood and stepped back to allow her to work. Sighing tiredly Bill turned towards his brother.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

Squaring his shoulders, he knew he couldn't dodge the reason he had come to see Bill anymore, Ron turned back to Bill, he had a lot to tell him in a short time, and there was no easy way to do it. Fleur, the real Fleur that is, had to be rescued.

OoOoO

**HMS IRON DUKE, SOUTHERN TASK FORCE**

Lieutenant Commander Andrea Charles starred out into the rapidly approaching dusk and fingered her new, heavier rank boards on her shoulder with apprehension. Her promotion and new position were not sitting at all well on her shoulders.

The _**Iron Duke**_ had been quickly refuelled and rearmed, her orders had been to link up with the southern task force commander based on _**HMS Invincible**_ and be prepared to embargo shipping heading for Southampton and other southern ports.

The crew were unsettled, they had lost a trusted and respected Commanding Officer, and then during their last few days at dockside other changes to ship's personnel had been made. The weapons officer had been replaced by an older, more experienced officer, the XO had also been posted off and she had been suddenly promoted into his position, something that in the normal course of things should have been several years away in her career.

The medical section had doubled, as had the marine complement, with a Lieutenant in command of the forty marines. But there was still no aviation detachment, and no new Commanding Officer, and until that happened Andrea was stuck in charge of a confused and dispirited ships company.

"XO, we have a friendly contact approaching, the pilot says he has our new CO on board."

Andrea didn't let her surprise show, it was getting very dark for an unfamiliar pilot to land on a small warship in the middle of a very big expanse of water.

"Very well, helm turn bow into the wind, slow to five knots and light up the flight deck, infra-red only."

As long as the approaching pilot was wearing night vision equipment, the entire back end of the ship had just lit up like a Christmas tree in a darkened room.

"Pilot says he sees us, he thanks us for the light show, all that water had him worried."

Andrea smiled slightly, it had to be an Army pilot, no navy pilot would make such a comment, for a navy aviator overflying the water was just part of the job.

The fast moving helicopter swept down the side of the bridge, and Andrea only got a glimpse of the green and grey painted aircraft before it had disappeared aft. It was a Lynx, basically the same helicopter as the Navy used, but in the Army they fitted them with anti-tank missiles. For some reason the Army version had skids mounted instead of the wheels used by navy machines.

"XO, deck handling party reports helicopter has dropped one passenger with gear and departed. CO is now on route to the bridge."

Andrea frowned, so whoever the CO was he knew his way around a type 23 Frigate, let's hope he won't undo all the good work the last Captain put into this ship and this crew. Andrea was so busy worrying about her new Captain that she never noticed the wide grins that suddenly sprang onto the face of nearly every member of the bridge crew.

"Permission to come aboard?"

Andrea blinked in astonishment as her head spun around to point at the new arrival and she just starred at him.

"I said, permission to come onboard."

With a very girly squeal of joy, Andrea Charles greeted her new Commanding Officer in a most un-Navy-like fashion, she raced across the bridge to him and flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

"I'll take that as permission granted then shall I?"

With a chuckle Commander Owen Jackson gently hugged the young woman in his arms back, her excitement was easily a match of his own, and despite the fact he had somehow managed to restrain himself from hugging every single member of the entire crew, he echoed her feelings.

"Welcome home boss."

Andrea whispered in his ear as she released him, he grinned down at her and pushed his battered hat back on his head before looking around at the chuckling bridge crew. His bridge crew.

"It is very good to be back."

OoOoO

**THE BURROW**

"I didn't even know that St Mungos had a secure wing?"

Ron said in astonishment, his voice loud in despite the now overly crowded cottage.

"Other than staff and senior Aurors there are few who do."

Kingsley Shacklebolt replied grimly. Interrogating the Umbridge woman while she was still under the Imperius curse, while highly questionable in a legal sense, had provided a wealth of information previously unavailable, one such titbit was the identity of the man currently using the secure wing as his own personal potions experiment. The man that was holding Fleur.

"You have heard of this…wizard?"

It was obvious to all present that Bill had wanted to call the man something else but was attempting to keep his temper tightly under control.

"Oh yes, Jacque Cartier is someone we in the French Directorate of Magical Intervention wish very much to speak to, the last information we had placed him somewhere in Russia, he was working for the Russian magical mafia."

Henri Delacour answered somewhat evenly, but it was clear that he too wanted nothing more than to apparate directly to St Mungos and personally tear the place apart until he had safely recovered his eldest daughter.

"What has he done?"

Draco asked, keeping his voice quiet to match the sombre surroundings.

"He is an expert in interrogation and what the muggles call brain washing, he uses potions and spells to eventually make his subjects believe anything he wants them to. He is not a Death Eater as such, he would never tie himself down to a single group or organisation, in many ways he is much worse than your average Death Eater, he sells his individual brand of evil to the highest bidder."

The silence in the room that greeted this statement was palpable, as each person present imagined Fleur Delacour in the hands of such a man, of what he was capable of doing to her.

"Well then, I think it's time we stopped standing around here and got back in the game. I know we took our share of knocks at Azkaban, but did anyone truly expect it to end there?"

Terry Boot was leaning against the doorframe, his arm resting naturally across Susan Bones' shoulders, he sounded as determined as Susan looked.

"What about Luna and Neville?"

Hermione enquired. No sign of either teenager could be found at the burrow and nobody remembered seeing them for most of the day, Luna had only been released from the hospital that morning.

"Neville can look after himself, and wherever he is, that's where you will find Luna. Whatever they are doing, it's their choice, and for now there is little we can do about it."

Ron's statement caused a moment of silence as those assembled hoped their two friends were not getting themselves into any trouble, they already had enough trouble to deal with.

"This is all very well, but standing around here talking about things isn't going to help anybody!"

Bill fingered his wand, eager to leave, eager to save Fleur.

"The hospital will undoubtedly be very heavily guarded, both by Ministry thugs and Death Eaters, it could get messy."

"Messier than Azkaban?"

All the teenagers except one chuckled at Draco's dry reply to Shacklebolt's comment, other than Susan they had all fought at Azkaban, they knew what was being suggested, what was being asked of them. Shacklebolt, seeing the determination in the eyes of all the teenagers, just shrugged.

"I see your point, alright then, if we are going to do this then we need a plan rather than rushing off into the unknown"

"Having a plan, well that will make a nice change."

Hermione quipped dryly.

"Yes, we are much better known for rushing off into the unknown completely unprepared, after all we do have a reputation to maintain."

Ginny added with a smile.

Again the teenagers grinned at each other, as if sharing a private joke.

"Are you sure this is what you want, what you all want, bearing in mind what happened the last time?"

Harry had remained silent and in the background up to that point, his expression one of sadness and uncertainty.

"Bill, Henri and I have to go, the rest of you do not. I would understand if any of the Marauders didn't want to get involved in what is basically a personal matter…"

Harry never got to finish as he was shouted down by virtually everyone in the room, a small smile crossed his features as he realised every single person in the room was behind him in this mission. It made him feel very good to know these people all felt as he did, that Fleur belonged to them…and they wanted her back.

"So what do you intend to do?"

Henri Delacour asked, slightly stunned at the force of personality this young man seemed to wield effortlessly. Harry grinned and looked over at Delores Umbridge, he waved his arm in a general motion that encompassed them all.

"I was thinking about something Thomas Bell said to me before he left, he told me if I had to fight then I was to cheat. I intend to cheat, I intend to cheat really BIG!"


	23. 23 The Trouble With Smoke and Mirrors

**A/N: This has been a long time coming, and i am sorry, however my career and my family have to take priority over a fictional character i don't even own **

* * *

**CHAPTER TWENTY THREE: The Trouble with Smoke and Mirrors....**

_**BBC WORLD SERVICE BROADCAST**_

"After the disastrous events of the last few days the capital tonight lies under the cloud of an uneasy peace. Her Majesty the Queen has appealed to the general public to remain calm and to continue to put their faith in the authorities after the series of armed attacks that have left the Government reeling in shock, the death toll for the attack on Downing Street alone is believed to now be over a hundred.

Already confirmed among the dead are the Home Secretary, the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary of state for Defence, along with many civil servants and other Government employees, at least a dozen police officers are also thought to amongst the dead. Of the Prime Minister himself nothing concrete is yet known, although some sources have stated that he was spirited away by Army Special Forces during the attack and is safe in a secret military location.

Although no group has yet come forward to claim responsibility for the recent devastating attacks across the breadth of the capital, the attacks are now being linked to the death and destruction visited upon a packed intercity train earlier this month. Black clothed individuals, apparently escaping without trace, have been reported at the scenes of nearly all the attacks.

The savage fires burning inside the palace of Westminster are tonight reported to be out, with the fire brigade damping down, the building is thought to have been severely damaged. Rescue teams are now in the process of combing the building hoping to find survivors of the attack, nearly a quarter of the Ministers of Parliament are thought to have been inside the building at the time of the attack.

Other government buildings across the capital and indeed across the country as a whole are tonight locked down under the tightest possible security, provided by both the civil authorities and the Armed Forces, although at the moment no-one is entirely sure who is actually in charge of the situation.

The Head of the Armed Forces, General Sir Richard Newcombe has imposed a temporary state of martial law, with a curfew coming into effect from ten o'clock tonight, at this time there has been no comment from any civilian authorities to confirm the legality of this decision.

All airports have been closed to traffic, with a significant military presence reported, Royal Air Force fighter planes have been seen circling high over several major cities, and all shipping inside British territorial waters is being boarded and searched by personnel of the Royal Navy before being allowed entry into our ports.

Despite assurances from those in power, London and the entire country is now holding its breath, hoping the dawn will come without any further incident."

OoOoO

_**WIZARDING WIRELESS NETWORK BROADCAST**_

"Despite extravagant claims by certain fringe groups who seem for some reason known only to themselves intent on destabilising the Ministry of Magic, Minister Rufus Scrimgeour insists that the rule of law and order is winning the fight against those who would bring chaos and destruction to our community.

The Minister has vehemently dismissed claims from a member of the fringe press that the Dark Lord has now infiltrated all aspects of Wizarding society, and indeed controls much of it, stating such claims to be ludicrous and totally without truth.

Harry Potter has been named as the number one most wanted wizard in the country today, a more wanted fugitive than even the Dark Lord, his attacks on the Wizarding prison of Azkaban and his involvement in more than a dozen deaths have led to the Ministry taking the almost unprecedented step of placing a price on his head.

Potter's supporters have grown so numerous that outside help has been sought to bring the situation to a satisfactory conclusion, the Ministry has secured the services of specialists from the continent, nobody was willing to comment openly on the nature of these specialists or the skills they will bring into play, but hopes are high that a speedy resolution is just around the corner.

So listeners, remain vigilant for any sighting of Potter or his supporters, inform the ministry by owl or Floo, Law Enforcement officers stand ready to act on your information, believe in your Ministry and all will be well.

And now WWN brings you the latest release from singing sensation Celestina Warbeck entitled 'A Snitch in time, saves....

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS HOSPITAL**_

For as long as he could remember, during every school holiday Neville Longbottom had made the journey from Longbottom manor via the Floo network to St Mungos, climbed the stairs up to the fourth floor and entered the Janus Thickey ward to visit his parents.

His Gran had always insisted upon the trips, but treated the visits as nothing more than an odious chore, a despised obligation she felt honour bound to fulfil, whereas once Neville was old enough to understand who these sick people were, and what had been inflicted upon them, he began to just enjoy spending time with his parents, whether they were aware of who he was or not.

For him, he had no memory of these people before the atrocities inflicted upon them, they had always just been this way. For his Grandmother, every time she had seen them it must have dragged the memories of two people so vivacious and alive from the dark recess of her mind where she hid them. It had taken her death for Neville to truly appreciate how much pain his grandmother had put herself through on his behalf.

As he grew up Neville could never quite shake the dream of there being someday someone who would tell him they were proud of him, his Gran was from a different era and would never have been so openly emotional, claiming such a display would have made Neville soft. Neville therefore had spent most of his childhood starved for the normal parental love a child would expect. He didn't know it yet, but this was just one more aspect of his life that mirrored that of Harry Potter, and that these similarities would bind them together stronger than any steel chain.

What with the war currently raging in the magical community, and the Ministry in the throes of a civil war, Neville knew getting permission to visit St Mungos to see his parents from the Marauders and the Ministry both, would have been impossible for all the right reasons. It was dangerous in the extreme, St Mungos was held by a Ministry force that had proven links to the Death Eaters. A visit would just be handing yourself into Ministry custody, and what with Cho and Fleur missing, they didn't need to be rescuing anyone else.

But it seemed that spending so much time in the company of Harry, Ron, the Weasley twins and to his complete surprise, Draco Malfoy, had had an unexpected effect on him. He was no longer the nervous, uptight eleven year old that had confronted the trio at the end of their first year, determined to prevent them from sneaking from the common room, and costing Gryffindor more house points.

Instead, Neville had been the one to sneak away this time, leaving the burrow unnoticed and now he found himself crouched behind a muggle automobile observing the comings and goings from the staff entrance to St Mungos hospital.

He had to see his parents again, possibly one last time before time and the tides of war swept them apart for good, he owed it to them, for what they had already sacrificed on his behalf so long ago.

Despite the fact it was hidden in the centre of London right under the noses of the muggle world, the very size of St Mungos required it to have several entrances, each skilfully shrouded in muggle repelling charms.

There was the visitor's entrance to the hospital, reached through the abandoned department store window of 'Purge and Dowse, Ltd' which was how Neville had normally entered on previous occasions. But there had been two previous visits that had been out of the ordinary, once muggle workmen had been digging up the road right outside the department store window, and another time there had been a fire directly across from the department store.

On each of these occasions visitors had been diverted to a different entrance, which was how Neville was aware of the entrance for off the street casualties disguised as an archway under a busy railway line, and then there was the staff and supply entrance.

Even in the magical world a hospital required certain supplies to be delivered, bedding for instance could quite easily be conjured, but as with all conjured items, it wasn't permanent, lasting a varying amount of time depending on the strength of the caster. Potion ingredients were also not always available on site.

And so St Mungos had an entrance for staff and certain supplies that required delivery by muggle means rather than magical. The entrance to the hospital was disguised as the basement floor of a large multi-storey car park, only someone with magic in their blood would notice the large portal in one wall to one side of the bright blue pay-and-display machine.

Neville heard a sound behind him and spun, his wand coming around, and an incantation already on his lips. He was more than a little startled to see a familiar figure moving stealthily towards him across the darkly lit car park.

"What are you doing here?"

Neville hissed through his teeth.

"I thought you could use some help, some company, and most importantly someone to hold your hand"

Luna Lovegood smiled sweetly at him and took his free hand in his own, her hand felt small and warm in his own. Neville suddenly realised that he had been shaking slightly with nerves, but the contact immediately seemed to calm him down and make him feel confident again.

"How did you know I would be here?"

Luna smiled slightly and gently took hold of his chin, she then leaned forward and kissed his lips.

"Guess."

"Oh yeah, the whole mind reading thing, I forgot"

Luna grinned and reached up and gently pinched a fold of his skin on his cheek between her thumb and forefinger and gave it a shake just as his Gran used to do.

"I see that you and I have much work to do in the future young Longbottom, but we shall face this difficult period together."

Neville couldn't help but laugh despite the seriousness of the situation, Luna always made him feel that way. When left alone, his thoughts had a tendency to take a dark path, but by her very presence Luna was able to pour illumination into his personal darkness and he always felt better when she was around.

"In that case Miss Lovegood, I suppose I can let you stay, but just this once mind!"

OoOoO

_**STIRLING LINES, HEREFORD**_

Newly promoted, and not at all at ease with his new rank, Captain Thomas Bell stood at parade rest, his back to the wide open double doors of the large aircraft hangar. In front of him in three rows, seated upon grey non-descript fold up chairs sat two dozen individuals whose attention was focused solely on him, it was a little off putting to say the least. It didn't help at all having Wilky sat off to one side in the front row pulling faces at him like an idiot.

He had participated in enough of these briefings seated in the audience to know exactly what was going through each of their minds at that very moment. They would be half listening to him, each running down an internal checklist of things that had to be done before any possible mission tasking, they would only grant him their full attention when he spoke the words 'operational deployment', it was this statement of intent that would set the pulses racing, and put to rest the half hope that this would end up being just another drill, the half hope that this was no drill and that they might actually see some action.

It was the very complicated dual nature that was at the heart of the professional soldier, something hard to explain to someone that had not served, how you could both dread and long for action at the same moment. After all the training, all the long hours of practicing, all the time spent packing and re-packing equipment. When it came right down to it, once some politician somewhere had given the nod, a soldier just wanted to get on with it, get in there, do the job and hopefully come home again.

Other than he and Wilky, no one in the audience knew why they had been summoned here, or what dangerous endeavour they were about to embark upon, it was possibly the most important mission the Special Air Service had ever undertaken, the future of the entire country and perhaps more, was hanging in the balance. But given the rapidly worsening situation in London, it didn't take a genius to have some inkling that this wasn't going to a run of the mill mission.

Two dozen didn't sound like a particularly frightening number, nor one large enough to fight a war with, however even with his inside knowledge of what they were about to face, he wouldn't swap these men (and two women) for an entire Battalion of regular infantry. Because the one thing that linked all those sat before him together was the deeply buried innate and supreme confidence that they could do anything they were asked to do...and that fact was worth a lot more than sheer numbers.

The core and the teeth of this newly formed taskforce, codenamed 'Thor', were the four SAS sabre teams. His or rather Wilky's red team now had a fourth member, a brand new trooper assigned straight off of the recently held selection course, named Rab Davidson, to bring them up to full strength.

There was Sgt Kev Braun and his Blue team, Lt Hastings and his Green team, only recently returned from the growing political nightmare in London, and then there was the White team led by Staff Sergeant Oscar Jones.

Thomas was only too aware that Jones was the counter balance to his leadership. The CO wasn't placing any more eggs into one basket than he had to, Jones was there to watch Thomas like a hawk, ready to step in should his actions no longer be in the interest of the crown or The Regiment. The two men had never gotten along, and it wasn't a coincidence that Jones and his team had received this assignment.

Then there was the support staff that would allow them to deploy forward. Sgt Kara Watson and one of her communication gurus from Regimental Ops room to allow them to keep in contact with Hereford no matter where they ended up.

Staff Sergeant Peter 'Dixie' Dixon attached from 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, The Bomb Disposal and explosive expert with a wicked sense of humour and very steady hands.

Sgt Phil 'pint glass' Carling from Military Intelligence, his regiment nicknamed throughout the Army as 'green slime'. His job to provide detailed and up-to-date intelligence on anything that could affect the mission.

Sgt Samantha Holmes and her two Combat Medical Technicians could deliver a level of medical care matched only by a fully equipped surgical unit, having her and her team along made everyone feel much more confident.

The final member of the task force was definitely the odd man out, for a start he was the only civilian in the group and hence the only one not in uniform. Jason Kendall was 'BOX', what the Regiment called the spooks at MI5, based at Thames House the man was an expert in electronic surveillance and computers, he was to act as a liaison between the military and civil authorities. Thomas secretly thought the man was there to ensure the military didn't get carried away and blow up half the country.

"Alright, listen up! No doubt you are all asking each other why you are here today, well just don't ask Wilky, there is no telling what bullshit tall tale he will come out with."

Most of the audience laughed, Wilky was well known throughout The Regiment as what the Army called 'a character', in a civilian existence 'characters' easily found themselves in trouble with the law, the military however held a special place in its collective heart for the individuality that such 'characters' displayed.

"I totally resent that comment."

Wilky didn't sound that resentful, in fact he had a wide grin on his face.

"To be honest Wilky you can resent the comment as much as you like, it doesn't make it any less true. You have all been gathered here today because a new threat to national security has recently emerged, a threat unlike anything we in the military have seen before. Right now the threat is relatively small scale and mostly confined to the United Kingdom, but if we don't act now in a year's time we could literally be facing an entire world of pain. This is to be an Operational Deployment."

Thomas noticed several in the audience had straightened in their chairs when he used the recognised code phrase, as it gradually sank in that this was no drill to test deployable readiness, or any other crap reason the Army came up with to ruin their down time.

"I won't be briefing you fully here, there are some quite unique security considerations involved in dealing with this threat. We will be relocating to a forward operating base in a short time, once we arrive at that location there will be a complete communications blackout in force, there will be no contact with outside agencies until the crisis is resolved. Once dismissed, you will have three hours to say your farewells to family and friends before you need to be back here, packed and loaded for a mission of an unspecified duration."

In the distance Thomas could hear the approaching dull drone of his recently assigned transportation, making a timely, if highly unlikely entrance. Trust the RAF to be bang on time for once.

"Don't worry about transportation, unless my ears deceive me our transportation is arriving now, right on time."

With a scream of revs a large, dark green shape swept across the opening of the hangar door, its rotor blades throwing up a small cloud of debris. The machine touched down gracefully and rolled to a stop, already the roar of its three engines were decreasing as the pilot began to shut down the aircraft. Thomas could just make out the pilot and noticed he was wearing Royal Navy shoulder boards, not the bar codes that the RAF used for rank.

A second craft, this one dark grey in colour, settled to the tarmac alongside the first. The two helicopters differed only in colour; they had a single, five bladed, rotor on top, and a traditional tail rotor system. The boom of the tail rotor was high enough off the ground for the aircraft to have a rear loading ramp. In size the two machines were smaller that a Chinook, but significantly larger than a Lynx.

Thomas waited until all six engines had disengaged and were spooling down before continuing, each helicopter had three engines rather than the usual two to make them that much harder to bring down in combat.

"Just in case you were wondering how important this mission actually was, what you see here are the only two prototypes currently in existence of the EH-101 future multi-role helicopter system, they have been given to us for the duration of our assigned task. And just In case you need any more encouragement to take this assignment seriously, I will now hand you over for a quick word from our sponsor."

Thomas turned his head and studied his audience for their reaction as the Prime Minister appeared at the open hangar doorway. He was still dressed in his suit from earlier in the day, although his jacket was undone and he had lost the tie.

There was an audible gasp from those seated; several mouths were hanging open at the sight of the head of the government stood inside their hangar.

"Thank you Captain Bell. I will be brief, which as a politician is something I don't get to say very often."

Somebody, and Thomas had a sneaking suspicion who that somebody was, tittered loudly at the comment.

"What you are about to go and do is the stuff this regiment prides itself upon, it is a shame that this will remain classified for so long that your grandchildren will probably have retired before it sees the light of day, because the stories and bragging rights in the bar that this action will produce will be epic. I know I can count on each and every one of you to do your very best. Remember 'Who Dares Wins', thank you all for your time and your enduring service."

And with just a Handshake for Thomas he was gone, before anyone had the time to raise a question.

"Alright, remember, three hours and not a second longer, back here, packed, locked and ready to go to war. Dismissed!"

OoOoO

_**ST. MUNGOS HOSPITAL, SECURE WING**_

Jacque Cartier had always enjoyed the challenge that came from slowly and methodically breaking down the walls of a subject's subconscious. The end result for him had always been secondary to the actual process itself. Every single subject he worked with presented a different, unique challenge, and no two processes were ever the same.

It was a delicate balancing act that he walked, where one miss-step could result in serious and irreversible mental trauma and on the odd occasion even the death of a subject. Not that in the overall scheme of things the life of a subject mattered to Cartier at all, they were objects of curiosity, something to be measured, evaluated, experimented upon and eventually when the potential had been exhausted, discarded. He often didn't know their names, nor did he care.

He allowed certain individuals and organisations to employ his services to further their own secret goals; in exchange his only payment was his pick of interesting subjects to experiment upon in his constant quest to perfect his skills. He knew that he was a high priority target of a dozen magical law enforcement agencies, but he had worked with the secret police of at least two dozen ministries, in some instances the same ministries whose magical police wanted to lock him up.

His current subject of choice was an extremely interesting one from a theoretical point of view, a Human-Veela hybrid whose will power was incredibly strong, and her inherited Veela physiology seemingly allowed her to shrug off the effects of the normal drug cocktail he used to condition his subjects. This left him with a dilemma he revelled in, finding a way to break down a Veela subject without the use of the normal drugs.

There were of course ways to break the will of a subject that didn't involve drugs or magic, muggles had been using such methods for centuries. Rape was something that worked just as well on males and females, and given the physical appearance of the subject he was sure he could find some willing hulking Death Eater volunteers. Such methods, while cruel and barbaric, could produce results, but that time had not yet arrived in this case, he still had one or two more tricks up the sleeves of his robe before he resorted to that.

He had been struggling to make progress with another female subject, until one of the Death Eater guards had decided to entertain himself with the subject. The drug cocktail, the sessions of memory alteration followed by the humiliation of the assault had nearly destroyed the subjects mind, but it had finally left her pliable and open to his implanted suggestions.

As he walked down the corridor he caught the eye of one of the Death Eater guards.

"Come with me."

The Death Eater left his post near the stairs and followed him to the subject's room.

She lay, curled up at the far end of the bed, her back pressed against the wall, her slender form cruelly marked by the unwanted attentions of her captors before she had come into his possession, her long blond hair falling over her pale shoulders. As they entered the room, the subject raised her head to regard the newcomers, but rather than the abject fear that many subjects displayed in his presence, nothing but cold defiance blazed in her blue eyes.

For some reason that singular open act of defiance pleased him greatly, it would be all the more delicious when he bent this particular subject to his will, for that was a foregone conclusion, no subject had ever been able to keep him at bay indefinitely, a few had even died from the struggle.

"Stand up!"

There was a flash of surprise from the subject when he spoke in her native French tongue, up to that point he had been careful not to speak in front of her. With an obvious reluctance that implied contempt for her audience the subject rose to her feet and stood before him. She made no attempt to hide her nakedness, her arms remaining down by her sides, her eyes burned with hatred.

Cartier had long ago realised that he was no longer excited by simple encounters of the flesh; his tastes lay in far darker pursuits that his talents lent themselves to. Many of his subjects, once broken, had become his 'willing' sexual partners, although not many survived the experience. Indeed, had not the oriental subject been destined for something his employer had planned, she would have already have shared his bed.

Now however, he found himself genuinely excited at the prospect of having this particular subject bent to his will, before long she would share his bed, he told himself that he would be more careful with this subject, for she was something special. He didn't let his excitement show outwardly, for that would be unprofessional and could change the parameters of the process to be embarked upon.

"Hold her."

Before the subject could react, the Death Eater had moved behind her and clamped his massive hands onto the subjects upper arms with bruising force, struggle as she might the subject was held tightly in place.

Cartier removed an object from the large pocket of his robes and held it in front of the subject, watching her eyes widen suddenly in alarm.

"There is of course much literature written about the pure form Veela race from which you spring from, one of the more interesting facts I discovered is the pure form Veela's complete intolerance to alcohol, they have many vices, but they never willingly drink anything alcoholic. You are of course a human-Veela hybrid, but I'm relatively certain enough of the Veela physiology survives in your genes that the alcohol should have some effect upon you. Shall we see?"

The subjects struggles intensified and she began pleading in French, German and English. Cartier smiled knowingly; his educated guess seemed to have been correct.

In the darker parts of Wizarding communities there were those who enslaved others for use in the sex trade, in this foul business none were more sought after than those Veela females sold as outcasts by their own clans, renowned for the ability to enthral men and entice huge payment from them, they were controlled by being kept in a permanent drunken stupor.

While the human side of the hybrid mix would temper the effect of the alcohol on her system, the subject's own reaction to the bottle of fire whiskey had convinced Cartier that he was on the right path.

"Hold her head."

The large Death Eater wrapped one massive hand around the subject's neck, his other arm wrapped around the subject, pinning her arms by her side, and probably not accidentally touching the subject's breasts.

Uncorking the bottle Cartier forced it to the subject's lips and slowly poured the amber liquid into the woman's mouth. She struggled, as hard as anybody in her limited position could, some of the fire whiskey dribbled down the side of her face as she thrashed, but still Cartier continued to pour.

The subject began to choke and cough as her throat filled, but she did not swallow, her eyes held his, staring baleful hate out of her stunning blue eyes. Her unyielding defiance struck a chord in the Frenchman, and he began to feel something he had never felt for any of his myriad of subjects before…he felt respect.

But respect only carried so far, reaching out with his free hand, Cartier closed the subject's mouth and covered her nose. The resistance lasted for perhaps a minute before the woman was forced to swallow in order to breathe.

Within seconds the subject had relaxed against her captors grip, her eyes had dilated indicating that the alcohol was having the anticipated effect.

"Very good, eventually you will come to find things will go much easier for you if you don't fight me, but I expect that of all my subjects for you this lesson will take some time to learn. Now open wide and have another drink."

OoOoO

_**SOUTHERN ENGLAND **_

"That is the craziest damn thing I have ever heard!"

The tall former Spatznez officer faced the assembled force of his infiltration company and smiled tightly at his third in command. Senior Sergeant Andrei Lenkov had served under his command for many years, almost as long as the dark and silent Sremkov, his opinion mattered, because he was the voice of the rank and file.

Gregor Ivanovich had just briefed his men on the task in front of them, and who had hired them, their reaction had been pretty much on par with what he had expected, rather than a storm of protest, the men had allowed the popular Lenkov to act as their voice. Being told they were about to become involved in a magical civil war was not something any of the men had expected, it was so outside their experience.

However these men, gathered in this rickety old barn numbered among the finest soldiers the Soviet Union had ever produced, and as always they would quickly adapt to their new situation.

"Crazy it may be, it is also the truth, and I shall provide the proof by moving on to the next phase of our plan. In a short time we will be meeting an Irish terrorist who will be supplying us with weapons, I suspect that he will attempt to betray us in some way, however he will be expecting only the Sergeant Major and myself, not all of you."

There was a moment of silence as this information was processed by his men.

"The meeting place is in Northern Ireland, and it will take place in two hours time, because of time restrictions we will be using a rather special means of transportation, this alone I hope will convince you of the truth of my words, but before that I'd like to introduce you to some of our new employer's other troops."

Four men and one woman in full length black robes had been standing quietly at the back of the assembly, as they came forward, each pulled a coil of rope from packs they carried. They passed amongst the Russian soldiers not saying a single word, each passing the coiled ropes out to the puzzled soldiers.

"Everyone make sure you have a firm hold of the rope, take a deep breath and hold it, now count to three, one, two…"

Taking hold of the rope himself Ivanovich allowed himself a small smile, picturing the look of disbelief he would see on the faces of his men when in the space of a few seconds they would find themselves several hundred miles from their current location.

The world, it was a changing, oh yes.

OoOoO

_**HMS IRON DUKE, SOUTHERN NAVAL TASKFORCE**_

"That is the craziest damn thing I have ever heard!"

Andrea Charles exclaimed, her voice seemed to carry in the nearly empty officers' wardroom; the disbelief in her voice was mirrored upon the faces of all those others present.

When she had received the invitation to join the Captain for a private dinner in the wardroom, Andrea hadn't been all that surprised, the previous XO had shared many working meals with the Captain, and now holding the position of Executive Officer herself she assumed the Captain would continue the practise. What she hadn't expected was the fact that she wasn't the only one to be invited, or the subject matter that would be discussed during the meeting.

The officer in charge of the onboard marine detachment, Lieutenant Richard Bean, and his senior non-commissioned officer, the experienced and utterly capable Colour Sergeant Paul Wills had already been waiting in the wardroom when she arrived.

They were joined shortly after by the senior non-commissioned naval rating onboard, Chief Petty Officer Jason Morrow, called 'COB' affectionately by the crew, which stood for Chief Of the Boat. The group was completed by the inclusion of the Chief Medical Officer Joe Foley.

Owen Jackson had just informed his select group of the existence of the magical world and the conflict raging. It had not been an easy thing to tell them, especially since until recently his reaction to such news would have mirrored theirs.

"Crazy or not, it is the truth, a war is being fought on our shores and overseas, a war the majority of the population is completely unaware of. If we had not been in the wrong place at the wrong time we still would not know."

The others all stared at him with utter bemusement, he thought back to what he had been told by Croaker and tried to get the information into some sort of meaningful order.

"Apparently there is some powerful international law called the statute of secrecy that has been in effect for hundreds of years, it basically makes it highly illegal for anyone in the magical world to reveal themselves to us 'muggles' as they call the non-magical population, in order to protect the magical world. This statute of secrecy is their highest law, an infringement would be dealt with quite harshly, however there is a rather glaring loophole in this law, and some of these wizards that are loyal to the crown have been using this loophole for some time to gather support from the non-magical population."

Owen Jackson leaned forward in his seat and made eye contact with those sat around the small table.

"The loophole is this, should we come into contact with the magical world by acting completely of our own accord without any outside influence of a magical nature, and then apparently we are not covered by the statute of secrecy unless the Wizarding high court rules on the matter. After all no-one in the magical world revealed its existence to us, we just stumbled upon it ourselves."

"But as you tell it, we didn't even know we had stumbled upon the magical world until they told us, we didn't know anything about these creatures we engaged. If these Wizards had remained quiet we still would be no wiser...and you would be out of a job boss."

Jason Morrow stated, his brows rose in puzzlement.

"I never said any of this made much sense."

Jackson replied tersely.

"Sounds like a very grey area to me."

The Royal Marine officer spoke for the first time and Owen Jackson nodded his agreement.

"Yes, these agents of the crown, they admit that they are taking a huge risk by involving us, but the way they see it, better this than the alternative. They are recruiting from the Armed Forces and Emergency Services, people that have already have had dealings with the magical world, and preparing for the time when open warfare is upon us, which may be much sooner than any of us think."

"So this attack on the government in London, rather than the official story that it was terrorists, you think it may the opening move of a wider ranging Wizarding war?"

Andrea Charles asked quietly, still trying to get her head around the fact these wizards had their own Ministry and courts.

"I don't know, but this sounds like exactly the sort of event that Croaker warned me to watch out for…and he warned me things would get worse, a lot worse."

"**Captain to the CIC, Captain to the CIC**!"

The overhead speaker blared to life startling everyone in the room except perhaps for the two Royal Marines, but then very little in this life startled a Marine.

OoOoO

_**OPERATIONS CENTRE, THE BURROW**_

The six men stood around the table in one of the many conference rooms inside of the newly completed Operations centre, the room could easily handle many times that number of people, having had charms placed upon it to expand its size in a similar way to a Wizarding tent.

"Are you sure you don't want to tell any of the others this harebrained scheme of yours?"

Shacklebolt spoke softly enough that only Harry could hear his words. Harry gave a single shake of his head, not looking up from where he was studying a complicated set of floor plans that lay spread across the large table in front of him. These were one of two sets of blueprints on the table, Harry had been in both the buildings represented, although he was more familiar with one over the second, but then that was why he had chosen Draco to accompany him.

Shacklebolt laid his hand on Harry's shoulder and gave a comforting squeeze before moving away, Harry looked up and smiled slightly acknowledging the reassurance, there had been a time not that long ago when he would have flinched away from such unexpected contact.

"How did you come by these floor plans in the first place Shack?"

Dawlish asked as he traced a finger across the plans for one of the three stairwells of the blueprints in front of him.

"Back when Amelia Bones was in charge of the DMLE she gave me the job of looking over the building floor plans and making it more secure, they were planning to base a permanent Auror detachment there, new Goblin wards and some other goodies...in some ways I'm now quite glad that Fudge turned around and withdrew the funding for the upgrades, because now I'm the guy trying to get inside without getting myself killed."

Shacklebolt chuckled at the reversal of roles he found himself filling...

"Are we sure that your floor plan is complete?"

Harry asked, finally looking up and meeting Shacklebolt's eyes.

"Yes, or at least complete to the day my wife arrived at the burrow, they cannot have changed the layout that much since then. They will have probably increased the security presence, and no doubt the ward scheme has been significantly beefed up, but we at least know that it wasn't Gringotts Goblin work, so how good can it be?"

Harry smiled slightly and turned to the only red head in the room.

"I guess finding that part out will fall down to you, what do you think, can you do it in the time scale we have laid down?"

Bill Weasley ran his thumb and forefinger across his chin, perhaps unaware that he was tracing the path of one of the many scars that now criss crossed his face. A fire of determination burned in his eyes and Harry recognised the look, he had worn it himself on several occasions, most recently when he with Draco's help snatched Ginny from Voldemort.

"After the ward scheme at Azkaban, this will be a walk in the park. The new wards have been put up very quickly, I'm willing to bet that the original wards will still be in place and that the new wards were simply laid on top."

Harry occasionally forgot that Bill Weasley was possibly the best curse breaker in the country, or at least the best human curse breaker, he knew the Goblins respected the red head immensely. Now listening to Bill explaining the problem Harry understood why.

"I doubt they carried out any sort of ward survey before establishing the new wards, which means there is a very real possibility that the new wards and the old ones will not be compatible. Rather than complimenting each other as well laid wards are supposed to do, the magic of the two ward sets will be in conflict and this will create exploitable weak points in the wards..."

"Can you get us in or not?"

Dawlish interrupted in a bored tone of voice. Bill just smiled, not at all rattled by the Auror's barbs.

"Well a lot depends on the situation when I get there but I think so, mainly because despite all the security placed upon it, it's still a building whose main purpose is to let people get in, I think I can have the wards down in fifteen minutes, setting off every alarm they have, or give me thirty to forty minutes to drop localised wards and no one inside will be any the wiser, which do you want?"

Harry looked around at the four Aurors present, two British, one American and one French, and cocked his head to one side. Each of the law enforcement officers met his eyes and nodded.

"I think I speak for everyone here when I say that the second option is very much preferable."

There was a long moment of silence as each man reviewed the plan and their part in it, before Harry took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

"So...you guys are the professionals, is this plan workable, or am I setting someone up to lead the modern version of the charge of the light brigade?"

Shacklebolt chuckled and shook his head.

"I cannot speak for the others, but I think this plan of yours will work, just remember Harry not to out stay your welcome, when the time comes pull out whether you have what you are looking for or not. Getting caught in the vipers nest helps no-one."

"While I have every confidence in your skills Weasley, can your two slacker brothers be trusted to pull off their part in all this?"

Dawlish looked up briefly to look Bill in the eye before dropping his eyes back to the blueprints.

"I trust them, so you should."

Harry replied quietly.

"Without them, I never could have broken Wormtail out of the Ministry, this time we are better prepared and better equipped, mostly because of the twins, and more importantly than that thanks to you guys, we know how they are planning to find me. They control the Ministry magic detector and are using it to trace any magic I perform, only this time I assume they probably won't be bothering sending me owls expelling me from Hogwarts."

Bill coughed into his fist, trying to contain his chuckle.

"Do we know how many Death Eaters are inside?"

Dawlish was still studying the floor plans intently, if he was at all worried about what was about to happen then he was hiding it extremely well.

"Lots."

Proudfoot, as usual was a man of few words. Harry laughed at the comment, lots was a pretty fair assessment of the numbers they would face. Despite the fact he was going into harm's way yet again, this time he felt different…strangely calm, almost detached from the danger. He wasn't sure if this was a good sign or not.

"I'm so glad I asked." Dawlish added sarcastically. "What are the rules of engagement? What do we do with any captured Death Eaters?"

"There won't be any captured Death Eaters, not this time."

The two British Aurors seemed horrified at Harry's answer, Proudfoot's face was as stoically blank as always, while Henri Delacour was nodding in agreement.

"We don't have the luxury of taking prisoners, how do we transport them? How do we secure them? How do we prosecute them without a functioning Ministry or a court? To be perfectly honest I've been getting pretty tired of fighting the same old faces to a standstill for the past four years. Only to turn around and find them free and gunning for me again!"

Bill clapped his hand onto Harry's shoulder, his grim smile and nodding head showing where his support lay.

"Harry's right and you all know it, where has arresting these guys in the past got us? In case you hadn't noticed they have us on the ropes, we aren't exactly winning this war, at best we are barely breaking even. They play for keeps, isn't it time we did the same?"

Shacklebolt shared a glance with Dawlish and sighed heavily before nodding his reluctant agreement.

"I hope we don't come to regret this decision Harry."

"You and me both, but if it comes to it i'll answer for the decision later, should any of us survive."

OoOoO

_**GRINGOTTS COUNCIL CHAMBER**_

"I Ragnok, Goblin Chieftain of my clan, do hereby press my right to trial by combat, as laid down by the ancient scriptures of our race, who here will stand and deny my right!"

Ragnok stood before the assembled Goblin tribal council, he was dressed in the grey sack cloth of a prisoner and his hands were manacled in front of him.

He had been removed from the cells for the hearing of the charges being brought against him, one of his supporters had managed to snatch a few brief moments alone in order to pass on the message about his son's intentions of standing as his champion.

It was madness. However in his view it was quite brilliant madness, the right to trial by combat was an ancient law that hadn't been enacted for nearly three hundred years. Few living Goblins would remember the last time it was used, it certainly would have the element of surprise on its side.

There was a sharp intake of breath from the Council members at his proclamation. At one end of the table sat the Council law officer, a nominated elder Goblin charged with advising the council on all matters of tribal law, the Goblin taking the hint, immediately began rooting around in one of several large dusty tomes that sat on the desk in front of him. It took him just over two minutes to find the reference to the right to trial by combat.

"The accused, Ragnok is correct in his right to ask for trial by combat, it is an ancient law, however it is still in force to this day. He may fight himself, or nominate a champion, his accuser may do the same."

In the centre of the table sat Rocksplitter, and resting in front of him on the table, the ancient Goblin sword of succession. His nemesis looked distinctly unhappy at the recent turn of events, he had hoped for a quick, fixed trial and fast execution of his political rival, now he had to stage a spectacle that by law had to be thrown open to any Goblin that wanted to attend. And now there was always the faint chance Ragnok would survive the experience. Should that happen he would still be deposed from his role of leadership of the council, but would be alive, retaining his leadership of his clan and free to cause mischief.

Ragnok dearly hoped that he would get the chance to fight the younger Goblin in personal combat, it had been many years since he had used a blade in anger, but those skills were never truly forgotten, and it would be worth it to stamp out this blood feud before it went any further.

"Very well, submit the correct paperwork naming your champion, your trial will take place three days hence, take him back to the cells."

As Ragnok was led away he gifted his opponent the ghost of a smile, teeth and all, and for the first time he saw uncertainty in the eyes of the younger Goblin.

OoOoO

_**HMS IRON DUKE, SOUTHERN NAVAL TASKFORCE**_

Owen Jackson opened the door and entered the space that contained the _**Iron Duke's **_Combat Information Centre, Andrea Charles following right behind him. The room was kept quite dark in comparison to other areas of the ship to allow the personnel on duty to be able to focus on the myriad of screens around the room. Nothing moved in the air, under the water or upon it within an incredible distance without it being displayed upon those screens.

"Alright, what's going on?"

Jackson made his presence known to the senior controller, the young officer crossed to an electronic plotting board, the board displayed the coastline and every surface contact that was waiting to be cleared by the naval picket and allowed into port. Each boat had a small electronic tag attached that listed its name, country of origin and intended destination port.

"Sir, something out of the ordinary is happening, we have just picked up one of the civilian surface contacts moving out of the established holding pattern without authorisation. The ship has just gone to what we believe to be its maximum speed."

Jackson looked closely at the plot, sure enough one vessel had pulled out of the pattern of cargo vessels awaiting clearance to enter the southern ports and was heading directly south at full speed, away from the coast, and the warships of the Naval picket line.

"Which ship? What's her name and country of origin?"

The officer quickly consulted a computerised clipboard for the name of the vessel.

"_**SS Vasily Gryaznov,**_ She is registered in Murmansk, and carrying a cargo of farm machinery bound for Africa."

Owen Jackson straightened in shock, he hadn't heard that name in over twenty years, it brought back memories and experiences of a time he would rather not remember, a time when the world was poised on the edge of imminent nuclear war. When the massive Soviet war machine and the NATO alliance were headed for an inevitable apocalyptic clash.

He had come across that ship before and he knew what it was, what it **really** was, and for that ship to be off the English coast at this particular time of all times meant only one thing.

"XO get to the bridge, lay in an intercept course to that ship, flank speed if you please, contact the Admiral and inform him we are leaving our duty station in pursuit of a suspicious vessel. I want the Marines stood to, ready to initiate a contested boarding. Have all Weapons systems placed into the standby mode, if that ship won't heave-to for us I intend to stop it by any means necessary."

Andrea Charles nodded, not understanding what was going through her Captain's mind.

"What is that ship, what does it mean?"

Owen Jackson looked at her, and he suddenly looked older than he had at any time since she had first come on board.

"I really hope I'm proved wrong, but if I'm not, that ship means we could well soon be at war with the Soviet Union."

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW COMMUNAL KITCHEN**_

It wasn't the biggest space they had in the continually expanding burrow complex, which honour now went to the recently completed Operations Centre, but since that area was under secured access the Communal kitchen was the next best, but even the communal kitchen, big as it was, struggled to contain the combined occupants of the burrow.

There hadn't been an official announcement, but like all such small communities, news and rumours of something in the air travelled like wildfire. And so in ones and twos the occupants had started to gather in ever greater numbers in the kitchen, their combined speculation of what was happening only being fuelled by the arrival of members of the DA and Order.

Harry strode purposefully into the room closely followed by his small entourage of Aurors, upon his appearance the level of noise dropped almost immediately to silence as everyone seemed to take a deep breath and hold it. There had been an atmosphere of anticipation in the Burrow all day, maybe now all the questions would finally be answered.

Other than students and most of their parents, assorted members of the Order of the Phoenix and Goblins, there were about a dozen Aurors in the audience, they did not number among Marcus Washburn's 'rebels' but had managed to evade capture and make their way to the burrow. They bought with them stories of wide ranging attacks across the length and breadth of the country. One thing was certain, Voldemort had been extremely busy.

There had been a time not so long ago, that so many expectant eyes focused solely on him would have made Harry feel uncomfortable and nervous, that didn't seem to be the case anymore, now he just felt determined.

"The muggle Soldiers that were here recently have a saying that they try to live by, it's one that most of you in the Wizarding world probably won't be familiar with, but one I sincerely hope you will come to adopt as your own."

Harry looked for and found Michael Corner in the crowd, his fellow teen had become withdrawn and surly since Cho had been captured and there were several reports that he had taken to drinking heavily.

"Leave no man behind!"

Michael jerked his head up at Harry's words, and Harry gifted him with a smile before returning his attention to the audience as a whole.

"Although we feel deeply every grievous loss we suffer, nothing hurts us more than the knowledge of those we were forced by circumstance to leave behind to fall into enemy hands. There are two of our family not here with us right now where they truly belong, Cho Chang and Fleur Delacour have endured their captivity for long enough..."

Harry dropped his voice enough that those at the back leaned forward to hear him.

"I think it's high time we went and got them back."

OoOoO

_**NORTHERN IRELAND**_

The body of the last terrorist was carried by the Russian soldiers into the area lit by headlights of the truck and dumped unceremoniously onto the pile of the dozen or so already collected. As predicted, the terrorists had tried to ambush the Russians when they arrived to take delivery of the ordered arms shipment, but expecting only a handful of Russians, they had been completely outmatched.

Now the Russian Special Forces detachment had all the arms and ammunition they required to start making things very difficult for the already under pressure British Government, their orders were to hit targets of opportunity and convenience anywhere within Great Britain.

Magical resources, while stretched thin, would be offered when they were available. But on the whole the Russians had been armed and equipped, and were now to be turned loose on an unsuspecting country. An independent and highly trained, well equipped private army, whose presence was for now a complete secret.

OoOoO

_**HMS IRON DUKE, SOUTHERN NAVAL TASKFORCE**_

"What exactly do you mean when you say 'the Russians are here'?"

Admiral Clarkson, the senior officer in charge of the Royal Navy vessels of the southern blockade force, didn't even wait for the door leading out to the hangar deck to close before starting his interrogation of the vessels Captain. The high pitched whine of the Lynx helicopter's twin engines as it took off for its return journey back to the carrier made the two men have to shout at each other until the outer door was shut and locked tight.

Clarkson was a tall, middle-aged man, a few years younger than Owen Jackson. He had a well earned reputation for forthrightness that often bordered on rudeness, he didn't suffer fools in his command or waste time on social chit-chat, nor did he have respect for anyone that did.

"The ship that pulled out of the blockade line, the _**Vasily Gryaznov**_ I've run into her before, back in the 80's. Back then she was a covert insertion vessel that was designed to deploy a reinforced company of Spatznez onto the beach as the prelude to a shooting war."

Owen Jackson led the way deeper into the bowels of the naval vessel, while not cramped by naval standards the width of the passageways required other crewmembers to stand aside as the two senior officers passed.

"I was suspicious when the ship pulled out of the holding pattern and made a dash for home, I pursued, and when he refused to heave-to for boarding even after a warning shot, I made the decision to fire on him..."

"And in doing so, damn well provoked an international incident! The Russians are claiming what you have done is an act of high seas piracy, and are threatening to suspend diplomatic relations with us, so please do tell me you have more to show for all this than your suspicions...this is the second time you have gone weapons free on an unconfirmed target...you are starting to build quite the reputation."

Jackson paused in the passageway to allow one of his leading seamen to pass the two officers before replying.

"My boarding party found recent evidence that armed men had been onboard the vessel. Discarded weapon packaging, military ration packs, and empty ammunition tins, all that was enough for me to decide to allow members of my Marine complement to 'interview' some of the ship's crew."

The Admiral chuckled quietly and leant back against the bulkhead.

"I assume the 'interviews' provided you with the intelligence you needed?"

Jackson relaxed his posture slightly and nodded.

"Yes sir, one of the officers confirmed that they transported sixty five commandos to the south coast, and that they disembarked several hours ago."

Clarkson ran a heavily callused had through his thinning hair and sighed.

"If they only went ashore a few hours ago then that means..."

"Yes sir, this group from the ship was not involved in the recent attacks, they simply didn't have the time, but the fact remains that these sixty five armed and dangerous individuals are loose in the English countryside, planning who knows what. And if they are here what if they aren't alone, the London attacks could be the work of another such group!"

"I think it's time to pass on these nuggets of information to our intelligence weenies, I'll have the prisoners transported to the flagship for a proper debrief. Well done Captain, your actions, while unorthodox in the extreme, may just have prevented an all out war."

Owen Jackson wanted desperately to believe he had headed off disaster, but after pumping three high explosive shells into the Russian vessel, why was it he still had a sick, sinking feeling in his stomach?

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW OPERATIONS CENTRE (TEAM WEASLEY)**_

"Come with me you two."

Fred and George had listened with excitement while Harry had outlined the plan for liberating their friends from the Death Eater held hospital, they had been slightly disappointed not to have been singled out to have a larger part to play, but were pleased to have any form of involvement.

Harry had assured them privately that all the new toys they had been working on would soon get their debut, but now was not the time, there had been no chance to carry out anything but the most basic of testing. They had been making their way out of the room when Bill had moved to block their way.

The eldest Weasley sibling looked unusually serious, not surprising really given that Fleur was one of those being rescued, he indicated that they should follow and led the way outside. Instead of heading for the family home, the hospital or the accommodation blocks, Bill turned towards the newest building that the Goblins had grown from the very earth itself.

The Operations building had five floors, only one of which that could be seen above ground from the outside, the building itself was shaped as a large hollow oval nearly half the size of Hogwarts Quidditch pitch, the sunken centre area was open to the sky.

The mostly buried sides of the oval were filled with offices, conference rooms, classrooms and as yet much unused space. The inner rooms all had transparent walls that looked out over the oval's central hollow space that was four floors below ground level.

This inner, open area was the crown jewel in what the Goblins had constructed, it was a massive duelling arena, possibly the largest ever built. It could easily house dozens of individual duels or allow larger confrontations.

A shielding charm of immense power was enchanted into the transparent surface of the inner walls, which was actually a single piece of ultra thin crystal that had challenged the Goblins to their enchanting limit, and cost Harry an enormous, and as yet undisclosed amount of cash, the charm itself was powered by the spells of the duellists hitting the thin crystal surface. The charm would slowly fade over time, but it allowed practising magicians to recharge it just by throwing random curses at it.

Bill led the way to the above ground entrance, four Goblins stood guard and only moved aside grudgingly to allow the three brothers access. Moving down a long corridor, Bill led the twins deeper inside the large and eerily quiet building, he finally paused at a closed door leading to a large conference room and turned to face his younger brothers.

"Behind this door lies risk, danger, death and possibly as much excitement as even you two clowns can stand. Also, what lies in here is completely secret, other than Harry, myself and a few Aurors, no-one else knows and no-one can know, you two are only here right now because I have personally vouched for you...do not disappoint me."

Bill pushed the door open a crack before turning back to the twins with an evil smile on his face.

"By the way. Before we go in, how's your French?"

OoOoO

_**BURROW COMMUNAL KITCHEN (TEAM POTTER)**_

"Harry let me come with you, I need to come with you."

Harry turned to find Dean Thomas standing before him, everything in his posture pleading Harry for his agreement. The kitchen was buzzing after his announcement of the planned rescue attempt, nearly everyone had volunteered immediately, some perhaps remembering their own imprisonment in Azkaban.

"Dean I'm really not sure that's a good idea, your parents..."

"My parents understand that sometimes you have to take a stand for what's right, besides I of all people know what the captives could be going through, I could be of help."

"Harry looked up and saw the determination in Dean's eyes, deep down he knew he really needed as many of his friends as possible to be at the hospital, and he hated himself utterly because of it. The thought of any of them getting injured because of a plan he had come up with was more than he could stand.

But as Ginny had already drummed into him, these people were a force of good in the world, and they would have stood up to Voldemort with or without him, at least in greater numbers and in an organised fashion they had the opportunity they needed to have the chance to watch out for each other.

To tell the truth he had a position he needed to fill and it would make things much easier if that person was in fact a muggle born wizard, it would take too long to try and explain what he wanted to a pureblood.

"Alright Dean, you can come, in fact I have a very special job in mind for you, a job that will keep you right by Harry's...I mean my side during the attack."

If Harry was aware of the strange look Dean was giving him for speaking of himself in the third tense, he didn't let on as he explained exactly what he needed Dean to do, as Harry had expected it hardly took any time at all for Dean to understand what his job would entail, or how very important to the coming fight it would be. Dean would be the lynch pin that held it all together, the entire plan would depend on him.

Harry clapped Dean on the shoulder and looked passed him, searching the still packed room of excited people, looking for two faces in particular.

"Draco, Ron, come with me."

Turning his back on the gathering Harry slipped unnoticed from the room followed by his best friend and the man who had once been his enemy.

OoOoO

_**BURROW HOSPITAL (TEAM PROUDFOOT)**_

"So that's what I, Dawlish and Director Delacour will be doing, the rest of you are now under the operational control of Auror Proudfoot during the remainder of this operation, any questions so far?"

The assembled Aurors stirred uneasily amongst themselves, but no one gave a comment, there were less than twenty of them, far too few for the task they were being asked to accomplish, but defending the civilian population was what they were paid to do, and the public needed defending now more than ever.

"What if we meet resistance?"

The youngest Auror in the group, only a year out of the Academy and in a once sane world still in his probationary period, asked in a very nervous voice.

"Given where you are going, I would think it's more a case of when rather than if you meet resistance, we want you to meet resistance, we in fact are counting quite heavily on it. When it happens I expect you to act like the highly trained Aurors that you are, improvise, adapt and find a way to overcome the enemy. There are to be no arrests today, all curses bar unforgiveable's are on the table. Work together as a team, and don't let those stupid masks and black cloaks turn you into giant terrified heaps, under those cloaks are just men, men who will drop as easily when smacked in the head with a Reducto curse as the next guy."

A few of the Aurors laughed, some grinned, the rest, those more experienced, managed to look at least a little less grim.

"Just remember, you need to make as much noise, and penetrate as far into the target as possible, the more unfriendly eyes looking your way the better, so far too much of the burden of fighting this war has fallen on the shoulders of children, it's time we started proving that no-one earns the title Auror lightly. Just remember to watch your fire, there may well still be plenty of civilians milling about, some may even join in, but don't count too heavily on that."

Shacklebolt surveyed the faces gathered around him most of whom he had known for years, he felt a surge of pride, he couldn't ask for better companions.

"When it's time to cut and run make sure you each have an exit plan and a port key to get you back here, I don't want any miss-placed heroics, do your jobs, watch out for each other and come home alive, anything else is a bonus."

OoOoO

_**BURROW HOSPITAL (DECEPTION – TEAM MAD-EYE)**_

"He wants us to do WHAT!! Is Harry serious? He actually wants us to do this?"

Mad-eye had prided himself throughout his entire career on being prepared for any eventuality, but what he had just been asked to provide had taken him utterly by surprise.

He had expected the Order of the Phoenix to be used as frontline troops, just like they had at Azkaban, not an ideal task for them as they were mainly geared towards intelligence gathering, but they could all wield a wand when push came to shove.

"I know it's a bizarre request, and I'm sure Harry wouldn't ask unless he really needed this. I wish I could explain the reasoning behind this, but the truth is I only know a small portion of the plan, the part that directly involves me."

Charlie Weasley shrugged his shoulders and handed over the large parcel Harry had given him for Mad-eye, inside was a box with twenty compartments each of which contained a small bottle of foul smelling liquid and a large envelope filled with hair, Harry's hair.

"Well I hope this is worth it, I truly hate this stuff, my hair has never grown back from where Crouch Jnr ripped it out."

OoOoO

_**THE COTTAGE, BURROW GROUNDS (TEAM POTTER)**_

"You want me to do WHAT!"

Draco exclaimed loudly, Harry hushed him and pushed the blond haired youth into the cottage ahead of him, Ron followed, a look of utter bemusement upon his face. Harry closed the door behind his friend and turned to face the two of them.

"You know I wouldn't ask this of you unless the need was great. I don't pretend to know what Voldemort's plan is, but the longer we delay, the stronger he gets. Up to now everything we have done has been in response to something Voldemort has planned, if we are to have any hope of weathering this storm we need to go on to the offensive, to take the initiative back. We need intelligence, we need to know what he intends."

Draco lent back against a dresser and placed both of his hands over his face, his shoulders sagged and he seemed to almost shrink in upon himself.

Harry placed a hand on Draco's shoulder, feeling the taller youth shudder slightly.

"Draco if there was any other way..."

"I know...I know, the needs of the many, blah blah blah. That doesn't mean I have to like it damn it."

Draco lowered his hands revealing a wry smile.

"Still, say what you want about your crazy arse plan Harry, it will be good to see the old homestead again, and you never know, I may even run into dear papa, you should never turn down these chances to catch up with family."

"This is all very interesting, but why am I here? Is it your plan for me to go with the two of you to Death Eater central, because I have to say I'm not overly excited with that idea!"

Ron had remained silent up to that point, but now he wanted to know why Harry had singled him out, truth be told he had been feeling slightly neglected of late. Harry had been spending a lot of time with Draco, the Aurors and the soldiers, and Ron was feeling left out.

"No Ron, I have a much more important task for you, Draco if you will excuse us for a moment."

Harry led a puzzled Ron into the bedroom of the cottage, he needed the privacy for what he was about to say. It wasn't that he didn't trust Draco, it was the fact he was about to lay himself utterly bare and he still would only admit his true feelings in front of those who had known him the longest.

"Ron. You, Hermione and I have been through an awful lot over the years, I have trusted you and Hermione with every single one of my secrets, from the wording of the Prophesy to the existence of the Horcrux problem, but this...I don't know what I would do if anything should happen..."

Harry's words caught in his throat, as his emotions got the better of him, taking a moment to compose himself, he shook his head and took a deep breath.

"I need you to watch over that what matters most to me, because as you now know I won't be there, Draco and I have...other plans."

Harry had started pacing back and forth across the room, he didn't see the amused smirk on Ron's face as he carried on pacing.

"This is the first time that the D.A. has gone into action without me and it frightens me what may happen...to them...to her. It's not like I can order her not to go, as much as I want to! Oh damn it this is not coming out right!"

Harry felt a touch on his shoulder and he spun around to find Ron stood before him smiling and shaking his head, his own shoulders were shaking as he tried to contain his laughter.

"As amusing as it was for me, watching you tie yourself into verbal knots, I don't think either of us have the time to spare."

Ron placed a hand on each of Harry's shoulders and looked his best friend straight in the eyes.

"You really, truly love Ginny, don't you? And I don't just mean a school crush, a bit of fun between teenagers with raging out of control hormones. What you and Ginny have is the real thing isn't it?"

Harry lowered his head and just nodded, he cared for Ginny far more than he did for himself, she was his hope for a brighter future, and her love was his deliverance from the darkness that threatened to swallow him whole.

Ron pulled his friend into an embrace and whispered into Harry's ear.

"I get it, I think that I finally get it, you really are living the fairytale the two of you, it makes the rest of us feel slightly jealous...the rest of us mere mortals have to just muddle through life as best we can."

After a moment more Harry pulled away and ran his hand over his face, for a moment he was almost embarrassed to raise his eyes to meet Ron's gaze.

"Don't worry Harry, Ginny will not even get a scratch, not if I can prevent it, I swear it!"

OoOoO

_**HOGSMEADE STATION (DECEPTION PLAN 1A)**_

The Death Eater whose post was at the entrance to Hogsmeade station was new, so new that the skin of his forearm still burned from the placement of the dark mark.

When he had left his home in Eastern Europe, he had been promised glory, riches and as many muggle women as he could possibly want. So far all he had received for his service was this dead end out of the way assignment in which nothing ever happened, and even the pureblood locals looked upon him with scorn and hatred.

On the plus side, the assignment wasn't exactly causing him to break into a sweat, a cohort of more experienced Death Eaters had recently swept the entire town, looking for rebels and fugitive Aurors. But he hadn't been involved in the hunt, being left to guard the useless station, it was not as if the Hogwarts Express was even running.

Catching the glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye, the Death Eater turned and saw a slight, dark haired youth wearing glasses pass the entrance to the station, he was walking slowly towards the centre of town.

The appearance of the youth in itself was nothing out of the ordinary, the curfew imposed by lord Voldemort on Wizarding settlements didn't kick in until evening. But there was something that drew the Death Eaters attention enough to make him come to the entrance of the station and follow the youth with his eyes.

The youth, somehow aware of the scrutiny looked over his shoulder, giving the Death Eater the first good look at his features, the red lightning scar on his forehead seemed to leap out at the Death Eater. Suddenly the Hogsmeade station duty didn't seem quite such a dead end assignment.

For a split second the Death Eater considered trying to apprehend Harry Potter himself, then he wisely decided that seeking individual glory in this case was not conducive to his health. Turning, the Death Eater ran back inside the station, inside the small, sheltered waiting area was a Floo terminal that fed directly to the ministry atrium, within seconds he had established contact with the Death Eaters on duty and passed on the message...Harry Potter was in Hogsmeade.

OoOoO

_**DIAGON ALLEY (DECEPTION PLAN 2A)**_

Daphne Greengrass was angry, no screw that, she was in fact furious.

The day had started out as a celebration, it was the day of her seventeenth birthday, the day she reached her majority, the day she was finally recognised as an adult in the eyes of the Wizarding world. Now if only her own family would recognise her as an adult she felt that would indeed be progress.

Many decisions had been made over the years in secret by her parents, concerning her future, and theirs, and all of those secrets had been revealed to her today in one long anger invoking session.

If it hadn't of been for her reaching the age of majority, and the legal necessity of informing her of all contracts that involved her, then she supposed she may have never have learnt she had without her knowledge been betrothed at the age of five to the scion of another pure blood family.

It had fallen to the family's lawyer, the venerable Mr Gamble Snr of Gamble and Gamble to break the news, her parents looking on with miss-placed familial pride. It had shocked everyone present when she had reacted so strongly, tearing up the legal documents in front of her startled parents and storming from the house, ignoring her parent's demands for an explanation.

Theodore Nott, Daphne shuddered just thinking about the evil, bigoted little weasel of a man. Yes, she too was a member of Slytherin house, and yes she from a pure blood family of long standing, but that was where the similarities ended. She had been placed in Slytherin because she was intelligent, ambitious and maybe just a little bit sneaky, not because she harboured deluded dreams of racial superiority.

For the last six years she had carefully played a dangerous game, building around herself the role of pureblood lackey, knowing that to show dissent to the policies and vendettas of her house mates was to become a pariah in her peer group, but also knowing how wrong those same grievances were. Daphne had cultivated several friends outside of her house, covering these friendships in the guise of study groups or other such extracurricular activities. There had been several occasions when a carefully placed word of hers had stymied some devious plan of the Slytherins.

In her seething anger she had found herself in her favourite refuge, amidst the stacks of Flourish & Blotts on Diagon Alley, she devoured books at a rate only beaten by the Granger girl, and her memory was first class. If she ever truly applied herself at Hogwarts she knew that she could give Granger a run for top student, but that would destroy the image of the simple lackey that she relied upon to keep her out of trouble. Once she had finished school she fully intended to pay to re-sit her exams and obtain the grades she deserved.

After half an hour of perusing the shelves and calming down, Daphne finally felt in control enough to return home. Exiting the bookstore, she turned left and began making her way towards the Leaky Cauldron.

Naturally graceful from an early age, Daphne nevertheless tripped over her own feet in surprise when she saw who was looking in the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies.

Harry Potter.

He was stood side on to her, less than ten feet away, looking like any normal teen on an afternoon shopping trip, rather than the number one most wanted in the British Wizarding world. For a moment Daphne wondered if Potter had actually lost his mind, although the Death Eater patrols of Diagon Alley were infrequent at best, the Wizarding shopping precinct would still be considered by most to be enemy territory.

Just to prove her point, from the other side of Harry, coming towards her from the direction of the Leaky Cauldron was Pansy Parkinson.

Pansy was everything that Daphne was not, in fact she and Theodore Nott were probably a match made in heaven, especially since by all accounts Draco Malfoy had grown a set of balls and joined Potter. Pansy Parkinson was an evil and hate filled shrew, and that was being kind.

She was of course a pureblood bigot and a Voldemort supporter, perhaps even already a marked Death Eater, as were both of her parents, but Pansy was something else. Draco had abused, bullied and schemed because it was expected of him, Pansy genuinely enjoyed causing pain in others, so far that had been limited to mental anguish at school, but Daphne had no doubt that when Voldemort finally took off the gloves off of his troops, that Pansy would be following close in Bellatrix Lestrange's twisted footsteps.

Daphne stepped into the doorway of the stationary store sandwiched in between the book shop and Quidditch supplies and watched, hoping against hope that Pansy was so pre-occupied that she would walk right past both of them without noticing.

Alas, it wasn't to be. Daphne saw the widening of Pansy's eyes as she spotted Potter standing out on the street seemingly without a care in the world, and then her eyes fell upon her house mate.

Pansy's eyes narrowed as she saw Daphne, and Daphne reached inside her robes and placed her hand on her wand ready to launch into combat against her housemate. But once again six years of amazing acting saved Daphne.

Pansy inclined her head at Potter and lifted her eyebrows, Daphne suddenly realised Pansy wanted her to assist in subduing Potter, Daphne nearly laughed out loud, Harry Potter was fast becoming a legend, and his skills with a wand had earned him the highest defence scores seen at Hogwarts in over a century. What hope did the two school girls have of besting Potter when even the dark lord couldn't?

Daphne was a realist, her defence practical skills were mediocre at best, and Pansy wasn't much better, it would be a very quick one sided duel.

Daphne looked at Pansy and shook her head, she then pointed to herself and pantomimed watching, then pointed back at Pansy and made the gesture of talking. Pansy looked annoyed that someone had disagreed with her, and for a moment Daphne thought she would make a move on Potter unaided.

Somewhere deep inside Pansy, her common sense kicked into life and she begrudging nodded and turned back towards the Leaky Cauldron. Daphne watched her until she was out of sight.

She crossed the distance to Harry in seconds, she had only minutes before the Alley would be crawling with Death Eaters.

"Potter, Parkinson saw you, you really need to get out of here, right now, because this place is going to be crawling with Death Eaters in about three minutes!"

Potter turned his head to face her and she was struck by a strange wrongness, his posture was all wrong, Daphne had been watching Harry Potter for six years, she knew how he moved, and then there were the eyes. They were Harry's emerald orbs, but there was no sign of the passion and power that Harry carried so easily inside him.

"I do hope so."

It wasn't Harry's voice, but that of an older man. Daphne opened her mouth but found herself grabbed from behind by at least two people, one hand clamped over her mouth, silencing her , she was quickly and roughly carried inside the Quidditch store.

Once her eyes had adjusted she was amazed to find the store filled with wizards and heavily armed Goblins, all staring at her with hostility.

"Bind and gag her, we cannot take any chances with this Slytherin bitch."

As someone removed her wand and tied her up and gagged her, Daphne silently fumed, typical, you try and do the right thing and help someone, and look what happens, just typical.

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**_

Nymphadora Tonks opened her eyes and immediately screwed them shut again, steeling herself against the unbearable pain she knew was coming like an oncoming Hungarian Horntail to batter at her senses.

When the expected pain didn't materialise she slowly cracked one eye open and reviewed her surroundings, she was alone in a private room of what she assumed was the Burrow hospital. After getting run through with the black blade her memory wasn't very reliable, she remembered the basement going up in flames, she remembered the Auror safe house, and she remembered arriving at the burrow, but after that there were massive holes, there were some very patchy memories of madam pomfrey caring for her, and of Remus shouting, after that everything was quite confusing.

Tonks took a deep breath and held it, counted to ten then let it out slowly, no pain, none at all. Not at all sure of what she would find, she lifted the sheet and looked at the wound site.

It didn't bother her at all that she was stark naked under the sheet, it did bother her slightly that so many people had seen the 'real' Tonks, she couldn't maintain her morphed appearance whilst unconscious, and while both madam Pomfrey and Remus had previously seen her while she was asleep and in her natural form, many others she didn't know now had as well.

Not that there was much difference between the face she normally wore and her own natural looks, she had just tweaked it slightly, reducing and reshaping the nose, raising the cheekbones, making the lips a little fuller, and of course changing the hair colour. Remus had always insisted that she was beautiful just the way nature intended, but her own insecurities were too deep rooted to be overcome so easily.

Where her terrible wound had been, just above her belly button, there was no sign of a wound at all, just her smooth unbroken skin. Around the wound area it was perhaps slightly paler than the surrounding skin, and with careful investigation she discovered that it was still a little tender to the touch.

Closing her eyes again she realised there was something very odd going on, it was if she could still 'see' the room even though her eyes were closed, it was almost as if everything in the room had become a vibrant colour that she could picture even as she moved her head back and forth, it took a moment to realise she was relying on her sense of smell.

There was the sound of footsteps from outside the door, at first Tonks thought whoever it was must have been right outside, but as the footsteps became louder it suddenly dawned that her hearing was much more acute than she remembered.

The approaching person carried with them a plethora of scents, antiseptic, various medical potions, porridge, herbal tea, and the smell of fresh parchment. There was also the slight hint of alcohol, both the medicinal and non medicinal varieties.

There was a knock on the door and Tonks smiled in recognition, her eyes still closed.

"Come in Madam Pomfrey."

The door opened quietly and the Hogwarts school healer slipped inside.

"How did you know it was me dear?"

Tonks opened her eyes and smiled up at the stern school healer, that matron's stern act had only lasted for a month after she had arrived at Hogwarts, the young metamorphmagus had not had an easy time at school. The ability to change her appearance to match anyone she wanted had gained her a lot of attention of the wrong kind, from pupils and teachers alike, which added to her terrible home sickness had made her utterly miserable. The kindly healer had provided an ear for her problems and an adults counsel.

"I feel...different, as if I'm seeing things for the first time all over again, I can't explain it. All my senses are so sharp, as if before they were somehow kept dull, if feels exciting and yet a little scary all at the same time."

Tonks didn't miss the sudden change in scent that the healer exuded, but she didn't understand it, why should Pomfrey, who had known her for fifteen years, fear her?

"There are some questions that are best left to others to answer Nymphadora, for now suffice it to say you are nearly fully recovered from your wound, another day of bed rest should see you back up on your feet again."

Tonks nodded, keeping the frustration she felt to herself, and allowed the healer to fuss around her, taking her temperature, checking her pulse and other less obvious medical checks. Seemingly satisfied, the healer smiled down at her then slipped from the room.

The moment the door was shut Tonks had thrown the sheet back and sat up, she didn't need bed rest because she felt fine, in fact she felt better than fine, she felt fit and strong. Going through the dresser, it didn't take long to find a set of medical scrubs. Grabbing the clothes, Tonks quickly dressed and slipped from the room. She had many questions she needed answers to.

OoOoO

_**DOVER INTERNATIONAL APPARATION AND FLOO TERMINAL (DECEPTION PLAN 3A)**_

It was a fact of life that only the small percentage of the most powerful witches and wizards had the necessary power to apparate across large international distances, most struggled to apparate further than a few dozen miles. The longest confirmed apparition on record to date was attributed to Albus Dumbledore in the year 1945, when the now deceased wizard had apparated directly from Hogwarts to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin to face and eventually defeat Grindelwald.

In order to avoid unnecessary splinching, and under the auspices of the Wizarding Ministries Accord of 1921 each country had set up an international travel terminal at a convenient border crossing point. All domestic Floo access points were sealed from international travel unless sanctioned by high level clearance, and the international apparition point only allowed travel back and forth with a similar terminal in Calais or another countries terminal. By using a complicated ward scheme that drew power from nearby lay lines, each traveller was able to reach their destination safely.

This arrangement gave the various Ministries around the world a way of exercising visibility and control of travel in and out of the country for all but a small powerful number, for which other ways existed to track.

Voldemort had clamped down on all outbound international travel, requiring extensive paperwork to allow anyone to leave the country, although the inbound traffic had actually picked up under Voldemort. Pureblood wizards from every social background were flocking to his banner, all seeking riches and power.

The customs clerk was not a Death Eater, nor did he support their views to any particular degree, he was however a greedy, unscrupulous man who had no problem selling information for money. He had tipped off the Death Eaters on several occasions about suspected Aurors attempting to leave the country and had been paid handsomely for the information.

He looked up from his paperwork to find a small dark haired youth waiting patiently for his attention, if he had looked up a few seconds earlier he would have seen the youth madly hopping and skipping about, as if he was enjoying the fact he had two legs. The clerk held out his hand for the completed form the youth was holding, he took it with a grunt and ran his eyes over the relevant details.

He stopped. He blinked. He read again the name written at the top of the document and his eyes widened in shock.

Harry James Potter.

Trying to remain calm, the clerk looked up and smiled at the youth.

"This all seems to be in order Mr Potter, let me just go and get the required stamp for your onward travel."

The clerk wanted to run but managed to walk into the back office where the domestic Floo point was located. Harry Potter, that name would fetch him enough money that he could retire, possibly even leave the country. It only took moments to contact the Ministry of Magic.

OoOoO

_**CATTERICK, NORTH YORKSHIRE (BRITISH LIONS TRAINING CAMP)**_

Harry Potter stepped gracefully from the Floo, firebolt broomstick held tightly in his hands, before he had taken a few steps into the room he was swept into a bear hug by an enthusiastic Oliver Wood.

"Harry mon its good to be seeing you."

Oliver's Scottish accent had deepened in his excitement, Harry rolled his eyes but didn't say a word. Releasing him, Oliver turned to the rest of the Lions squad and made the introductions.

"Guys, this is Harry Potter, he is one of the finest seekers I have ever played with, and I thought it would do us all good to get a fresh broom up here."

All the players mumbled greetings, except one. Terrence Higgs sat in the corner and fumed. He had thought himself the only candidate for the British Lions seeker position, and yet here he was, the smug Gryffindor himself, Harry Potter. The young whelp had bested him more than once while at school, but now it was his turn, besides if he couldn't beat him on a broom there were other...alternatives, the team spot was his and he would be damned if he was going to give it up.

As the players trooped out onto the pitch, Oliver leant in closer to Harry and spoke in quiet tones.

"Are you sure you are up for this, it has been a long time since you did this for real."

With a small grin on his face Harry looked over at his former team mate.

"Don't worry Oliver ol' buddy, it's just like falling off a dragon, these guys are about to learn how Gryffindors soar...old school."

Harry replied, with the voice of Charlie Weasley

"Falling off a dragon huh, well I guess you'd know, just don't get yourself killed in the air because I don't want to be the one who has to tell your mother, watch Higgs, he plays dirty."

"So do I Oliver. So do I."

OoOoO

_**LONDON, OPPOSITE PURGE AND DOWSE LTD (TOP TEAM) **_

The group made their way unnoticed and undisturbed to the roof of the large muggle block of flats that was conveniently placed so that it overlooked the disused department store. They moved silently and with purpose, dressed in dark blue, almost black uniforms, heads covered by black balaclavas, each man wore a black backpack and carried a black holdall and a broomstick.

Two of the men put down the bags they carried and withdrew large scoped weapons from cases on their backs, along with a partner each, the two men moved to opposite ends of the roof and lay down, training their weapons onto the roof of the decrepit looking apartment store adjacent.

Another pair of knelt and began to fashion a crude sling to allow them to carry cargo slung between their two brooms, one of the bags they carried wasn't black it was dark red and had a golden logo inlaid into it. 'Weasley Wizarding Wheezes'.

One of the remaining group moved away from his companions and studied the adjacent building through narrowed eyes, reaching up he pulled off his balaclava, revealing a tousled mass of red hair and a face criss crossed by fading scars.

"Hold on honey, the cavalry are coming."

Taking a deep breath, he raised his wand and muttered an incantation while drawing a rune in the air. For a brief moment the air around him began to shimmer as if from a heat haze, before fading from sight, another rune followed, then a third. The wand movements were graceful and precise, each rune following seamlessly into the next.

For a moment the others in the group watched this silent ballet, feeling the static charge slowly building in the atmosphere, before each man turned back to his assigned task.

A storm was coming, and Weasley wrath followed close behind.

OoOoO

_**BURROW HOSPITAL**_

Tonks followed the Hogwarts healer through the corridors of the hospital using her newly refined sense of smell. The woman left a trail of scent behind her that could be detected even when crossed that of another. It was almost like following a stream of colour.

Ahead were two other scents that she knew she should have known, one wasn't that different from her own scent, but was male. The second scent reminded her of old books, and bizarrely of cinnamon which was her favourite spice. The scent stirred a longing inside her that she hadn't felt for a long time.

She paused when she heard the footsteps ahead of her stop, and she drew herself into a small alcove, it wouldn't fool even a cursory inspection, but at least she wasn't stood right out in the corridor for all to see.

"How is she?"

This voice was instantly recognisable, it was her father, she hadn't seen either of her parents since this mess had started, it pained her to hear the fear and worry in his tone.

"It's incredible, the wound to her chest has almost completely healed in a remarkably short period of time, there is still a slight discolouration around where the wound was, but that too will quickly pass."

"And how is she in general?"

There was an unusual tone in her father's voice that Tonks didn't understand.

"I would have to say that Nymphadora is now in the best physical condition she has been in her entire life, her body tone has improved dramatically, and that is not the only change, her sense of smell and hearing has become much more acute."

Tonks looked down at herself, she had been too busy to really look at herself while she dressed, yes she was thinner, but she had put that down to her stay in hospital and her recovery. And since she rarely stayed in her natural form when awake she hadn't noticed the changes. She was indeed more toned than she remembered being.

"Even given the affliction, the speed with which she has recovered is nothing short of miraculous. She heals at a faster rate than even you do Remus."

Tonks smiled, that made sense, Remus was the other scent, for a brief moment she wondered what she smelt like to him, and then all the pieces of the puzzle came crashing together in her mind.

Affliction. Fast healing, acute senses, body tone, suddenly everything made sense.

She was a werewolf.

Tonks sank back further into the shadows and forced her lips together to stop herself from crying out in anguish. It was too much to take in, she was a dark creature, scorned by the Ministry and shunned by the public. She would lose her job, the career she had worked so hard for, it was all she had ever wanted to do, and she was good at it.

Tears fell silently down her cheeks as the enormity of what had happened dawned on her, Remus had turned her, the one man she trusted above and beyond all others had betrayed her so completely and utterly that she was unable to put it into context.

"I want to thank you Remus, you gave me back my daughter."

Remus snorted in dark amusement.

"If only your wife thought the same, she wants me arrested and killed out of hand."

"My wife will come around, without you our daughter would have died in a hospital bed at the tender age of twenty six, once she gets her head around that Andromeda will seek you out to apologise for her words. She has the Black family temper and their rush to harsh judgement, but she also has more compassion than the rest of that family put together, common sense will prevail."

Tonks listened, Remus had only done what he had done to save her, that made more sense than his betrayal, and he loved her! Now she was crying for a completely different reason. Wiping her eyes on her sleeve she rose back to her feet and made to return to her room.

She was halted in her tracks by a loud voice.

"I might not be able to see you, but my sense of smell and hearing is just as good as yours young lady, I suggest you return to your room before your healer places you in a body bind and drags you there then chains you to the bed. Your father and I will be along in few minutes, we have a lot to talk about."

Tonks grinned and ducked her head in embarrassment for getting caught.

"Yes Remus."

OoOoO

_**CATTERICK, NORTH YORKSHIRE (BRITISH LIONS TRAINING CAMP)**_

Oliver was stood in the middle of the changing rooms, entertaining his audience using both of his hands to dramatically recreate the match winning movements of both seekers.

"So Harry went like this, Higgs went like that. I said where'd the snitch go, Higgs said "what snitch!" By the time he had turned around Harry had the snitch in his hand!"

Charlie Weasley in the guise of Harry Potter, had just produced a master class in how a seeker didn't just sit around watching for the snitch, he was also the seventh member of a Quidditch team. He had harassed the opposing chasers, taunted the opposing beaters into taking their eyes off the action, and unsighted the goal-keeper when his own chasers were making runs on the goal.

Now Oliver was unsure who the best seeker he had played with was. Harry's speed and agility was unsurpassed...at Hogwarts, but Charlie had the touch of the professional league player he surely would have become had he not left the continent chasing dragons.

One thing he knew, for Gryffindor Quidditch it had been a hard few years between Charlie leaving and Harry arriving.

Looking around the changing room, there was one person conspicuous by his absence, Terrence Higgs had been thoroughly embarrassed by Charlie in Harry's body, and as soon as the game had ended the former Slytherin had stomped off the pitch, ignoring the handshakes of the opposing team.

Oliver looked over at 'Harry' and raised his eyebrows. The small nod he got in return made his pulse race, and as casually as he could he moved towards his locker where his wand had been placed before the game. It now looked as if his thoughts on how he would fare in a proper duel were about to be tested.

OoOoO

_**MINISTRY OF MAGIC **_

"We have another one!"

The on duty ranking Death Eater sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, this particular shift in the Auror crew room had started off quiet, but it hadn't lasted long.

"How many is that now?"

"Twelve sir, Potter has been bloody busy today."

"So it seems. Ok send a team to investigate this latest sighting, who is left after that?"

"Other than you and I, just the duty shift, there are no more teams to send out."

The ranking Death Eater frowned and thought hard for a moment, nobody had envisioned circumstances that would see him running out of men. But he had run out, and it would be his head that the dark lord would take if he let Potter slip through his fingers.

"Send a message to the mansion, get all available Death Eaters here, also ask Snape if he can spare some men, if Potter hasn't gone to the hospital yet today then he isn't going."

OoOoO

_**DIAGON ALLEY**_

"Harry Potter! Stay where you are, try to run and we will use lethal force against you!"

The Death Eaters were still clinging on to the image of having the authority to enforce the law, but that was all it was...an image. Those few civilians out of the street looked frantically for a place to take shelter, scattering to shop doorways.

There were eight Death Eaters, arrayed in a rough semi-circle behind 'Harry Potter' as he stood looking in the shop window, they all had their wands out but only two had them pointing at the fugitives back. The spokesman stepped forward a pace and repeated his challenge, this time adding 'or else' at the end.

The fugitive slowly turned, one of the Death Eaters gasped, it was Harry Potter after all, and not a wild goose chase as they had originally assumed. The glory and wealth that would be theirs for capturing Harry Potter was something that made several Death Eaters smile under the masks.

"Do you know how long I have had to wait for you to arrive...over an hour."

Not even one of the Death Eaters had noticed that Harry Potter had spoken with an older man's voice, they were too busy watching Potter's features shift and change in front of their very eyes.

"Well you timed that very well I do have to say."

Arthur Weasley smiled at the astonished Death Eaters, he had been only too happy to play his part in Harry's plan, it was a chance for him to make a contribution to the war effort beyond that of hosting the assembled force.

"I don't know who you are, but your death shall be a warning to others not to cross the dark lord."

The spokesman sounded not quite as sure of himself now, the situation as he understood it was changing rapidly, and he couldn't adjust his thinking quick enough.

"Oh I don't think so, get 'em boys."

Before a single Death Eater had managed to get off a spell the door to the Quidditch supply shop exploded open and the street was suddenly filled with weapon swinging Goblins. There were in fact only five of them, but in such a small space, five was plenty, there were four more wizards as well, but they were little more than spectators, as the Goblins worked off a small part of the racial hatred they felt for the Death Eaters. The fight was short, bloody and vicious. Only one Death Eater escaped, and that was because they had wanted him to.

Not all of the fake Harry's appearances were ambushes, some were designed just to stretch the Death Eaters forces and draw them away from vital locations, but enough of them were so that when Harry finally showed his hand, it was hoped that the Death Eaters would be extremely hesitant to charge in.

"What do we do with the little princess?"

Aberforth Dumbledore asked, having bodily dragged the struggling Greengrass girl from the recesses of the store. The girl immediately stopped struggling when she saw the seven bodies lying in bloody pools out on the street.

"Well, she did try and warn me, or rather warn Harry. I suppose we should take her with us, she could provide useful intelligence."

Dumbledore nodded his agreement and before anyone could stop him he whipped out his wand and stunned the girl. He didn't even bother trying to catch her as she fell to the cobbles like a sack of potatoes. When he saw Arthur's shocked expression he just chuckled.

"At least now she'll come quietly."

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS HOSPITAL**_

Neville Longbottom had begun to despair of ever finding a way inside the hospital. The entrances were all too heavily guarded, there was absolutely no chance of getting inside without being seen, and if it came to a fight all was lost anyway. He needed to get inside unnoticed and be able to spend some time saying goodbye to his parents.

He had been on the verge of leading Luna back to the burrow in defeat when there was a commotion at the staff entrance, twelve Death Eaters had gathered by the doorway, including the three that had been watching the door.

As he watched the twelve all took hold of what he assumed was a portkey and vanished in a flash of light, leaving the doorway completely unguarded. For a moment he starred in amazement at the portal, not quite believing his good fortune.

"It seems that today is our lucky day after all, I thought for sure that it was going to be tomorrow, maybe tomorrow will be my lucky day and today is yours."

Neville just grinned as Luna started arguing with herself, sometimes he didn't understand her, but life was never going to be boring.

"Come on, let's go."

Taking her hand Neville led the way across the concrete to the doorway, there was no-one visible inside and no obvious intruder wards, shrugging in happy confusion Neville stepped inside, Luna was right behind him, twirling her wand between her fingers absent-mindedly.

OoOoO

_**DIAGON ALLEY**_

By the time the Death Eaters arrived in force there was nobody left alive on the street, the other shoppers having made the wise decision it was time for them to be elsewhere, even the shop owners had made the decision that today was a good day to shut early.

Word was already coming in of other attacks up and down the country, from Hogsmeade, to Yorkshire and down to Dover, almost every team sent to investigate Harry Potter sightings was being attacked by a mixture of Goblins and Wizards leaving only one survivor to spread the fearful news.

The Death Eaters were now travelling in groups of twenty or more, and every single Death Eater not already tasked with a specific job was being pulled into service, emptying both the Ministry and the Headquarters building.

What the Dark Lord thought of this new was unknown, no-one had seen him for several hours, Bellatrix Lestrange and the other higher ranking Death Eaters were issuing instructions in his name.

Phase one of Harry's plan had been completed with no loss of life and the gain of one unconscious Slytherin prisoner. Now phase two could begin, and now the real work started.

OoOoO

_**MINISTRY OF MAGIC**_

They arrived through seventeen different Floo terminals, carefully co-ordinated beforehand so that they would step into the Ministry Atrium as one. The one Death Eater on mobile patrol, ready to relay messages up to the former Auror headquarters, was momentarily dazed and taken off guard as the green flare from so many active terminals blinded him.

By the time he had even realised he was no longer alone he had been hit by five stunning curses, three body binds, a jelly legs jinx and been disarmed six times, which was fine except of course he only had the one wand and a knife.

The spells all hit him within milliseconds of each other, having the combined effect of catapulting the man twenty feet through the air and onto the fountain of magical brethren.

The statue of the wizard, with his wand held aloft, now sported a new and slightly grotesque attraction, and the fountains water quickly began to take on a red tint. The golden statue of the wizard began to appear as if he was in fact wearing Gryffindor Quidditch robes.

"He's still alive."

One Auror commented, matter of factly.

"Not for long, leave him."

Proudfoot replied.

The group moved swiftly though the atrium without sparing the Death Eater another glance, the watch wizard's station was vacant and there was no guard on the elevators. The Aurors paused before the bank of elevators and took stock.

"Remember, move fast, and don't get tied down in long drawn out duels, if you have to resort to cheap tricks to end it quickly you get bonus points. Watch each other's backs, if you win free, turn and help someone else, listen for the recall signal. We are not here today to retake the Ministry, we leave that for another day, we are just here to prove to Voldemort's followers that nowhere he holds is safe, then just maybe some of them will see sense and bugger off."

It was the longest speech Proudfoot had ever given in his life, he hoped it was worth it and that at least some of them listened, he had estimated that he would be lucky to bring even half the group back to the burrow.

Leaning forward he pressed the call button summoning an elevator, with a nod to half the group as they moved to the stairs and disappeared from view. They were going to clear the Ministry, floor by floor, until resistance became stiff enough to make it time to call it a day, by that time every available Death Eater would be swarming all over them.

And Harry would have a free run at both the hospital and his actual target.

OoOoO

_**STIRLING LINES, HEREFORD**_

"Staff Sergeant Jones?"

Oscar Jones looked up from his Bergen as he carefully packed the last few items into the already full camouflaged pack, already laid on his bed was another bag full of 'nice to have items' such as night vision and thermal sights, and assorted weaponry.

"Who's asking?"

The man was not dressed in uniform, but he wore a style of clothes that marked him as an army officer, it was informally called 'the Sandhurst Selection' named after the British Army's Officer Academy, beige corduroy slacks and a sporting jacket over a pale shirt, no rank and file member of the Army would dress like that.

"Major Dominic Mills. I wonder if I might have a moment of your time?"

Jones studied the man, he wasn't one of the Regiment's officers, but he had to have impeccable credentials to have even gotten onto the camp in the first place, especially at the moment with the heightened security arrangements. With a frown he checked his wrist watch, he didn't have a lot of time to spare, but he had some.

"You have five minutes, so I suggest you get to the point."

The officer nodded, apparently not in the least put out by the Special Forces soldier and his brusque attitude.

"I represent certain parties that are extremely interested in the mission you are about to embark upon."

Jones just said nothing, the one thing that was drummed into all SF troopers very early on was the need not to discuss missions with anyone outside the briefing chain.

Which, in theory at least meant not discussing missions with even other troopers who were not going on the mission, there was generally an exception made in that regard however because SF soldiers were still human, and had as much need to blow off steam as the next guy, and they all had the highest security clearance anyway.

But Jones didn't know this guy, he certainly didn't belong to the close knit Special Forces community, because it was small enough that their paths would have crossed before now. He represented a security threat to an ongoing Operation, and by rights Jones should have placed him under guard and called for the duty officer.

However he just stood in the centre of his room and evaluated the man before him. The officer was medium height, medium build, and looked as if he had once kept in shape, but like too many officers of a certain rank, now spent far too much time behind a desk.

The deciding factor was he had the credentials to get onto the camp in first place, Jones made the decision to hear him out.

"You have my attention."

"Those I represent are concerned that we don't have enough intelligence on the conflict you are being sent into, and that without proper planning any actions undertaken by your taskforce will only worsen what is already a volatile and dangerous situation."

Jones cocked his head to one side and raised an eyebrow

"You sound as if you already know more about what I'm doing than I do, and I'm the one going on the mission."

The officer smiled.

"We pride ourselves on being remarkable well informed on a wide range of subjects, the way this happens is by cultivating contacts, such as yourself in this case, to provide us with information."

"So you want me to spy for you? I don't think so pal, I don't even know who the hell you are."

Jones turned back to his packing, effectively shutting the officer out of his thoughts.

"What if I told you that my unit strongly believes that Captain Thomas Bell represents a clear and present danger to the security of this realm."

Jones spun around, his lips curled in a snarl.

"Nothing you can say about Bell would surprise me, I've never trusted him from the moment he joined the Regiment. I once saw him take four rounds to the chest, a wound that should have killed him. He never seems like he belongs here, like he was too good for the likes of us, and now they go and promote him to Captain! What's the bloody Army playing at?"

The officer inclined his head slightly in agreement before continuing.

"Quite. We need all the intelligence we can get about what is about to happen, the group that we believe Bell is actually working for are virtually unknown to us, and we need to know what their capabilities are and what threat they pose to our continued national security. If it helps set your mind at rest the supervisor of my group reports directly to the crown. Will you help us?"

Jones thought hard for several long minutes, before answering.

"Before I agree I want you to tell me what the unit you work for is called."

The officer paused for a moment, considering the request.

"Very well, I can tell you that much at least, the unit is codenamed 'PANDORA', we are made up of both military and civilian intelligence experts, and although we are primarily about intelligence gathering, we do have the capability to take direct action against threats to security."

Jones scanned his memory for any mention of a group called PANDORA, but he came up blank, he had never heard that codename before.

"So I am to gather intelligence on this specific group and on Bell?"

"I don't want to give too much away, even these walls might have ears, but you will understand the threat better when you arrive at your destination. I want to know everything you see and everything you hear, even the smallest detail might be vital."

Jones crossed to the officer and leaned casually up the doorway.

"How am I supposed to contact you when I have something to report?"

"Here."

The officer passed over a small bag that had been sat on the floor.

"Inside is the latest secure mobile phone, we stole it from the Americans, my number is the only one in the memory. Also inside is a small Dictaphone and spare tapes. Now where you are going there is a risk of EMP damaging equipment, both of these items have been enchant...hardened against this effect at enormous cost. We will arrange a way to drop off the tapes once you are settled."

Jones took the bag and began breaking down the contents so that they would fit into his already straining bags.

"I'll be in touch as soon as it safe to do so Major."

"Good, you are doing the right thing, now I shall take my leave, until we meet again."

Oscar Jones turned just in time to see a flash of light, he moved quickly to the doorway and looked left and right along the long corridor. His room was essentially the centre point of the corridor, the officer hadn't even had the time to sprint to one end or the other, but there was no sign of him, not even a swinging door to mark his passage.

"What the hell is going on?"

OoOoO

_**ST. MUNGOS HOSPITAL, SECURE WING**_

There was no defiance in those adorable blue eyes now, defiance was a luxury the woman could no longer afford, and from this moment on she knew it was a battle for survival. It was not a battle to be fought with even sides, but that didn't matter, most battles were uneven affairs, what mattered was the end result, the only result acceptable was victory, and in this case victory was life.

In the battle ahead, her chosen weapon was time, time was all she had left to fight with, her time against his magic, his drugs and his evil will. Uneven didn't even begin to cover it!

But she had something else, something that he had thought he had stripped from her hours before, she had hope.

There were certain things that she knew that gave her hope, it was a mental list she repeated again and again until it became almost a prayer.

Bill loved her as much as she loved him.

Bill had powerful friends and a large family

They would come for her.

These things she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, and they gave her hope, and in the right hands hope too can become a weapon, perhaps the most powerful weapon of all.

So she would let him have his minor victories, let him think she was defeated and broken, and then she would resist again, forcing him to backtrack and re-evaluate his plans, all the while giving mental ground in exchange for time.

Time for her to be found

Time for her husband-to-be to break in here with a vengeful band of brothers (and one sister) at his shoulder and snatch her away from her waking nightmare.

Because time was all she had left.

OoOoO

_**LONDON, OPPOSITE PURGE AND DOWSE LTD (TOP TEAM)**_

The hastily laid wards over the hospital suffered a silent but total cascading failure thirty two minutes after Bill Weasley had drawn the first rune in the air, and well within his maximum estimate of forty minutes that he had told Harry. Well he admitted smugly to himself, he WAS very good.

The cascading failure resulted in a pretty lightshow that for a moment caused the two Death Eaters walking patrol on the hospitals roof to look upwards in wonder. It was however the last thing they ever did, as very shortly after the wards falling each wizard suffered a fatal traumatic impact shock to the cranium which penetrated deep into the soft tissue of the brain. Both men were dead before they hit the floor.

The instant that the Death Eaters were down for the count, the majority of the group from the roof were in the air on broomsticks and speeding towards the hospital roof, each of them very well aware that the time spent in the air between the two buildings was when they were at their most vulnerable.

Remaining on the original roof were the two sniper pairs, one shooter and one spotter to a pair, they were there to cover the main groups move, just in case a curious Death Eater should appear during the crossing. Two rifles with powerful telescopic sights scanned every inch of the target rooftop, their launch point roof had been carefully chosen for the height advantage over that of the hospital roof.

Snipers are only really happy when they can lay claim to the high ground, they would always claim it was because the ballistics of the bullets they fired were aided by the elevation above the target, but some thought it was more because they liked knowing they were top of the pile, able to reach out and touch anyone they wanted, lord and masters of all they surveyed.

The main group touched down on the hospital roof and dropped the broomsticks where they landed, they would only need them again after the action, one way or another, and until then the two snipers were acting as a rear guard to deter any Death Eater thinking about running off with a score of apparently abandoned broomsticks.

The moment the riders touched down on the hospital roof one of the spotters rose to his feet, nudged his sniper with his foot and reached into a pocket in his jacket and disappeared in a flash of light.

In less time than it took to count to twenty the spotter was back, although this time he was less than steady on his feet, he sat down heavily and held his head in his hands, blinking rapidly in an attempt to regain his equilibrium, it was understandably because he had just used a portkey to travel a round trip distance of nearly three hundred miles in under twenty seconds.

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW**_

Harry sighed heavily and rose to his feet, up until that moment he had been laid upon the grass with Ginny laid beside him, both just looking up at the sky and playing the silly game of trying to make shapes of the clouds floating far overhead. It was something that he regretted deeply, not having the time recently to spend just being silly with Ginny.

All the plans had already been set in motion, everything that had been happening that day had been outside of his control, and although he still worried about his friends that were already in harm's way and those he was about to send into harm's way, he didn't feel all that guilty spending a bit of time with his girlfriend.

Especially since there was no possible way she would accept not accompanying him on his latest fool's errand, almost as if she was afraid that he get himself hurt again if she let him out of her sight. He consoled himself with the thought that as far as she was concerned he'd be at her side the whole time.

Of course that was not actually the plan, but what people didn't know couldn't make them worry, argue, stamp and scream or place him in a full body bind to stop him carrying out his plan.

The appearance of the member of what Harry had taken to calling 'the top team' had indicated it was time to go. Rather than trying to complicate matters by trying to co-ordinate the two attacks, the planning committee of six had come up with this way to pass the message...the wards were down... assault in progress...come join the party.

They had picked the spotter because his absence would not leave those on the roof shorthanded, and he was one of the most experienced with portkey travel anyway, even so over three hundred miles in twenty seconds had to be some kind of record, he had only stopped in one place long enough to give Harry a thumbs up before he had vanished on the second part of his journey.

"Ok, time to go."

Reaching down he grabbed hold of Ginny's arms and swung her up to her feet with little effort, all round him the members of his 'ground team' were climbing to their feet and readying themselves. Students, teachers, Aurors and one heavily armed Goblin, all about to throw themselves into combat because he had asked them to.

Wendel had also insisted that where Harry went, then so did he, again Harry had consoled himself that as far as his loyal little bodyguard knew that was going to be true.

Shacklebolt was in charge of the actual dynamics of the move, one gigantic piece of rope turned into a portkey lay coiled like a snake on the grass and everyone moved so that they were stood on one side or the other of the rope.

Harry looked around and smiled as Dean Thomas settled into position on one side of him, despite his disability he was the only one carrying any sort of pack, everyone else just wore robes over the top of stolen Auror body armour. Ginny stood on his other side, her eyes burned with the same determination as his, her hand reached out for his and for a moment he drew strength from the contact.

"Alright, let's do this crazy thing, everyone bend down and take hold of the rope in both hands."

Shacklebolt's voice boomed out, having no problem with projection, despite his laid back nature Harry though he would have made a very good drill sergeant.

"Ok, I will give a five count, we leave on zero, everybody set?"

There were no shouts, just a lot of determined nods.

"Five...four...three...two and a half...."

There was a round of laughter, proving there had not yet been a sense of humour failure.

"Just kidding...two...one...!"

In a flash the meadow was empty, or nearly empty. Draco Malfoy looked around and shrugged, that had worked better than he had expected, at the crucial moment he had let go of the rope, there had been no time for those on either side of him to even notice his movement, let alone react to it.

He prayed that Katie Bell would forgive him for not telling her what he was doing, but this time he really did need his head clear of any distractions.

"Accio bag!"

The large kit bag flew to his outstretched hands from where he had stashed it earlier. Inside were two firebolt broom sticks, a few of the twin's new toys, along with Harry's invisibility cloak and another that Thomas Bell had liberated from an Auror several weeks before. Also in the bag were two complete sets of Death Eater garb, including the masks.

Draco had another destination from the others, but no less dangerous than where the others had gone. He didn't need a portkey to get where he was going, he remembered it only too well, with a sigh of long suffering, Draco disapparated.

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS ROOF (TOP TEAM)**_

The team moved up to the single door that gave access to the interior of the hospital, they halted short and waited for their resident wards expert to check the entrance way.

There were all sorts of wards available to warn someone of an unauthorised person opening a door, and that was not counting some of the ingenious ways muggles had come up with, and all this was for nothing if they alerted the Death Eaters to their presence this early in the assault.

Bill Weasley stepped up to the door and began the same series of incantations he had used to gain entry to Remus's room back at the burrow. It didn't take long to find what he had expected to find, a complicated ward scheme that would take longer to circumvent than the team had available to it.

Turning to the team leader, Bill shook his head and gave the thumbs down signal. Henri Delacour nodded, it was a setback, but not exactly unexpected, and they had come prepared for just this eventuality.

"Top team to bottom team, barricade, I say again, barricade."

Delacour spoke into a boom mike attached to a headset that he wore. The headset was connected to a small radio he wore clipped to his belt in the small of his back, he didn't have to change the frequency, because after all, he was only talking to one other radio.

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS ENTANCE WAY (BOTTOM TEAM)**_

"Barricade Harry, top team reports barricade."

Harry looked over at Dean Thomas who was wearing the larger radio and his own headset and nodded in acknowledgement. He'd made sure that he, Dean and Henri Delacour all understood the implications of the code messages that could be passed about.

That particular code message indicated that the top team had been blocked by wards on the entrance doorway, but Harry knew that the top team wouldn't be held up for very long, they carried with them the means to affect entry, but those means required a less...subtle approach.

This is where the bottom team came in, they were the distraction to draw the bulk of the Death Eater away from the upper floors of the hospital, and keep them away, with a little help from the twins' latest tricks.

"Alright, we have three minutes to set every ward and alarm off in this hospital and make as much noise as possible, so ladies and gents indulge yourselves...LETS WRECK THE PLACE!"

Harry turned and leapt into the storefront window, ignoring the dummy that had already tried telling him when he arrived that the hospital was shut to all except emergency patients. Behind him a wave of angry witches and wizards swept the dummy aside and followed their leader into the bowels of the hospital.

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS RECEPTION**_

Fiona Bagshaw had only a few months to go before she could retire on a full pension after many years faithful service to the Wizarding community. She had sat at the reception desk of St Mungos for over seventy years, and only once in all that time could she remember darker times than those she currently lived through.

During the Grindlewald years, or the 'second world war' as the muggles called it, the same oppressive atmosphere had hung in the air, and just as was happening now, people had started disappearing in the night without a trace.

In fact the only difference between now and then was the lack of German bombs falling out of the night's sky.

_**BOOM!**_

The loud explosion and the following shockwave blew the surprised old lady off of her seat and onto the floor, she immediately picked herself up and pulled her wand from her handbag under the desk and stood up, to find the reception area was in complete pandemonium.

The first thing she noticed was the Death Eater whose post was just inside the hospital door now had a wooden post belonging to the hospital door inside of him, he was still alive but appeared to be unconscious, but from the amount of blood he was losing he would not remain alive for long.

The other people in reception, mainly relatives of patients and a few off duty staff were now cowering under seats, taking cover from who knew what.

In through the doors rushed a strange assortment of people brandishing wands, most of them seemed to be teenagers, with the odd adult here and there.

"Secure the stairwells, use furniture as barricades, move fast, stay low."

One dark haired youth with a slight build who was aged no more than seventeen seemed to be shouting most of the commands, and the strange thing was that everybody was obeying them without question. The calm and serenity of the reception had been utterly smashed, and that just wouldn't do. She moved out from behind the reception desk and advanced upon the apparent leader.

"Now look here young man!"

The youth swung around and studied her intently with his emerald green eyes seeming to burn into her, she took a step back in shock at the determination in that young face, and almost of their own accord her eyes drifted up to the youth's forehead and the obvious scar on display there.

"You..You are..."

"Yep, Harry Potter, that's me, 'the-boy-who-lived', saviour of the Wizarding world, the chosen one, oh and I'm really good at crosswords."

There was a whistling sound, and something metallic blurred through the air between them, Harry spun, a wand suddenly in his hand, but it wasn't required, the wounded Death Eater had somehow managed to pull himself to his feet and was brandishing his wand in Harry's general direction, which was more than enough for his Goblin bodyguard to take action. The Death Eater had been pinned to the wall by the throat by a short sword that still vibrated from the impact.

Fiona Bagshaw put her hands to her mouth in shock as she watched the life drain out of the Death Eater before her eyes, the body went limp but remained pinned to the wall by the blade.

"Wendel...great shot, someday you will have to teach me how to do that."

The Goblin warrior grinned with a mouthful of teeth and held out his empty hand, the sword stuck into the wall vibrated slightly in response, but didn't fly free, the Goblin snarled and held out his hand again but the sword remained stuck fast.

"Terry be a pal and fetch Wendel his sword will you?"

The Goblin muttered something that sounded like 'thanks' before shuffling off towards the wall. Another taller youth took hold of the hilt of the sword with both hands and placed a foot on the wall and pulled the blade clear, ignoring the body of the Death Eater as it fell to floor.

"Anyway...as you were saying?"

Harry Potter had turned his attention back to her, but before he could speak again the double door leading deeper into the hospital exploded open and a tide of Death Eaters swept into the reception, spells and curses already flying wildly through the air.

"Oh Shit."

Without warning Potter reached over and shoved her so hard that she fell over onto her backside, before she could cry out in protest the green flash of the killing curse passed through the space that she had just occupied. Potter spun on the balls of his feet and threw a curse back in reply almost too fast to follow, and then the black robes of the Death Eaters blocked her view of the battle.

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS INTERIOR**_

Neville opened the door of the staff locker room and carefully peered out into the corridor, he had just managed to drag himself and Luna out of sight as several Death Eaters had come running towards them.

They had made it to the fourth floor and were just outside the Janus Thickey ward where Neville's parents had been looked after for the last seventeen years.

"Ok, here we go, stay close."

Neville led, his wand held before him, Luna followed, her attention on what was happening behind them.

As Neville reached the doors to the ward they sprang open and he found himself face to face with his nemesis, one time Hogwarts professor Severus Snape.

For an instant the scene was frozen in immobility, then a familiar sneer appeared on that hateful face, the former teacher lifted his wand and there was a flash of green light.

Neville reacted on instinct, every training session of the DA, every encounter he had had since, everything had led to this moment. He twisted smoothly to one side, knowing without looking that Luna had dropped flat to the floor to avoid the curse, his own wand had stabbed forward until the tip was touching Snape and the incantation almost blazed out of him.

"Stupefy!"

Neville had a moment of satisfaction of seeing the look of surprise on the Death Eater's face before the man was propelled backwards through the double doors with such force that he skidded halfway down the ward before coming to a halt.

Bending down he helped Luna to her feet, further down the corridor a hole had been blasted in the wall by the killing curse, Neville felt slightly nauseas from the effect of the vile curse, knowing there was only one person in the entire world that he hated enough to use an unforgiveable on. Bellatrix Lestrange would know the day that she crossed wands again with Neville Longbottom.

"Are you alright?"

He asked softly, Luna nodded and looked at Snape laid unconscious on the floor and then turned back to him, she placed a hand on either side of his face and looked into his eyes.

"You made the right choice, you aren't Harry and you aren't ready to become a killer today, you may never be ready."

"The day may come whether I'm ready or not, such things seldom come at a time of our choosing, there is only one whose death I actively seek, only one...."

Luna looked sadly after him as he moved inside the ward, pausing only to kick Snape solidly in the head.

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS ROOF (TOP TEAM)**_

Henri Delacour folded the boom mike of his headset out of the way of his mouth and turned away from the door, he pointed to two members of the team.

The two men turned to face each other and slightly unprofessionally, high fived each other, and then pulled their balaclavas off revealing the excited faces and red hair of the Weasley twins.

"I do believe we're up brother."

"Yes indeed, it's time to burn the place up."

"Or down, whichever takes our fancy."

"It really is hard being us."

Working quickly as they whispered to each other, the twins had opened two of the bags they carried. Inside was a series of plastic tubes each a metre long, formed into curved half circles, in the first bag were tubes of a green colour, in the second bag the tubes were red.

The twins extracted a tube of each colour and laid them upon the ground, being carefully not to allow the tubes of opposing colours to touch. They opened up a parchment containing the floor plans of the hospitals top floor and proceeded to pace about the roof muttering to themselves. The rest of the team looked on in frustrated silence as the twins started making what appeared to be random marks in chalk on the roof.

"Hurry up!"

Bill hissed at them.

"Unless you want to find Fleur missing a leg..."

"...or a head..."

"...and since she only has one head."

"I wouldn't hurry us as we do this."

The twins answered.

They continued to make marks and pace about the roof for another minute and rechecked the positions on the parchment then apparently satisfied they returned to their bags. The twins each picked up one of the different colour tubes and began placing one of each colour where the chalk marks were situated.

They placed three sets of tubes in all, still being extremely careful not to let the opposing colours touch at all, and when everything was ready they gave a thumbs up to Henri Delacour. The French Auror pointed at two men, who along with himself were the section leaders, and indicated positions near to each of the tubes, without a word the teams split into three parts, each of the sections forming up by a set of tubes.

Bill Weasley knelt down beside Delacour and watched his brothers' work, they moved to the first set of tubes and with more care than most would think them capable, pushed the ends of the two coloured pieces together forming a complete circle on the roof. Moving quickly they crossed to the second and third sets and did the same thing until there were three complete circles laid upon the roof.

For a long moment nothing appeared to happen, and Bill was about to ask the twins for an explanation, but then the circles began to emit a faint humming sound and started to steam slightly.

"Red light..."

"Green light..."

The twins spoke from their positions, one with each of the other two teams, they were grinning at each other across the roof, for despite a few test runs, this was the first outing of several of the newly developed 'tricks' Harry had commissioned them to create. They had been concerned that their newly developed toys would fail at the moment of most need.

The tubes seemed to change colour, and began to glow so brightly that it became painful to look directly at them, the hum continued but changed pitch.

"Three...two...one."

The twins counted down with evident anticipation, then suddenly without warning the tubes disappeared from view, as did the area of the roof encompassed under the circles.

"Fire in the hole!"

"The fire is the hole!"

The three teams moved instantly, the tubes had cut three neat holes in the roof, dropping the untouched roof from within the circles down onto the floor below.

The first man of each team dropped down into the hole, careful to avoid the still steaming edges, quickly followed by the second and third member. Then the Weasley on each team tossed a bag down into the hole, and turned to regard each other briefly.

"You remember what we said..."

"Yeah, follow the instructions carefully or..."

Bill laughed and shook his head at his two brothers.

"I'll be fine, you two jokers stay out of trouble, if either of you is the first one to Fleur...keep her safe."

Then each Weasley followed his nominated team into its hole. The last man down the holes pressed a button on the tactical radio he carried and spoke several words, then he waved to the barely visible sniper teams on the far rooftop before jumping into his hole.

The Death Eaters were about to experience at firsthand what a French Ministry Strike team was capable of, and this time their involvement wasn't just shooting at them from a distance, this time it was personal


	24. 24 All The Kings horses

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR: All The Kings Horses And All The Kings Men

_**MINISTRY OF MAGIC, AUROR HEADQUARTERS**_

"It's that bratty little upstart Potter, he's at St Mungos, in the reception area right now, and we've finally got a trace from his wand!"

The Death Eater that had been monitoring the Goblin equipment that detected magic use ran into the Auror shift commander's office at full tilt and reported breathlessly to the senior Death Eater on duty who was sat behind the desk.

"Right, now we've got him! I want every team available to converge on the hospital; maybe we can trap the brat inside along with anyone else stupid enough to have followed him. Redirect teams investigating the other Potter sightings, the hospital is now the priority."

The first Death Eater nodded and turned to leave, before he could get through the doorway there was a large explosion and the entire building seemed to sway. Both men grabbed hold of the wood in the limited safety of the doorframe.

"Now what!"

Two floors below the Auror Headquarters, and the strike force of Aurors had become bogged down fighting on the floor containing the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. The floor layout was significantly different from the open plan arrangement of the Aurors level, rows of small offices and corridors that seemed to follow no pattern or logical order, over the years the space had been expanded upon and changed many times, and it no longer matched the floor plans of the original design.

Dawlish slammed the office door open with all his strength into the face of the oncoming Death Eater, giving the black robed man no chance to even raise his wand, then grabbing the dazed and battered man by the front of his robes, Dawlish spun the off balance wizard into the path of an oncoming killing curse.

While as an Auror he wouldn't quite resort to using unforgiveable curses himself, as an agent of the crown he felt no hesitation at all about allowing the Death Eaters to kill themselves off.

Dropping the dead man to the floor at his feet, Dawlish sent a steady series of Reducto and Incendio curses blasting down the corridor in an attempt to keep the dead Death Eater's companions pinned down. In the corridor lay a wounded Auror who was bleeding heavily from a serious leg injury, the cutting curse had virtually amputated the man's leg above the knee, leaving the lower leg attached only by a few flaps of flesh and bloody tendons.

"Get him out of there right now or he's dead!"

Dawlish shouted over his shoulder as his barrage of curses smashed down the narrow corridor, there was no attempt on his part to aim at a particular target, but no sane Death Eater would stick his head out into that maelstrom of energy. The walls and ceiling started to disintegrate under the onslaught covering the whole area in a cloud of fine white dust. Several of the offices had already caught on fire, and the smoke was adding to the confusion.

"Go...Now!

Two Aurors sprinted out to their wounded partner, they didn't stop to apply first aid in such an exposed position, and instead they each grabbed the Wounded Auror under the armpit and dragged the unconscious man back past Dawlish and safely around the corner.

"In cover, pull back"

Dawlish threw one final curse into the cloud, hearing a cry of pain from some unsuspecting Death Eater, before retreating back out of the line of fire. Upon reaching the corner he found a quiet group gathered around the body of the fallen Auror.

"He's gone."

It was a statement, not a question; Dawlish didn't have to be a medical expert to see that the man was beyond saving. Blood wasn't even pumping from the wound anymore, a clear indication that his heart had stopped. The fallen Auror was the youngest of the group, the probationer; he looked as if he should have still been at Hogwarts. Dawlish cursed silently and then looked around him at the solemn faces.

"Alright snap out of it! We knew this could happen, we are professionals, but casualties are a fact of what we do, this is not the time to fall apart. We still have to get out of here yet."

"Have we done enough?"

Dawlish looked around at the flare of sudden hope that sprang onto the faces of the Aurors, a lot had been asked of them, and they had fought their way far deeper into the Ministry than even he had imagined they would. But even such courage can fade in the face of heartless and evil opposition that was willing to do anything to triumph. They had given everything they had to give, there wasn't anything more to be gained by their deaths, either Harry had been given enough time or he hadn't it was out of their hands now.

"Yes, it's time to get the hell out of here."

Using the dead Aurors cloak as a makeshift stretcher the party lifted their fallen colleague and turned and made their way back through the smoke and debris of their battle. Behind them the fires began to reach out and engulf the entire floor, quickly consuming all the ministry records of dark creatures, including those of Werewolves and Vampires.

OoOoO

_**GRINGOTTS VAULTS**_

Limbtearer looked up from his parchment as the tone sounded again in empty air, someone was at the entrance to the 'Blood Vault' and was trying gain entry, someone that didn't have the required clearance that would automatically open the vault doors..

Rising to his feet, the elder Goblin grasped his staff and made his way to the doorway of his office. He wasn't concerned; the stories that young Goblins told each other occasionally produced those brave enough to explore the darkness. It wouldn't be the first time that some unlucky teen was sent home from the 'blood vault' after a lesson in not poking a nose where it wasn't wanted.

Limbtearer waved a clawed hand at the door and it swung silently open, swinging on ancient well machined hinges hidden inside the cavern wall. The cone of light thrown out by the opening doors revealed the last creature Limbtearer had thought to find outside the 'blood vault'.

Rocksplitter, the new head of the tribal council stood in front of the doors of the vault, he had never entered before, and even his position as head of the council didn't automatically give him access to the vault.

"Yes my lord can I be of assistance."

Limbtearer's tone was cold yet his words were unfailingly polite, this Goblin thought himself a leader, yet he was not even half the individual of the Goblin he had overthrown. However he held the power at present and that made all the difference.

"Yes guardian, I require access to the blood vault for myself and certain others, I have been granted authority by a majority council vote to view the records."

Limbtearer opened his mouth to protest, but Rocksplitter had already stepped inside, shoving the older Goblin aside, he beckoned over his shoulder and three cloaked figures followed him out of the shadows. Figures too tall to be Goblins, figures in black robes and wearing white masks.

Death Eaters. Limbtearer staggered backwards, not so much from the shove but at the violation of the sacred ground that the vault represented, no human had ever stepped over the vault's threshold, it was such a secret that only the most highly placed members of the tribal council and other members of the Goblin Nation government even knew of its existence.

The Death Eaters moved inside and ignoring the two Goblins, pulled parchments from inside their robes and moved deeper into the vault. All the older, so called 'pure blood' families were located close to the door, newer blood-lines and those of the muggle born were located towards the very back of the vault.

"You cannot do this Rocksplitter, you cannot allow these humans access to this vault!"

If the elder Goblins words had any effect on the tribal leader they didn't show, he turned his back on angry Goblin and it was if he was turning his back on the entire history and culture of the Goblin nation. For thousands of years they had stood independent, a race apart, and now that seemed to be ending for all time.

They had never bowed, not to anyone, not even when they had stood on the verge of extinction during the Giant wars; instead they had taken their entire nation underground to survive. The wizards of course believed that the Goblins had bowed before them during what they called 'the Goblin Rebellions'. The Goblins had taken up arms to protect their right to be a free and self governing people, after getting the terms they wished for there was no further point in fighting.

"You have brought shame on your race and your clan, our race shall mark you as traitor to your kind, and I shall see to it that the council places you in chains for exactly the crimes you have falsely accused Ragnok of."

The younger Goblin sneered in disdain and ignored the vault guardian, Limbtearer snarled in anger and grabbed the younger Goblins shoulder and spun him around to face him.

Despite their current role of bankers, the Goblins had a long cultural history of violence, and all Goblins were trained to defend themselves to a greater or lesser extent. The young Goblin reacted instinctively to the perceived attack and lashed out at Limbtearer, striking the older Goblin in the chest. The blow smashed all the breath from the elderly Goblins body and knocked him backwards. Limbtearer tottered unsteadily for a moment unable to believe that he had been attacked without warning, and then he slowly looked down.

Protruding from Limbtearer's chest was an ornamental Goblin dagger, it had been driven into his chest all the way to the hilt, and already he could feel the feeling in his legs failing him. Blood flowed from around the dagger, already starting to pool on the floor. Reaching up, he grasped the daggers jewelled hilt, and with a scream of defiance pulled it loose. The effort of pulling the dagger free forced him down to his knees, and he could only look up in hatred at the tribal leader.

"You shall never go before the council and denounce me you old fool, I am the council! The tribes will follow me or they will be ground under my boot heel! With Voldemort's backing I will be the greatest leader the Goblin Nation will ever have!"

Rocksplitter savagely kicked the dying Goblin in the chest, knocking him to the floor, the dagger skittered away from fingers that no longer had the strength to hold the weapon. Limbtearer lay on the floor and stared up at the cavernous ceiling stretching away above him and tried vainly hold on to the life as it drained out of him.

He had lived a full life, mated with several females, sired hardy children, served with distinction many fine leaders of the Goblin Nation; he would die finally by the blade, just as he had dreamed he would when he first became a soldier all those centuries before. His only wish unfulfilled was to die along with his killer, to save someone else the effort of doing it, but sometimes wishes; no matter hard they were wished for, remained unfulfilled.

With a last pain filled gasp Limbtearer died, at the hand of a member of his own race, while around him the Death Eaters continued to make notes on bits of parchment, listing the names of every single muggle born witch and wizard in the United Kingdom.

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS HOSPITAL, RECEPTION**_

Harry took one look at the dozen or more Death Eaters rushing towards him through the double doors and decided that for once in his life discretion was the better part of valour. He bunched his legs under him and dived head first over the reception desk in order to put something sturdy between him and the oncoming Death Eaters.

It wasn't exactly a graceful or stylish movement and Harry slammed head first into the ground behind the desk, so hard in fact that for a moment all he could see were stars. He may even have passed out for a second, he wasn't sure because for several long moments everything got very confusing.

There was the sound of many curses slamming back and forth, shouts and screams of anger and the whistling sound of a Goblin weapon slicing through the air. Harry shook his head to clear it and pushed himself off the floor, grabbing hold of the desk top, Harry levered himself to his feet just in time to see the last of the Death Eaters retreat back through the double doors from whence they had come.

For a moment there was no sound other than the heavy breathing of those recently involved in the fighting and the swinging of the double doors. Harry groaned loudly, holding his head and lent on the desk with his elbows, nearly everyone in the room turned to stare at him.

"Ok...so what did I miss?"

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS HOSPITAL, TOP FLOOR**_

The first Death Eater died before he was even aware that the long empty corridor of a moment before was no longer quite as empty as he had originally thought. The second man turned his head at the sound of the first man's breath being driven explosively from his body, but had just enough time to marvel as the man collapsed to the floor at his feet before he died too.

The two French Aurors slid silently back inside the doctor's office and once the door was closed behind them by one of their colleagues they quickly and expertly reloaded the hunting crossbows each carried and once ready they nodded to the Auror by the door. Each team's entry point had been chosen carefully from the blueprints, empty offices, toilets or storerooms, places that were guaranteed not to result in an injury to a patient and was also unlikely to have a Death Eater on guard.

Thanks to the Weasley twins, the teams had been able to make entry in such a way that the Death Eaters could not possibly have predicted, burning through the roof was something that the Wizarding world had no experience of, and had never thought of countering.

The door slowly opened, and the two Aurors moved out into the corridor once more, the crossbows to their shoulders, the weapons tracking from side to side.

The weapons were not chosen because of any lack of magical ability on the part of the Aurors, they were just as highly trained as their British counterparts, but they knew the Death Eaters had control of the device that monitored all spells cast in the country, and as yet no-one was aware of their presence, they desperately wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Harry and his group were taking a terrible risk beneath them, purposefully drawing Death Eaters both from within the building and from without, onto themselves and away from the rescue team, and so long as the top teams remained silent there was every chance that the rescue teams would complete their mission without being discovered at all.

The two Aurors signalled the all clear and the rest of the team entered the corridor, Fred Weasley was safely sandwiched in the centre of the group. He looked down as he passed the bodies of the two Death Eaters; he felt a shiver of fear run up his spine, and not for the first time was thankful that these men were on his side.

Bill Weasley wasn't quite in the same novice category as his twin brothers. To be a successful curse breaker you needed to possess a certain amount of innate stealth and caution, ancient tombs were incredibly dangerous places, and as a career path it tended to weed out those less capable at quite an early stage.

Despite the fact he had never been on the top floor, and until recently he hadn't even known there was a top floor, he at least had the slight advantage that he had been inside the hospital before, which none of the French Aurors had. The basic layout of the main corridors was the similar whatever floor you were on.

The Aurors, once they had satisfied themselves that he wasn't about to get them all killed by blundering headlong without warning into a Death Eater, had allowed him to take point along with one of their fellows. In some respects his skill set was at a level above theirs in the area of sneaking undetected around buildings.

Plus he had all the reason in the world to be the most motivated person there, Fleur depended on him, and he had let her down badly enough already.

George Weasley looked up when one of the Aurors appeared silently at his shoulder, up to that point the Frenchmen in his team had done their very best to completely ignore him.

"We need you, locked door" The man hissed quietly.

George nodded, feeling glad to finally having a purpose for being there, he and his brother had, by accident, come up with a series of compounds that while harmless by themselves, could when mixed together generate massive about of heat and burn through nearly anything.

Although they couldn't possibly know it yet, the twins had concocted a remarkably stable, if primitive form of thermite, although they had of course put their own unique spin on it, and the most useful thing about this in the present circumstances was the process didn't require a wand. Wherever dark hole he was currently skulking in, George was sure that Severus Snape would have been shocked to silence at the level of skill in potion making the twins had actually managed to obtain, despite his best efforts to leave them with a low level of competence.

George followed the Auror around a corner and found one of the other team members trying to pick the lock of a heavily reinforced door using a set of small metal lock picks. George had a similar set himself, and both he and his twin were very adept at the skill of lock picking, because sometimes doing things the muggle way confused the hell out of wizards, however in this case the door was simply too sturdy for the lock picks to be effective.

Removing the pack from his shoulder, and doing his best to not notice the extremely dead Death Eater laying against the wall by his feet, George reached inside and retrieved much smaller versions of the two tubes they had already used to burn through the roof.

"I've got this."

The two Frenchmen looked at each other and shrugged, and moving reluctantly aside they allowed George to get to the door. Kneeling down he studied the lock for a moment before he carefully placed the two flexible tubes around the large lock of the door, overlapping the curve onto the doorframe.

All the tubes had been enchanted with permanent sticking charms when they were created, which at the time had seemed overly time consuming, now George was glad he had talked his brother into the enchantment. Burning through the roof had been easy, gravity had done most of the work, but using the sticking charm to attach the mixture to the door was its first true test of its capability.

When he was ready, George carefully connected the two tubes together at each end and moved out of reach, just as on the roof, the combined tubes began to hum, and then smoke. By the time they were glowing they had already started burning their way through the door.

After a few seconds the tubes had completely vanished from sight, and with an exaggerated flourish George struck the untouched area around the door lock with the palm of his hand. The lock and part of the doorframe fell into the room and the door, released, swung freely open.

The two Aurors shouldered him roughly aside and hurriedly entered wands drawn. After George had picked himself up off the floor and recovered his pack he followed inside.

Inside was a Spartan room seriously out of place in a medical facility, everything in the room was coloured a uniform dull grey, in the centre of the room was a sturdy grey table with two grey chairs arranged opposite each other, one of the chairs was plain and quite ordinary, while the other definitely was not. It sported leather bindings for the hands and feet, and was covered in the stains from bodily fluids that extended to the floor around the chair legs, that didn't take a lot of imagining to place. From their exact spacing's, George guessed all the furniture was all bolted securely to the floor.

There are moments in a person's life, and we all remember when such moments occur, when you realise you are in the presence of an evil that you simply cannot comprehend. For the Author such a moment first came in the bloodstained basement of a police station in Kosovo. For George Weasley this was such a moment.

Dark Wizards were one thing, they wanted riches or power, or both. Death Eaters could be cruel and evil especially in regard to their treatment of muggles, but this...this was something a step beyond any of that.

It was almost like there was a tangible presence of evil in the room, something that no matter which way you faced or how fast you turned around was always creeping up behind you, running icy fingers down your spine. The only way to describe it was if all the evil deeds carried out in the room had somehow been absorbed by the very fabric of the room itself. Just as all the childhood magic used over the centuries had been absorbed into the very material of Hogwarts, bringing the building to mysterious life, so had the evil in this room had manifested itself as a physical presence.

One of the French Aurors cursed explicitly under his breath, while the second had placed his hand in front of his mouth and was looking quite ill and George spun around to find what had triggered such a reaction, along one wall was a grey frame bed that could fold up flat against the wall when not in use, but it was the figure laid upon the bed not the bed itself that had caused the Aurors outburst.

The figure was a human female, and on a cursory inspection that was all that George could make out, the figure was dressed in what must have once been a hospital gown, but was now nothing more than rags, stained with blood and other fluids. She was stick thin, and all of her bones seemed to protrude outwards and be pressing against her skin.

The mattress itself was also stained, George was horrified to see that the bed was also fitted with straps, and although these were not fitted at present it was obvious that they had been used in the recent past.

The woman was of indeterminate age and had long, stringy black hair that hid her facial features behind a curtain of filth, George thought there was something about the figure that was familiar, but what that might be remained elusive.

George slowly approached the bed, the woman sensing his approach shuffled over as far up against the wall as she could to get away from him, her entire body was shaking at his mere presence. Going down on one knee, George was aware he was speaking, but later on he couldn't recall a word of what he had said, in this case he thought that the tone of voice was more important than the content.

Slowly reaching forward, trying desperately not to scare the poor soul more than she already was, George brushed some of the hair aside and got his first look at the woman's face. The shock nearly made him fall over, no wonder this figure had seemed so familiar.

Cho Chang was barely recognisable, her face was dirty and swollen, and her skin seemed to stretch too tightly over her features. Her eyes, normally filled with energy and life were now just dead orbs going through the motions. Her skin was marked with bruises all over her face, there also appeared to be sores on several parts of her body.

George called her name several times but got no response from the Ravenclaw student, he looked up at one the Aurors stood at his shoulder.

"We need to get her out of here right now, she is going to need specialist medical care."

The Frenchman looked at his colleague and raised an eyebrow, the second Auror shrugged and turned, he moved out into the corridor to consult with the team leader on the possibilities of removing Cho from the hospital immediately.

All the time this was going on George had been keeping a steady stream of reassuring sounding conversation going, trying to get through to the desperately ill young woman.

A wave of anger swept through George Weasley as he thought of the men that had done this to Cho, his hands curled into fists as he imagined what he would do to those responsible if he ever had the chance.

Bill Weasley carefully applied the tubes as he had been instructed by the twins. He hadn't been required to open any doors until now, none of the cells he had come across had been locked, but from the condition of the interiors they had been occupied recently.

This cell however was locked, and his heart was pounding in the hope that behind it he would find Fleur, at the same time he was also dreading getting the door open, and the conditions he would discover on the other side.

"Ok, stand clear."

Bill pressed the ends of the two tubes together and moved back as they began to hum in an ever increasing pitch, within seconds they had began to smoke and by the time the tubes were glowing they had nearly disappeared from view, burning rapidly through the door.

The door was opened with a swift kick, dislodging the now useless door lock. Bill shouldered the door aside and entered the room, ignoring the consternation this caused among the French Aurors who had insisted that they enter first, the interior of the room was decorated much like the others the only real difference was the man sat on the edge of the fold down bed.

Bill felt immediate disappointment that the cell's occupant wasn't Fleur, and then was guilty for failing to think of this man's freedom.

"Ahh there you are Mr Weasley, now let me see, 14" long, willow with a Manticore heartstring core, outstanding for charms and runic work as I remember."

Bill grinned with sudden affection and offered his hand to the small elderly man sat cross-legged on the bed, despite the conditions and the signs of physical abuse Mr Ollivander cocked his head to one side and smiled disarmingly up at the tall red head before taking the offered hand and allowing himself to be hauled to his feet.

"It is very agreeable to see you again William, how are your siblings, and your parents, are they well?"

One of the French Aurors hissed in irritation and Bill waved a hand to indicate he had understood the message.

"I'm sorry Mr Ollivander but we don't have the time to spare at the moment for such trivial matters. We are here to get out anyone held captive, have you seen...any others being held here?"

"Seen...no. But I have heard the guards discussing two females." The man appeared sickened for a moment as he recalled the conversations. "They were discussing what they would like to do to the two females in question, who for some reason had been placed beyond their reach."

Bill grasped the older man's upper arm in silent gratitude, it was still possible that Fleur would be located alive and well, he couldn't contemplate any other result.

OoOoO

_**ST. MUNGOS, RECEPTION**_

Harry took a look around, the defenders had found good defensive positions and this would make anyone trying to pry them loose from reception pay costly for the effort. Upstairs, all three teams were making good progress, and to his knowledge had remained undetected, all in all things were looking like for once as if everything was going to plan.

Which he supposed meant it was time for him to be leaving, and for another part of the deception plan to take effect.

Catching the eye of Kingsley Shacklebolt, he raised his eyebrows to indicate that it was time to put the final part of the plan into motion.

"Kingsley, everything is calm enough here, can you go back to the burrow and make sure your wife and the medical staff are ready to take any serious cases."

Harry spoke a little too loudly, he wanted everyone to hear him send Kingsley back to the burrow. Ron looked from Harry to Ginny, who was across the room and had her back to Harry and nodded a silent good luck to Harry, Harry nodded back and then joined Shacklebolt at the doorway, pretending to give the Auror some final instructions.

As soon as they were out of sight Shacklebolt pulled a small flask from inside his robes and took a swallow, immediately pulling a nauseated face.

"God I hate this stuff, it's the only time I ever wish I was Tonks."

Harry smiled knowingly, he too had tasted that particular potion and felt the same way about it. Although that could be said about most of the potions Harry had taken, mostly because of injuries, over the years.

Within seconds Kingsley's face began to flow and change, his large frame seeming to fold in on itself, even the colour of his skin began to lighten.

"Well, how do I look?"

Harry grinned at the spectacle of watching himself spin on the spot wearing over sized robes and hearing Shacklebolt's booming voice come from his mouth.

"Perfect or you will do once you put these on."

Harry held out a pair of glasses that were indistinguishable from his own, Shacklebolt slipped them on and reached up and touched the Lightning bolt scar that now decorated his forehead.

"You will also need these."

While Shacklebolt had been examining his new features, Harry had quickly pulled off his outer layer of clothes leaving him in boxers and a vest. He tossed the clothes to the Auror and turned to go.

"Harry..."

Harry turned to find his own face looking back at him.

"Don't out stay your welcome, ok."

Harry grinned, raised a hand in a mock salute and disapparated silently, leaving just a small twirl of dirt in his wake. Shacklebolt despite his power and experience couldn't manage an entirely silent apparation and other than Dumbledore had never met anyone who could.

"Damn, I wish I could do that." Shacklebolt said to himself before grabbing Harry's clothes and swapping them for his own.

OoOoO

_**STIRLING LINES, HEREFORD**_

The three helicopters sat in a line, nose to tail, their rotor blades now spinning so fast they no longer appeared as individual blades but solid discs. The two EH 101 prototype helicopters sat in front of the larger Chinook, all three were crammed nearly full of passengers , supplies and equipment.

Thomas Bell turned away from the three helicopters and bent towards the only other man stood at the front of the hangar doors, and in order to make himself heard over the sound of the eight powerful engines screaming together in a cacophony of mechanical engineering he had to shout.

"So tell me sir, is there anything I have forgotten?"

Lieutenant Colonel John Simmons, the commanding officer of the SAS, smiled wolfishly at his most recently promoted junior Captain.

"You can only plan so much, after that you have to actually do...and from what I have seen you have no problem with the 'doing' part Captain. You have good people and your judgement is sound, either you will succeed or I'm sure you will fail with some remarkable style, which it will be I cannot say."

Thomas Bell grinned and took his commanding officer's outstretched hand, for a moment the two men just looked each other in the eye. Simmons then indicated the helicopters with his head.

"You should go, daylights a wasting, remember 'who dares wins'."

Bell saluted, then turned and jogged across the tarmac to the lead helicopter. Just behind the cockpit, a door pushed outwards and slid back down the fuselage revealing the grinning figure of Wilky who leaned outwards and offered his arm.

Thomas accepted the assistance and was hauled quickly inside, one of the crew closed the door behind him and sealed it shut flush with the fuselage, once inside the helicopter it was surprisingly quiet despite the three engines howling just feet overhead.

With a tap on the shoulder the crew member that had shut the door offered Thomas a headset that was connected by a long curly cable to a junction box on the ceiling.

"This is Bell, I'm onboard let's go."

Bell spoke in the boom mike that projected out in front of his face.

"Roger that, lifting now. Archangel Flight, angel one going wheels up, follow my lead."

"Angel Two copies."

"Angel three lifting now, just don't leave me behind."

Despite the howling engines the voice of the pilot, a Naval Commander from the Armed Forces flight test centre at Boscombe Down, sounded clear and distinct in the headset as he spoke to the pilots of the other two helicopters.

There was change in pitch from the three Rolls Royce engines as the pilot increased power with the throttle and pushed forward on the control called the collective which changed the pitch angle of the five bladed rotor spinning overhead and the 14,600kg helicopter overcame its battle with gravity and gracefully lifted from the tarmac.

The pilot paused in the hover briefly as he trimmed the helicopter controls to allow for the large cargo weight in the fuselage before adding more power and further increasing the pitch of the rotors. The helicopter began to slowly gain altitude, once clear of the ground the co-pilot raised the gear, making the underside of the helicopter 'clean'.

Using his feet on the rudder pedals the pilot slowly spun the helicopter 90 degrees until it was facing away from the hangar, then using the cyclic stick the pilot dropped the helicopters nose and added more power and the EH 101 began to accelerate as it continued to gain height. Behind it the second prototype had also lifted into air and turned to follow, while at the rear of the small flight, the Chinook, a lumbering beast by comparison to its two smaller cohorts also lifted off.

Thomas Bell watched the rapidly receding figure of Simmons until he was lost to sight behind the hangar as the flight of three helicopters continued to accelerate. In mere moments Stirling lines was also lost to sight and they were flying low over the town of Hereford itself.

For the first time in a very long time real doubts had started to creep into his mind. His ability to command a four man team was a proven reality, but he had always been carrying out someone else's orders. Now he was the one in sole command, the one with the final responsibility for the conduct of the mission and he would be the one sending troops into harm's way, it was a sobering thought that the first sign of his failure in his first command position would possibly be some of his troops coming home in body bags.

OoOoO

_**KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL, LONDON**_

The long corridor leading from the hospital proper towards the refrigerated morgue had a slight downward slope, whether or not it was designed that way to aid the duty morgue attendant pushing a loaded trolley on a hospital patient's last journey, no-one knew, but the present duty attendant was duly thankful for the slope as he manoeuvred the trolley.

Whistling tunelessly to the music provided by his CD walkman, the attendant pushed the trolley up to the sealed double doors of the mortuary entrance and reached over and hit the button on the wall that opened the power assisted doors that insulated the rest of the hospital from the morgue.

It was a lonely job and occasionally a depressing job, moving the bodies of the deceased from the hospital wards and the operating rooms down to the mortuary, where the bodies were stored until identification from next of kin or collection by an undertaker.

But despite its drawbacks some people are suited to that kind of work, where interaction with others were kept to an absolute minimum and you enjoyed having a room full of corpses for company.

Pushing the trolley into the room, the doors closed automatically behind him, the attendant retrieved the clipboard from his desk and checking the tag on the corpses toe, entered the details on the sheet and selected an empty refrigerated body locker to store the body in. The Mortuary was already three quarters full, some of the bodies from the recent devastating train crash were still awaiting identification and they had been so numerous that they had been spread across London's hospitals.

Looking up the attendant glanced up at the chosen locker and looked back down at the clipboard. Slowly, he raised his head again and took in what his eyes had failed to comprehend before.

Every single one of the body lockers doors stood open, and not a single body remained inside any of them. Standing in the middle of the room the attendant turned in a slow circle, his mouth hanging open. Nearly a hundred bodies had been in those lockers barely twenty minutes ago when he had gotten the call to collect the most recently deceased patient, and now not a single body remained in the morgue.

Nor in fact was King's College the only Hospital to suffer from this most unexplained of thefts.

Guy's Hospital, Royal Hospital Chelsea, Lewisham Hospital, St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Royal Brompton Hospital all suffered the mysterious disappearance of every single body in their respective morgues.

With the Metropolitan Police Force already at full stretch trying to deal with the attacks on 10 Downing Street and the Palace of Westminster it took several hours before the official investigation began, by that time another hospital had also suffered at the hands of the crazed body snatchers, Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

OoOoO

_**PORTON DOWN**_

Set back in the gentle green rolling hills of Wiltshire, near the small, quiet village of Porton laid the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency Porton Down.

The existence of the British Government research facility had been an open secret to the public ever since the end of World War Two. Although in actual fact the site had been in operation since early 1916 where Royal Engineers had conducted testing and research into chemical warfare in response to German gas attacks on British Soldiers in the trenches.

Unlike the all the other major powers, research into chemical warfare had not been wound down at the end of the Great War as British Army Officers had understood the importance of Chemical and Biological warfare on any future conflict.

What had started as two wooden huts in a field had been massively expanded by the start of World War Two, the expertise and experience gained by the scientists employed at the site had given Britain a massive head start over the Germans, Japanese and even the Americans in the fields of chemical and Biological warfare. It was a British team that developed the first Anthrax based bio-weapon in 1942.

After the Second World War the research establishment continued to expand as it became home to more and more of the defence based scientific research. Funding into research was increased in an effort to maintain the countries lead in the arms race that resulted from the cold war, Britain's smaller size meant it had to fight smarter than its enemies and the research budget reflected that philosophy, nuclear research was conducted at the Atomic Weapon Establishment at Aldermaston in nearby Berkshire.

British scientists at Porton Down also developed the VX nerve agent in 1952 by accident while trying to design a counter to a toxin in use at the time by the Russian Army. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, research and development at Porton Down was aimed at providing Britain with the means to arm itself with a modern nerve agent based capability and to develop specific means of defence against these agents. In the end these aims came to nothing on the offensive side because of the decision to abandon any sort of British chemical warfare capability.

The research into offensive weapons may have stopped, but the stockpiles of such lethal weapons, developed for a war that was never fought, remained, hidden in deep, dark bunkers for a time when the world went mad.

Of course not all of the research conducted at Porton Down was of a chemical or biological nature, there were many laboratories that fell under the Porton Down umbrella, testing being carried out on everything from the effectiveness of modern body armour against explosives and projectiles, to designing new 24hr ration packs for soldiers.

Perhaps the newest of the facilities residents was also perhaps its most secretive, outside of its personnel nothing of its research or its objectives were known by the wider Porton Down Scientific community. The buildings containing the newcomer to Porton Down were set on the furthest side of the facility, as far away from the other buildings as was possible. To the outside it was known only as 'The Office of Paranormal Research and Defence', or OPRD but to those in the loop it was simply called 'Pandora'.

Major Dominic Mills (not his real name) made his way through the tight security of the entranceway and strode to elevator. In many ways the buildings that supposedly housed 'Pandora' were as much a facade as his identity. Most of the actual work that the research wing of the organisation carried out happened way below ground far away from prying eyes and other methods of detection...both electronic and paranormal.

Pandora itself had been around since World War Two, ever since it became clear how much of that conflict could be laid at the feet of unwanted paranormal interference in the affairs of nations. Pandora had been set up with express task of secretly investigating the magical world, and the threat it posed to the British people and Government, and if required come up with plans to counter the said threats.

The level of funding the OPRD received from the government had varied greatly during the intervening years, but after the events of twenty years ago when dark wizards had risen to such prominence and the large civilian death toll that had followed the OPRD had received a much larger slice of the budget pie.

The very fact that such an organisation was aware of the magical world, not only aware of it, but actively working to learn its secrets and design counter-measures to them, was the most heavily guarded secret in government, not even the Prime Minister or the Queen was aware of the existence of Pandora. Certain highly placed military personnel and members of the civil service were all the over sight that Pandora had.

Placing his palm flat against the screen to the left of the elevator, he waited until the mechanism had scanned his palm print, once satisfied of his identity the lift doors sighed open and he stepped inside. Once the doors had closed he remained in the centre of the car as it began its downward journey, aware that he was being scanned...not for weapons, he like every member of Pandora's Operations Wing always carried a weapon, but for a wand.

Pandora had learned the hard way that Wizards had ways of making themselves appear to be another person entirely; they could also take over an individual, entirely removing his free will. It had taken some time, but the boffins of Pandora's Research Wing had come up with a few tricks of their own that when the time came, as it surely would, the Wizards would be caught completely by surprise.

Mills felt the hairs on his exposed skin stand up, it wasn't unexpected, and he had experienced a similar sensation every time that he had visited the research wing.

There was a carefully generated bubble of intense static electricity that enveloped the subterranean installation, the boffins seemed to think that this would deny a wizard the ability to teleport through the bubble, certainly the few foreign Wizards that had been detained as test subjects had not been able to leave with the bubble solidly in place.

The lift door opened and Mills stepped forward, tensing himself for what was about to happen, he wasn't disappointed. The moment he cleared the lift he was assaulted by an electric shock of a sufficiently high voltage to make his jaw muscles clench so hard they hurt. It only lasted a moment. It had been determined that a person who had been taken over by a wizard could be snapped out of it momentarily if exposed to a large enough voltage.

"What is your favourite colour?"

He wasn't given time to recover, the question came from an armed man who had remained standing to one side of the lift, the MP5 was in his shoulder and pointed unwavering at Mills' chest.

"Blue."

"What is your favourite football team?"

"I don't support football, I support Rugby, it's a proper sport."

"Who is next in line to take over the Operations Wing should you become compromised?"

"Well it won't be you unless you come up with some better questions!"

The armed man relaxed and lowered the weapon, the electric shock had proven that his boss hadn't been taken over and the questions had proven that he wasn't a wizard in disguise. Slinging the submachine gun over his shoulder, the man fell into step with Mills.

"How did it go with Jones?"

Mills looked over at him and grinned at his second in command of Operations, unlike most of the men that formed the Operations Wing of Pandora, Carl Hatch hadn't ever served in the Military, he had worked his way up through the ranks of the intelligence community and his different outlook on events was a welcome asset to Mills. It was rare they were both at the research wing at the same time, the operations wing was based in London, but they were both here to witness at first hand the latest research break through.

"He was like putty in my hands, with his skills and outlook he may one day be someone we could use in Operations, right now however he is ideally placed to provide some much needed intelligence."

The two men crossed to a set of double doors and pushed them open, they turned left down a corridor and entered an observation area situated above and looking down upon a large open plan room with two entrances.

Already waiting for them was an elderly man in a white laboratory coat; he had a pair of horn rimmed glasses pushed high up on his forehead.

"So Doc what have you got to show us today?"

Doctor Phillip Braun was the head scientist working for Pandora, like all the other staff the security check that had gone into his background had been severe, no-one in his family had shown magical abilities in the last five generations, he considered the magical world a clear and present danger to the security of the country, and he was utterly, utterly brilliant.

"I think we have found a way to remove the threat posed by a Wizard and his wand, although I have to warn you today is the first live fire test and as you know with experimentation..."

"...Anything can happen!"

The two Operations personnel quoted the doctors favourite line back to him to the scientist's obvious amusement. He found that despite the brute force the two Operations men liked to apply to every problem he actually got on well with both of them.

"Quite, well since you are both here, let's begin."

The doctor moved to a microphone mounted on a panel on the wall and said a few words. At the far end of the room the door opened and a dishelleved looking man was pushed through. He was dressed in what passed for fashion in the Wizarding world, although his clothes looked about four sizes too big for him.

"This is test subject four, despite his appearance he is a quite capable wizard, we are now going to reunite him with his wand."

The two men watched in silence as the man's wand was tossed in through the door behind him. The man's eyes moved frantically from side to side looking for the trap, when none could be found he moved quickly and snatched up his wand.

"Now watch when we let another variable loose in this little experiment."

The second door opened and four men stepped through, these men looked to be in an even worse state than the Wizard, they wore contemporary clothing although it was torn and in a bad condition.

"These four are homeless men snatched from the streets of London, they have each been promised a £1000 and their freedom if they manage to kill the other man, each man has been armed with a knife."

As the four men spread out and advanced the Wizard could be seen speaking to them, his hands held up in a gesture of placation, but the four men either ignored him or didn't understand him and kept advancing. The wizard's expression suddenly turned alarmed when one of the men brandished his knife and charged him.

The wizard didn't hesitate, he stepped back and raised his wand, there was a flash of red light and the first homeless man crumpled to the ground. This was all the other three needed, they threw themselves towards the Wizard with wild abandon, knifes sweeping back and forth in unskilled motions.

The Wizard cast three more spells and left all four men lying still on the ground. It had all occurred in less than ten seconds.

"As you know the red flash denotes a stunning spell, no harm has been done to any of the four, we have proven the wizard capable and also capable of restraint, now watch as the real test begins."

The door at the far end of the room opened again and a something small and circular was thrown into the room, it landed behind and slightly to the left of the wizard and bounced to a stop. For several seconds nothing happened.

"If that's a grenade I don't see the point of this test..."

The circular device suddenly went off, or at least Mills thought it went off, there was no explosion, no sound, no outpouring of light, there was however a feeling of a sudden slight pressure change. The Wizard felt it too, because he immediately began turning back and forth looking for the cause.

While the wizard was distracted another man had stepped into the room, this one was dressed in the black overalls and body armour of Pandora's security detachment, and he carried an extended baton down by his side. By the time the wizard saw him the security guard had already covered half the distance between them.

The wizard raised his wand and mouthed an incantation...but there was no flash of red light, a splutter of sparks was emitted from his wand tip, but no spell, the wizard tried again with the same result. By then the security guard was upon him and swung the baton at the wizard's wand arm, the blow resulted in an obvious break and the man's wand fell to the floor to be collected by the guard.

"There you have it, we have managed to create an area effect that neutralises a wizards ability to use a wand, at least in the short term, the effect currently only lasts for twenty to thirty seconds, but it's still a work in progress."

Mill's was impressed although his facial features didn't change, he never wanted to give too much away of what he was thinking.

"Alright Doc, how did you do it?" Hatch asked.

"Basically we create a powerful electromagnetic field in a very small localised area, the weapon consists of a series of powerful magnets spinning very fast inside tightly wound metal coils. Imagine a starter motor, but instead of just being on when you turn the key it runs until the power is gone."

The Doctor used his hands to form a globe in front of them.

"For a very short time the Electro Magnetic Force forces any residual magic away from the globe, and if you are inside the area of the globe you will be unable to use spells. Now in areas of high magic concentration the weapon will still work, but for drastically reduced times, mere seconds perhaps, but used in conjunction with more conventional weapons this should still give you the advantage."

Mills cocked his head and glanced at the grinning Hatch.

"Indeed it will Doctor, indeed it will."

OoOoO

_**SOMEWHERE HARRY HAS BEEN ONCE BEFORE**_

"Aaagh! I'm blind, oh god I'm scared for life, please Merlin make the horrible image go away!"

Harry spun, wand in hand to find Draco rolling around on the floor clutching his face, for an instant he thought his one time nemesis was actually hurt, until the moment Harry realised the blond youth was laughing at his state of undress.

"Oh come on Draco, you go to a mixed sex boarding school and you have shared a dormitory with Crabbe and Goyle for many years, I'm sure you have seen much, much worse!"

Draco picked himself up and shook his head, still grinning like an idiot.

"Well I'll let you into a little secret, at Hogwarts I always kept my eyes shut in the vicinity of the showers and dressed with the four poster curtains pulled firmly shut."

Harry stood there, hands on hips, waiting for Draco to pass him the clothes that he hoped were in the bag at Draco's feet, Draco on the other hand was staring at him with a puzzled look on his face, obviously questioning Harry's hesitation.

"So...now what?" Draco asked.

"Well I was thinking that you could pass me some clothes, and then I could get dressed, but it's just a suggestion, I'd hate to rush you or anything."

Draco slapped his own forehead and reached down to the bag at his feet, pulling out a set of robes he tossed them over to Harry. They were the blacker than black robes of a Death Eater, exactly the same as those already worn by Draco.

"You know, there was a time when I would have given anything to be allowed to wear these robes, then when I defected to your camp I had thought to never put them on, just goes to show, you never can predict what path your life will take."

Harry grinned, Draco coming over all deep and meaningful, would wonders never cease.

"Well if it helps, we won't be wearing them for long and we will be putting them to much better use than their previous owners."

Draco pulled out his broom from the bag and tossed Harry's over to him, and then as Harry dressed Draco stood looking around the clearing, it had been the scene of the battle against the Death Eaters during Harry and Draco's rescue of Ginny and Helen. In the distance, silhouetted on the darkening skyline stood the misleadingly welcoming lights of Malfoy manor.

"Remind me again why we are doing this?"

Draco's voice was low, and Harry suddenly realised that the youth was afraid, it was the very first time that Harry had seen Draco afraid, at Azkaban there had been no time for anything except stubborn resistance, but now they were willingly walking into the snakes' lair.

"We spend our entire time reacting to what Voldemort does, if we stand any chance of winning this war we will soon need to go on the offensive. His forces will only continue to get stronger as Dark Wizards flock to his banner while we shall only get weaker, we need to strike him down before the odds against us prove too much, and to do that we need to know what he intends to do."

"I agree in principle, but the fact is we are about to walk into bad guy central and our only disguise is a robe and a mask, I'm not even sure I will still be allowed access to the house, the only way you got in last time was because Wormtail transported you by Floo!"

Harry smiled and said nothing, Draco had a sudden feeling that he wasn't being told everything.

"Alright what do you know that I don't know?"

"The list is long and distinguished, come on, do you want to live forever?"

With that Harry leapt upon his broom and shot skywards, leaving Draco stood staring upwards.

"Well actually yes, I would like to live forever, but spending time around you makes that more and more unlikely."

Draco sighed as he realized he was speaking to empty air and mounted his own broom.

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS HOSPITAL, TOP FLOOR**_

Mihails Berzin was an evil man. He had lived the life of a Death Eater in word and deed long before he had even heard of the English group of blood racists. He had killed his first victim when he was twelve years old, she had been the Wizarding prostitute that his father had been frequenting behind his mothers back.

He had booked an appointment under his father's name with the intent of scaring the woman into never seeing his father again, however this plan was flawed in many ways, not least of which was the fact that a twelve year old boy was just not that scary. The prostitute had laughed in his face, that action had doomed her. Something inside him had snapped at the sound of her laughter, a rage already smouldering in frustration and self-hate at his situation had burst into an inferno.

He acted before he could think of the consequences and had snatched up the woman's wand and before she could even say a word he had cast the Imperius curse upon her. It was a curse that he had heard his father casting on his mother repeatedly, he didn't until that moment understand what that particular curse involved, or the control it granted him. It gave him a sense of power and control that had been utterly lacking in his life up to that point and he seized it with both hands and at that moment, when he forced the captive woman to mutilate her body with her own knife, he crossed a line from which there was no coming back.

In committing the savage deed, he had discovered that his personality lacked certain moral inhibitions that normal humans take for granted. There would be blood on his hands and a body at his feet and yet he felt nothing for the victim other than intense satisfaction in a job well done.

His next victim was his own father, who had arrived for his own appointment. Upon finding the woman dead and his son standing over her covered in blood he had panicked and attempted to modify his own son's memory, more concerned with the fact that his dalliance had been discovered than the fact there was a dead woman on the floor.

Berzin Snr was a bad father, a terrible husband, and as it happened a shockingly bad wizard, the spell spluttered to nothingness shortly after it was cast. His son, still euphoric from his initial success didn't hesitate, he raised the wand belonging to a dead woman and cast the only spell he knew.

His Imperious curse was easily strong enough to overwhelm his father's free will, and now having control over his abusive father he extracted vengeance for the years of beatings and worse he and his mother had suffered at the man's hands. What was left after the hours it took to satisfy his thirst for vengeance could not easily be identified as human.

He had taken his father's money, both wands and run. Throughout his teenage years he moved from city to city, country to country, always managing to disappear just as the Aurors became aware of the mounting body count. After a time he fell in with the Moscow based magical gangsters, and it was during this period he first encountered Jacque Cartier. Despite the Frenchman's better education and magical talents the two men discovered that at heart they were kindred spirits. Berzin became the muscle to Cartier's brains, his bodyguard and enforcer. He had filled out considerably in his teenage years and now looked more like the monster he in fact was.

He had followed Cartier to Britain with the promise of fresh hunting grounds and new victims, they had no knowledge of him here, he had never ventured across the channel, there were no corpses in British streets with his name on them...yet.

The hospital had been an eye opening experience for him, he had never before had the run of any sort of medical facility with its captive population and ready supply of drugs. Cartier had allowed him his pick of mixed blood patients and the use of the secure floor and its cells, after all in hospitals people died, relatives were hardly ever told the exact reasons why!

With his mind on the potential for more victims he stepped out of the cell that had become his and Cartier's office in the secure wing and into the corridor, and straight into the arms of a red head dressed in dark blue clothing. The youth, as startled as he was, rebounded from Berzin's broad chest and hit the floor, his mouth hanging open in astonishment.

Berzin became aware that the youth wasn't alone, the corridor was filled with similarly dressed men, all of which were now looking at him with less than friendly expressions on their faces.

One of the men raised a crossbow to his shoulder and fired, Berzin twisted desperately aside and felt the displaced air as the bolt snapped past his face. Spinning away, Berzin felt his survival instinct snap into place, he had been hunted many times before, he was no stranger to physical violence.

His wand snapped out of his illegally purchased wrist holster and he sent a blasting hex down the corridor, not especially aiming it at anyone, more to draw attention to the fact that there were intruders inside the secure wing. Reaching down with his other hand he drew his knife, it was small but wickedly sharp.

Another crossbow twanged and the bolt impacted into the wall by his side, pinning his robes by the bolt, he quickly tore free and continued to spin and dodge, in the confines of the corridor his assailants were finding it difficult to aim at his rapidly moving figure. The first shooter had been trying to reload the crossbow until Berzin approached him, quick as a flash the man dropped the crossbow and drew a knife from a sheath attached to his belt.

These men had to be Aurors, they moved too fluidly and were too well trained to be anyone else. He had to escape, there were simply too many of them for him to have a chance of facing alone.

In a flash of inspiration Berzin bent down and scooped the red head off the floor where he had remained, too stunned to move, and hauled him upright to use as a human shield. Backing slowly he ignored the repeated orders to let the man go, even though he was surprised they were being given with French accents.

French Aurors in a British magical hospital, they had to be here after Cartier, either that or the French Veela he was currently experimenting with, either way it was best just to get out of the way and allow them to go after whatever the target was, he felt no loyalty to the Frenchman. With any luck the French Aurors would withdraw once they had what they had come for.

Moving slowly along the corridor keeping the struggling youth between himself and the Aurors, Berzin made it to the stairwell leading down into the hospital proper. Taking a deep breath to prepare himself for the action that was to follow.

Spinning the red head around in his arms, Berzin kicked him backwards to sprawl at the feet of the closing Aurors. Using the kick as momentum he went through the door to the stairwell backwards until he felt the metal rail at his back. Leaning backwards he purposefully over balanced and fell over the rail to the landing below.

He was on his feet and several flights down before the first curse could be sent after him.

"Bloody hell!"

Fred let the tension bleed out in a sudden outburst. He stared at the doorway through which the large man had just made his escape while rubbing his bruised chest where the man had kicked him, he could hear two of the French Aurors throwing curses down the stairway. The cat was well and truly out of the bag, the secret of the ongoing rescue was now blown right open and the small French led team was about to be the focus of a lot of unfriendly attention.

They were not equipped or prepared to deal with the mass of Death Eaters that were about to swarm up the stairs in their direction, which was why the Weasley twins had another trick up their sleeves, another new creation that was getting its first test outside the laboratory.

OoOoO

_**MINISTRY OF MAGIC**_

"Who the hell are these guys?"

The Death Eater in charge of the magic monitoring device looked at the names that were suddenly appearing rapidly on the parchment in front of him. The names were not familiar to him, but then he didn't pretend to know all the names of the newly recruited European Death Eaters. So intently was he studying the names that he nearly missed another name lower down on the list.

Severus Snape – Killing Curse – long term spell damage ward. St Mungos Hospital

Neville Longbottom - stunning curse - long term spell damage ward, St Mungos Hospital

From the reports that had filtered back to the Ministry, Potter and his rebels had been contained in the reception area of the hospital, yet here was a name that indicated there were rebels on other floors. The Janus Thickey ward was only one or two floors below the secure wing of the hospital.

That was the moment that the Death Eaters eyes were drawn back to the most recent names, they were French, of that he was sure, and he also remembered one of his fellows saying something about the fact that they were holding the daughter of a high up personality in the French Ministry of Magic.

Without bothering to reach for one of the inter office memo forms he ran for the door, he had to let the others know that right at that very moment there was a French Auror rescue team active inside the secure wing.

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS HOSPITAL, JANUS THICKEY WARD**_

Neville approached the far beds in the ward with some trepidation, his parents were until the attacks upon them, high profile and successful Aurors, and they had been in the hospital since the trouble had started without any protection. Any Death Eater that had felt like some sport could have harmed them without anyone to stop them.

It was with some relief that Neville came around the curtain and found both of his parents, his father in his bed and his mother sat in a chair beside hers, she was intently studying something she held in her hands.

His father wore his usual vacant expression and continued staring at the ceiling, his mother on the other hand looked up as he approached. For an instant Neville thought he saw a flash of recognition in her eyes before the shutters came down and her expression went blank.

Neville hesitated for a moment between the two beds, unsure what to do or say now that he was actually here. He felt a small shove in his back as Luna gave him some much needed gentle encouragement.

"Don't waste this time Neville, it may never come again."

Smiling over his shoulder in gratitude, Neville took a step forward and crouched down so he could look his mother in the eyes, she averted her eyes as if somehow unable to make eye contact with him.

"Mum, it's me Neville, I'm sorry it's been so long since I have visited you and dad. I have someone I'd like you to meet, someone very special. Mum, this is Luna, she and I...well we have something special."

Neville indicated Luna should approach his side, when he turned around he was surprised to find his mother's attention firmly on the approaching Luna, there was an intelligence behind her regard that Neville had often thought he had seen glimpses of in the past, he had always passed it off as a figment of his imagination, his grandmother constantly berated him for entertaining false hope and the nursing staff of the hospital were always so sure nothing of his parents remained.

Neville turned his head and found Luna staring into his mothers face with a startling intensity; her eyes seemed to be almost popping out of her head. Turning his attention back to his mother he found her blank expression replaced with a small smile.

That one moment made Neville's heart pound in his chest, he had never seen anything but blank facial features on either of his parents, for the first time he found there was an inkling of the person she used to be still trapped inside the shell of his mother's body.

"Luna...?"

Luna shook her head as if to clear it and took a step backwards before recovering her composure.

"Neville your mother is still in there but she is afraid to come out, afraid of what she will find, there is a chance that with some help that she might make something of a recovery, but it will take some time..."

"Time you don't have Longbottom!"

Snape!

Neville spun his wand flashing out, only to discover that the former professor had stepped up behind Luna and held the tip of his wand pressed to her forehead.

"Drop the wand Longbottom or your scatterbrained blond will find her brains scattered all over this ward."

Neville hesitated, knowing that they were probably both dead if he complied with Snape's demands. Snape forced the tip of his wand into Luna's forehead, forcing her head over to one side in response to the delay.

THUNK!

Snape dropped his wand and slid unconscious to the floor.

"Hello there, I expect you both would like my autograph, would you?"

The beaming smile of Gilderoy Lockhart hadn't changed at all from the time Neville had first seen him at Hogwarts. The former professor wore a long lilac dressing gown that was personalised with his initials. He didn't seem to notice that he still had one of the visitors chairs raised above his head from where he had just struck Snape.

"Er, yes Professor, I think that right now that I'd love an autograph."

Neville couldn't keep the relief out of his voice, Lockhart had finally realised he was holding a chair above his head and placed it down, then he bent and retrieved Snape's wand, after studying it for a moment he placed it in the pocket of his gown and produced from somewhere about his person a stack of photos and a self inking quill.

"Splendid, my joined up writing is coming along beautifully, my agent assures me that new bookings are flooding in, after all I'm quite famous don't you know, now how many autographs can I do for you?"

Neville exchanged a look with Luna, the blond failed to stifle a little giggle at the behaviour of the former professor, he really hadn't changed a bit.

"Just the two for now will be fine."

Luna said sweetly, Lockhart beamed a radiant smile at them and with a flourish raised his quill.

"Luna, what about my father, is there anything that can be done?"

Neville whispered not wishing to disturb the man who was concentrating so hard that his tongue stuck at the side of his mouth as he wrote.

Luna crossed to his Father and touched his head and closed her eyes, she remained still for several seconds before opening her eyes and facing him, the sad expression on her face said everything he needed to know.

"I'm sorry Neville, there is nothing of your father left."

Rather than feel sad Neville smiled, before there had been the certain knowledge that he had lost both his parents, now at least he had been given the hope that he might regain something of his mother. The day had suddenly taken on a different priority.

"We need to get my mother out of here, if she stays here she will die or worse. It was hard enough getting in here I thought it would be harder getting out, now..."

He indicated his mother in her ragged dressing gown and slippers; she was hardly dressed for making a quick escape.

Luna tipped her head as if listening to something that no-one could possibly hear and then she grinned at him.

"I think we should go up to the roof."

She said it with such confidence and certainty that Neville nearly agreed without question, nearly.

"Why on earth should we go to the roof, there is no exit from up there."

Luna reached forward and placed her hands on either side of his face and leaned in towards him and gently kissed his lips.

"You need to trust me, the roof is a good place to be."

OoOoO

_**CAMERON BARRACKS, INVERNESS, SCOTLAND**_

"You know, I only had six months left in the Army, I could have quite happily have served out that time without having any knowledge of the existence of giants, wizards and whatever other crazy shit you are probably going to tell me is roaming free around the countryside."

Company Sergeant Major Ian McDonald slowly lowered the pistol that he had quickly snatched from his desk drawer in reaction to the sudden appearance of the Wizard in his office. He didn't waste time asking how the man had just appeared out of thin air in his office, his practical nature had reasserted itself and he just accepted it as another facet of the changed world in which he found he now lived.

"Have a seat Mr Croaker."

The Soldier waved at the seat across the desk from where he sat. The elderly wizard had visited him once before, in the aftermath of the battle in Aviemore, although that time he had arrived in a more traditional fashion. The strangely dressed man had told him things that would have been totally unbelievable only weeks before, but after seeing a living, breathing Giant try and kill him with a twelve foot club his sense of the believable had radically shifted.

"How are your men faring?"

The wizard sounded tired, and he looked like he hadn't slept since his last visit, but his eyes were still bright and alert.

"Very angry, we have been lied to, belittled and told we are suffering from post traumatic stress induced hallucinations, and the truth is that despite what you told me on your last visit I still don't know what to believe."

The official story of what happened in Aviemore was that a natural gas explosion had devastated the town, the news services been kept at a distance until most of the evidence to the contrary had been removed. Most of the locals that has survived had seen very little of the events, too busy running for their lives. The only loose end had been the surviving members of B Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Highland Fusiliers.

They had been isolated in Cameron Barracks, unable to leave or even contact family until it was decided there was no risk of the story getting out. They had been seen by psychiatrists and deemed to be suffering from hallucinations caused by the devastation of the town.

"If it helps, I never thought you were hallucinating." Croaker smiled and reached up, running his hands through his thinning hair. "There will come a time, perhaps only days from now, that I will need you and your men to step up again, this war is approaching the point where open fighting is about to hit the streets and I will need every asset I can deploy."

The Soldier looked at him for nearly a minute without speaking, his mind working at a furious rate, running through every option and contingency.

"It's all very well you saying that, but with whose authority do you speak? The giants in Aviemore were attacking people it was our sworn duty to defend, we didn't go looking for trouble, it was already there. We are part of the British Army, there is a chain of command that we follow otherwise there would be anarchy!"

Croaker had expected this, a certain Royal Navy officer of his acquaintance had said pretty much the same thing to him once. Reaching inside his jacket, the wizard handed over a bundle of documents.

"This should be all the authorisation you require, inside the bundle is the Royal warrant signed by Her Majesty authorising me to give orders to any members of her armed forces as if I held the rank of Brigadier or its equivalent. Also included is the Declaration of war against the criminal Voldemort, signed by Her Majesty and the Prime Minister, finally there is a letter from the Prime Minister excusing you from following any contrary orders given to you by the military chain of command. In effect once the confrontation starts this paperwork places you exclusively under my command for the duration of the emergency."

The soldier spread the documents out on the desk in front of him and spent a long time just staring at the assembled paperwork, it was extraordinary, and possibly completely forged, he had no way of checking on the validity of anything the man said.

"What is it you would want us to do exactly?"

"At some time in the future I would ask you to deploy your company to a location I give to you and defend that location to the best of your ability until reinforcements arrive."

"And what forces would I be expected to face off against?"

"More giants, possibly vampires and werewolves, human wizards and maybe Russian mercenaries."

The soldier just stared at the wizard as if he had sprouted a second head, opening and closing his mouth without any sound coming out.

"Don't worry, I will provide you with all the toys you will need to kill the creatures that your weapons won't harm."

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS, SECURE WING**_

"Sonorous!"

Fred pointed his wand at his neck and spoke, his voice magnified many times over reverberated through the corridors of the secure wing reaching every member of the French team, and the last remaining prisoner.

"Our being here is no longer a secret. George, time to use the snare grenades."

Fred reached into his bag and retrieved several small circular metallic devices, they were slightly larger than the toys that Thomas Bell had shown them at the Burrow, but other than that they would have been familiar in design to the soldier, they even had a pin and a strike lever at the top.

Pushing his way through the door of the stairwell, he shouldered aside the two French Aurors that were continuing to blast spells downwards. Fred pulled the pins from the devices in his hands and without hesitation tipped them over the rail and dropped them down the stairwell.

"Plants in the hole!"

It didn't have quite the same urgency to it that 'fire in the hole' did, but it was nevertheless an accurate description. The objects tumbled downwards, each on slightly different trajectories, one fell past the nose of Neville Longbottom as he emerged on the landing with three others in tow, at first he cringed backwards, expecting the device to explode, however these things had a different purpose.

Neville tracked the device back to its origin and yelled up the stairs in recognition to Fred. The Weasley twin starred down two floors in shock at the last person he had expected to see inside the hospital, Neville had slipped away earlier in the day, no-one had seen either him or Luna leave and no one had know where they had gone.

"Neville get up here, we have a way out, and besides going down is no longer an option."

Fred pointed down and Neville peered downwards and his mouth opened in astonishment at the sight of what was happening several floors below.

Each device contained a small yet much modified sample of the plant commonly known as 'devil's snare', as the device detonated not only was the plant released but a powerful enlargement charm also activated. The plant hit whatever surface it was directed at and instantly started to grow, its creepers reaching out like an animal's tentacles searching for food. Within seconds each of the plants had grown until it was over twenty feet across, the probing fronds covering walls, floor and ceiling with green animated life.

The lower levels of the stairwell were completely engulfed by the wall of green, effectively blocking access from the lower floors to the rest of the hospital, whatever Death Eaters were left in the top few floors, it was going to be some time before they were getting any reinforcements.

With a savage kick, Bill Weasley forced his way into the latest locked room he had come across, the Aurors knew by now to move aside and let him get on with it. With each empty room they cleared Bill's urgency increased, every time a room didn't contain Fleur his anger and desperation went up a notch.

The Death Eater stood just inside the door directed a killing curse at whoever entered, but from long experience of clearing the doorways of tombs and other ancient booby trapped monuments had given Bill a certain sixth sense about such things. After seeing poison tipped arrows shooting through the space you had previously occupied you began to trust such feelings.

Bill rolled under the curse and slammed into the Death Eaters legs, both men went down in a jumble of legs, arms and shouted curses on the nature of each man's parentage. The Death Eater scrambled to bring his wand to bear, while Bill concentrated on just punching the consciousness out of the man, he had never received any sort of advanced hand to hand training, but desperation and need brings out the tiger in us all.

It seemed to take forever for the man to finally go limp, but it could only have been seconds since he entered the room, giving the Death Eater a final shake, Bill released him and climbed to his feet. To find himself starring at the pointy end of his own wand, he remembered holding it as he came through the door and realised he had let go of it while he had struggled with the Death Eater.

Despite everything she had been through recently Fleur's arm was steady as a rock as she held the wand, her eyes were cold and emotionless, but Bill knew her better than that, there was a slight tremble to her lips as she tried to desperately contain her emotions. Raising his hands, open palms forward, Bill took a slow step towards her.

The wand tip was now pressing into his chest, the lip tremble was more pronounced now as Fleur struggled to believe that her ordeal might finally be over, that this rescue wasn't some figment of her own tortured psyche.

"It really is me love, you must have known I would come for you."

Bill kept his voice soft, willing himself to make no sudden moves when all he wanted to do was scoop her into his arms and hold her tight.

"I dreamt you were here so many times, but every time I opened my eyes there was only an empty room."

The soft childlike whisper escaped from Fleur lips, her eyes never left his face. Bill slowly raised his hand and gently took hold the wrist holding the wand and moved it aside, there was no resistance left in the young French woman, if this wasn't actually happening to her in the here and now she had nothing left to fight with.

Bill slowly stepped forward and placed both of his arms around her, pulling her into his embrace, her own arms hung down by her side, his wand still in her hand but already forgotten.

"It's over? It's really over?"

Fleur whispered in a small voice into his chest. Bill nodded and kissed the top of her head.

"It's over." He confirmed. A moan of released emotion escaped Fleur's lips and tears started to run down her cheeks, her small, malnourished frame became wracked with sobs as the strength that had kept her going all this time finally abandoned her.

"Shhh, it's ok, everything is going to be ok." Bill held her tightly as she buried her face in his chest, her tears of relief flowing freely down her cheeks. Bill gently rocked her back and forth, murmuring reassuring words of comfort, inside his heart was soaring, he had her back! After so long he had her back in his arms, now he had to get her to safety.

"We need to get you out of here, there are a lot of people waiting to know you are safe."

Unbuttoning his dark blue shirt, Bill quickly slipped it onto Fleur and buttoned it up, because of its length the shirt fell to half way down her thighs, he tried to ignore the deep colourful bruises he could see on her naked legs, there was time for those thoughts to develop later, when everyone was safely back at the burrow.

"Then let us go, zis place is my past, you are my future."

With her chin held high Fleur turned and walked out of her prison cell and into the corridor where to her surprise she found several of her father's Aurors clearing the last of the rooms, there were no other prisoners. She greeted each one by name, she knew every single member of the strike teams well as they often doubled up as personal protection for her family.

The fact that her rescue had been carried out by French Aurors, which by its very nature caused at the very least an international incident, and by the strict letter of the law was in fact an act of war didn't seem to surprise her at all, but after everything she had been through Bill thought that little would surprise her anymore.

"Longbottom!"

Neville had just finished herding his party through the door onto the secure wing, Fred had greeted him with a hearty slap on the back and then he had enveloped Luna in a hug and spun her around, making her giggle. He was less pleased to see Gilderoy Lockhart, but Neville could hardly have left the man behind, just as he couldn't have left his mother in that ward a moment longer.

Guided by Luna, his mother shuffled along with small unsteady steps, she never looked up, not even when Fred helped her up the last few steps by taking her by the elbow.

In response to the shout, Neville looked down the stairwell to find a furiously angry Severus Snape charging up the stairs two at a time towards him. The man had obviously had a spare wand stashed somewhere on his person, as a bright curse leapt upwards faster than Neville thought possible to smash harmlessly against the rail in front of him. Taking aim with his own wand, Neville was surprised to find himself brushed aside.

Gilderoy Lockhart had an unusual look upon his face, at the same time serious and determined, the normal fawning media hungry look and inflated ego seemed to have fallen away leaving behind the man inside.

"I'll handle this Mr Longbottom, I have made many mistakes in my life, but finally it seems I shall get the chance to make up for a few of them."

Without a further word Lockhart moved down the steps to confront an oncoming Snape. From memory Neville doubted that Lockhart could match Snape in any sort of duel, nor could he for that matter, but he might get a lucky shot in that would delay Snape.

That thought died almost instantly as Snape unleashed a cutting curse upwards that blew past Lockhart's weak shield like it wasn't even there, and opened the man up deeply from hip to shoulder. Lockhart cried out in pain and slammed into the wall, sliding down towards the floor, leaving a streak of blood on the wall behind him.

Snape paid attention to the wounded man just long enough to retrieve his original wand from where Lockhart had dropped it, and then he was moving past continuing up to where Neville waited on the landing. The Aurors were in the process of withdrawing and had already left.

Neville grasped his wand tightly took a deep breath to steady himself and then aimed his wand.

"Aquamenti!"

Water shot from his wand tip and cascaded down the stairs, it didn't come out in a jet of water like Harry could produce, instead it ran down the stairs like a waterfall at foot and ankle level. It had no effect on Snape other than to soak his feet, and the former Professor and long term Death Eater kept climbing towards him not even bothering to fire a curse back.

"Longbottom you are the sorriest excuse for a wizard that it has been my misfortune to teach!"

Neville of course had a plan, the water fall effect had been what was required, the jet of water would not have achieved the desired effects, and raising his wand again Neville cast a freezing charm on the stairs above Snape. The water was instantly turned to ice, and the charging Snape had no time to recover before he suddenly found himself slipping and sliding on icy steps without any grip, his arms windmilled as he tried to regain his balance, but it was too late and Severus Snape was dumped unceremoniously to the floor.

Snape bumped down an entire flight of steps, sliding faster as the ice effect spread downwards. He struck a wall and luckily for him became wedged into a corner, raising his wand he fired a curse upwards. Neville ducked backwards dodging the cutting curse that cleaved a hole through the metal rail and a long tear in the door. Neville's movement interrupted his own spell and the ice rapidly began to melt on the stairs.

Snape was on his feet quickly and climbing again, and this time he kept a constant stream of spells blasting upwards, Neville knew that if he exposed himself again to cast a spell the chances were that he would be struck.

But both of them had apparently forgotten someone.

Snape grunted as Lockhart threw himself onto his back, wrapping both arms around him, pinning both of his arms to his sides. Lockhart was pale, his breath coming in short pants, his dressing gown front sodden in his own blood.

"I wasn't a founder member of the Wizard's defence League for nothing you know!" He stated proudly, "Order of Merlin winner too, i can take a hit with the best of them, you really should have a copy of my autograph, I'm famous!"

Snape struggled to free himself, but Lockhart hung on with all his remaining strength, slowly pulling both men towards the metal rail at the edge of the stairwell. When he was in position Lockhart looked up at a watching Neville.

"A well aimed jelly legs curse please Mr Longbottom."

Neville aimed, knowing as he did so that there was no way he could aim so well that the curse would strike one struggling man and not the other, Lockhart had to know that as well, had to know the curse would equally affect both men.

The curse struck and both men started to sag, Lockhart had been waiting carefully for this moment and as both men lost their balance he threw himself backwards over the metal rail. For a moment the two men tottered on the edge, before physics re-established itself and they toppled.

"Twenty points to Gryffindor!"

Lockhart cried out as the two men fell out of sight straight down towards the waiting Devil's snare plants, Neville leaned out over the damaged rail trying to get a last glimpse of them but all he could see was a mass of green movement below him, no sign of the two men remained.

OoOoO

_**THE CAVERNS BELOW GRINGOTTS**_

The small procession of solemn and heavily armed Goblins wound its way down through the blackness, the darkness of the deep caverns lit only by the magical energy of the continuing chants of the three tribal Shamans leading the group, as long as the chant was maintained then the light would persist, bathing them all in warm colours.

Every now and again the main corridor was intersected by another lesser passageway, these junctions were lit by spluttering torches and at each of these junctions a quartet of Goblin warriors stood watch dressed in glittering mail with bright weapons at the ready.

Despite the fact he had played in these very corridors as a youth and that he had grown up in these very caverns, to Gutripper it felt very much as if he was deep inside enemy territory. The open hostility on display from the guards had surprised him, especially as they were made up from the forces of several different clans and tribes, some of which in the past had been allied to his father's cause.

His father had been allowed an honour guard of only twenty five Goblins plus his champion, Gutripper had chosen carefully, he had at his back the twenty five finest warriors in his clan, half were not even members of his company, but as clan leader designate he had insisted if it came to a fight they would at least give a good account of themselves. Each tribal chieftain was allowed only twenty five warriors in the chamber where the single combat would take place, and the chamber would be magically sealed until the fight was resolved.

Three hundred heavily armed Goblin warriors in such a small space who had justifiable reasons to hate each other, wars had started under much more difficult circumstances, his instructions to his warriors had been quite specific, angry words were one thing but it was not going to one of his warriors that drew their blade first, it would be a blood bath and he would not have his clan held responsible for the consequences.

But once blades were drawn and he was utterly convinced that at some point in the proceedings they would be, then he was convinced that his warriors were as prepared as they possibly could be.

Each clan was mandated by tribal law to provide three companies of warriors to the Goblin Nation armed forces, the smaller clans that could neither afford the upkeep cost nor had the manpower to spare to field a full three companies paid more in tithes to support the upkeep of the clans that could. Each clan was also responsible for the training and equipping of the companies it provided, no two clans went about this quite the same way. Indeed some clans provided the very best of equipment but little in the way of follow on training, these companies reputation was such that none wanted to serve with them on the battlefield, they looked dangerous but couldn't fight their way out of a hessian sack.

Clan Thuras had long been held up as the gold standard when it came to the amount of training it provided its soldiers at extreme cost to the clan, it had always manage to provide the three companies mandated, and they had always bent the maximum troop limit by ensuring their companies were always over strength. At times of need there had even been reserve companies under arms. If that time of desperate need came when clan Thuras stood truly alone surrounded by enemies, every Goblin in the clan who had ever served would be called to arms, the clan could at a stretch field six full strength companies.

Other clans had always regarded Thuras as overly militaristic and looked down upon them because of the financial cost to the clan that keeping that many warriors trained to such a level entailed, but whenever conflict loomed on the horizon it was always the forces of Thuras that formed the bulk of the Goblin response.

As the clan leader designate, Gutripper had spent a considerable amount of time that day winning over the tribal elders of his own clan to his course of action. Whatever the result of the upcoming single combat he faced, the warriors of clan Thuras were mobilising, they were gathering inside the city slowly, careful to stay away from the eyes of the other clans. But within days five entire companies of Goblin warriors, of Thuras Goblin warriors, would be ready to do whatever was required, should that be to overthrow the Goblin tribal council, then so be it.

The procession arrived at the doors to the arena where the single combat would take place, the doors stood open, framed in the fire of a dozen torches, of the inside which was dark by comparison nothing could be seen. The procession didn't stop, but continued on into the darkness of the arena.

As the procession of the tribal leader standing accused of crimes they were the last to arrive, the other leaders and their entourages were already in place and stared down at them with unbridled hostility as they crossed the centre of the arena. They came to halt before the seats occupied by the council leader and his party, his father's rightful seat. The procession peeled away to the right and left, leaving Gutripper stood alone before the hostility.

"Why are you here?" One of the Goblin law masters shouted out the ancient challenge.

"I have been summoned before you to defend the honour of my chieftain and the honour of my clan" Gutripper replied vigorously.

"Are you ready to die if you must for your honour and in order to keep the Goblin Nation strong?"

"I stand ready to do battle to the death, and if I must, I shall die upon this ground so that the Goblin Nation may remain strong!" Although the plan is to make the other guy die first Gutripper muttered under his breath. Gutripper heard the roar of approval from the soldiers of his own clan arrayed behind him, and the silence from the rest of the audience.

"You are accepted as the champion of clan Thuras, the trial by combat will occur at the tenth hour of tomorrow, you are permitted to retire to your clan apartment and prepare this night. Be warned that the Tribal precinct will be sealed from the rest of the city and any attempt to leave will result in your death."

Gutripper blinked in surprise, he had expected the combat to take place immediately upon his arrival, while it was allowed to delay the trial, in this case it served no purpose to delay. All the leaders were gathered, no one was missing, so the reason wasn't that they were waiting for someone.

Sighing in contained frustration Gutripper led his procession out of the arena and towards the precinct where all the clans kept apartments in the city for tribal council business, they were in a separate district from the family homes and were guarded by the combined forces of all the clans. In times of war or trials of succession they could be physically sealed from the rest of the city, although that hadn't happened for generations.

OoOoO

_**STOCKWELL HOMELESS SHELTER, LONDON**_

Voldemort paused under the archway that allowed entry to the square, staying in the shadows his few chosen followers arranged behind him, despite the many, many years since he had last visited the place surprisingly little had changed. There a number of muggle motor vehicles now parked in the square, and the street lighting was no longer powered by gas, other than it was just as he had remembered it.

Across the square was the dull, squat, grey building, stained by pollution and suffering from being the resting place of several hundred years of roosting pigeons. grim and foreboding, the building was surrounded by high railings. Voldemort read the sign above the door proclaiming the building as a homeless shelter with a certain disdain. His memory filled in the blanks that were missing, the sign from his memory proudly stated that the building was the Stockwell Orphanage.

The orphanage had been founded in 1867, and it was on the very steps across from where he now stood that he had come into the world in 1928. He had spent eleven years of his life surviving inside the building until he had day been visited by one Albus Dumbledore and offered a place at Hogwarts.

He had been forced to return to the Orphanage at summer and Christmas holidays despite his pleas to the then headmaster Professor Dippet to remain at Hogwarts, and despite the ban on underage wizardry, or maybe because of it, he had made the lives of the other children a living nightmare during his short stays.

It was at that time that Voldemort first began to exercise control of his wandless magic, he had never been told how rare it was, he just knew no-one ever came to investigate whenever he used it.

And now he was putting the next step of his plan into action, he had needed a place to work in London close to certain locations, he had first thought to use one of the many hospitals he had raided for bodies, but while he was unconcerned about the effect of any muggle interference, it would have been...distracting. He had decided that it was only fitting that it started right here where it all began. It was if his life had a sort of symmetry.

"Wormtail, take Jenkins and secure the outside of the building, don't let anyone escape."

Pettigrew bobbed his head in understanding and led the newly marked Death Eater towards the rear of the building, while he wasn't up to much magically, Voldemort trusted Wormtail, or at least as much as he trusted anyone.

What he proposed to do required him to expend so much magical energy that it would leave him vulnerable for an extended period of time, and it was a sad fact of life that nearly all of his inner circle were ambitious enough that they would attempt to take advantage of such a golden opportunity to advance their power and authority. He had handpicked the followers for his little excursion very carefully to avoid any danger to himself.

"Greyback."

One of the remaining figures separated from the shadows and came forward, Fenrir Greyback was more wolf now than man, even in human form he bore pointed teeth and long yellow fingernails, his grey hair was matted and dirty and he occasionally sniffed the air like a wild animal searching for prey.

"My lord."

Voldemort indicated the homeless shelter across the small square.

"You many entertain yourself as you see fit, kill them all."

A wide evil smile split the man's face, and with a grunted command over his shoulder, he burst into an easy loping run that carried him out from under the archway and across the square. He was followed by two more werewolves in Voldemort's service.

Voldemort himself followed at a more sedate pace, there was no need to hurry because for what he intended to do he needed corpses...a lot of corpses, and even Greyback deserved to have a little fun.

Greyback and his two pack mates powered up the steps and into the shelter, and in the space of a few seconds the screams had started from within. As Voldemort crossed the street towards the shelter an elderly muggle woman drawn by the sound of the horrifying screams emerged from a house, without even pausing he killed her with the killing curse and left her lying on her own doorstep.

Climbing the steps of the shelter, Voldemort found himself confronted by a wide-eyed, blood splattered man dressed in ragged clothing. With a sweep of his hand the dark wizard casually banished the muggle back inside. The man didn't make a sound as he sailed through the air and smashed into the doors of the building.

Starting to enjoy himself, Voldemort stepped inside and sealed the doors behind him, with Pettigrew outside warding the buildings door and windows, and Greyback and his companions loose in the building's interior it would all be over quite quickly, and then he could begin in earnest the next crucial stage in claiming first Britain and then the world.

OoOoO

_**THURAS CLAN APPARTMENT**_

Gutripper sat in his small yet well appointed apartment and fumed, there was a reason he had remained under arms after his period of conscripted service had expired and not followed his father into tribal politics. He enjoyed the certainties of the battlefield, where you knew your enemy and what was expected of you, politics was another kind of conflict, one where the rules were so fluid that you were never sure of your footing from one moment to the next.

He had fallen into a trap, he knew it with a cold certainty, but for the life of him he couldn't see from where the trap would come from. Somehow he had allowed himself to be manoeuvred into placing himself into this position and he couldn't see a way out of it.

"Sir."

The Goblin soldier stood in the doorway and Gutripper was suddenly aware that the warrior had been trying to get his attention for at least a minute. Smiling, he beckoned the warrior to enter.

"What is it?"

"There is a Goblin at the door asking to see you, he is not armed, and he said that the pass phrase you would recognise would be 'custodian'."

Gutripper smiled and asked the warrior to show the new arrival in. Rotgut was dressed in the livery of a servant, of which he most definitely was not. As an employee of Gringotts he had no right to be inside the sealed tribal council precinct.

"I would ask how you got in here but I'm sure that is a tale for another time, instead I shall ask why you are here at this time, and dressed like that?"

Rotgut, the night custodian of Gringotts bank, stood straight backed and faced the son of his friend and bowed his head.

"Did your father ever tell you what position I filled in his organisation?"

Gutripper shook his head. "No, I always assumed that you had served together in the distant past, he trusted your judgement on a range of things that went beyond the security of Gringotts."

"Your father and I never served together, in fact the first time we met I was his avowed enemy, but time is short and that tale will also have to wait for another time. In short, my job as Gringotts night custodian isn't my day job, if you pardon the pun, I am in fact your father's spymaster."

Gutripper rocked back in his chair in shock, in truth it made sense, his father had always seemed very well informed about the happenings of the other clans. Sometimes knowing things that he simply had no way of knowing, and being the night custodian gave Rotgut access to the chairman of the bank for all manner of routine business on a daily basis.

"Things suddenly make a lot more sense, how you were always there at the right moment, why my father always trusted you so much. But that doesn't explain why you are here now?"

Rotgut leaned forward. "My presence is enough to convince you that there are ways into and out of the precinct despite the lockdown, yes?" Gutripper nodded frowning. "Rest assured than that I am not the only one that has managed to sneak inside, there are groups of Goblins moving down several passageways, they wear no clan colours on their armour but long cloaks cannot hide the weapons they carry."

"To what purpose?" Gutripper asked puzzled.

"Think, why delay the single combat until tomorrow? All the tribal leaders are here, no one is yet to arrive?"

Gutripper suddenly understood the scale of the trap he had walked into, he couldn't help but be impressed with the sheer audacity of Rocksplitter's plan. All of the tribal leadership in one place, each locked in with only twenty five warriors to protect them, sealed into a confined space overnight. It was an ideal time to assassinate anyone who could possibly stand in your way.

"I'm guessing that there will be more than one target for these grey warriors tonight?"

Rotgut smiled in approval, the company commander had seen beyond his own danger and realised that his was not the only life that was in immediate jeopardy, any leader that could or had in the past challenged Rocksplitter would be on a target list.

"What are my options?"

"You don't have many. Stand and fight, it is possible you could survive the night, although should you still be standing you would then still face the single combat in the morning." From his tone that possibility in his opinion wasn't very high. "Or I could attempt to sneak you out the way I came in."

"And what would be the consequences should I leave?"

"Assuming we escape without detection your father's life would be forfeit, you would be personally dishonoured and the clan forced to expel you, after which your lifespan would be measured in hours. Should we be seen trying to escape we would be killed out of hand."

"No, I won't run, I have sworn to stand as my father's champion and I shall even if I have to wade through the blood of a thousand assassins to get there."

"Good words, but words won't see you live through the night."

Gutripper smiled, this time there was no humour in the expression.

"No they won't, what we need are swords, more than the twenty six we currently have, I need to write the most important letters of my life, and you need to deliver them in a timely and covert fashion, if we move quickly we might just survive the trouble that is going to be coming our way tonight."

"Your father may also be in jeopardy."

"That's true but we can only fight the battles we face, he will have to look after himself, we are going to be facing insurmountable odds as it is."

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW**_

Tonks ran, for the first time in her life she **really** ran, she had suffered from the physical effects of her metamorphmagus gift throughout her teenage years, the ability to change her shape and appearance permanently cursing her with balance problems that led to her clumsy reputation.

Before if she had engaged in anything more than a gentle jog the chances were that she would have ended flat on her face after little more than a few strides, now it seemed that all that had changed.

She had felt cooped up in her hospital room, the walls had started closing in on her and deep down she felt a longing for the open spaces beyond the constraints of the hospital. Dressing quickly, Tonks had slipped past the watchful Goblins and escaped.

Feeling the fresh air upon her face she had felt a joy to be alive and just run for the sake of it. She had quickly discovered that the affliction she now suffered from had left her with a few extra surprises, not only had she apparently been cured of her eternal clumsiness but her fitness had improved vastly, allowing to run for periods which before would have left her doubled over gasping for air.

She could hear everything that was going on in the forest around her, her senses so acute that a squirrel scavenging for nuts twenty feet above sounded as clear as a bell, but it was her sense of smell that had undergone the greatest change, all about her the odours of the forest were vibrant and alive, telling the story of what had happened here in recent hours, every animal and plant was revealed to her and it was overwhelming in its detail.

Spinning around on the spot like a giddy school kid Tonks finally came to halt facing the distant Burrow, the unusual shaped house was a distinctive landmark that was not hard to spot, beyond the house lay the new buildings that the Goblins had grown from the very ground itself. Somewhere behind her, through the trees lay the muggle village of Ottery St Catchpole.

She knew that she would have to go back, but just for the moment she revelled in the feeling of freedom that she had coursing through her.

OoOoO

_**RECEPTION, ST MUNGOS**_

They had fought off three Death Eater attacks originating from inside the hospital that because of their preparations had been shrugged off with little effort on the part of the defenders. With the aid of a couple of carefully placed Weasley Wizarding Wheezes Portable Swamps the Death Eaters never really progressed more than a couple of feet inside the doors.

It was the unexpected attack that had come from outside the hospital that had caused the most problems, the flow of Death Eaters through the main entrance of the hospital had taken the defenders completely by surprise, the black robed wizards had been in their midst before anyone was even aware of them.

Luckily there had been no coordination between the two groups of Death Eaters or else they would have lost the reception, as it was they suffered several serious casualties, including one Goblin that threw himself between a Death Eater's cutting curse and Hannah Abbot. The curse had carried away Wendel's right ear and left the right side of his face a bloody mess. In response Wendel had gutted the man on the spot, not slowed by his injuries in the slightest.

Hannah Abbot hadn't escaped unharmed either, she had fallen to a well aimed blasting spell that had smashed into her ribs, forcing bone fragments into and collapsing both of her lungs, if it hadn't been for an alert Ginny the girl would have suffocated there and then, even now her life was in the balance.

Ernie Macmillan lost his hand at the wrist, the cutting curse left a clean stump, and after ensuring he didn't bleed to death Ernie had picked up his severed hand and stuck it in his own pocket, retrieving his wand he had then re-entered the fight.

Shacklebolt looked around himself, despite the casualties and the pressure they were under morale was incredibly high, they weren't doing this because they were being paid, they weren't doing this because of some social obligation they were doing this because Harry had asked them to.

He wondered if Harry realised just how charismatic he was, he might hate the whole 'boy-who-lived' thing, but he was the genuine deal, a proper hero, someone to look up to and where he led people followed.

"I don't know who you really are, and to be honest I don't care, all that matters is that I know you aren't Harry, but I wanted to let you know that while Polyjuice potion might work as a disguise for most people, with Harry, I know the difference. I think this proves that I need to have another little talk with Harry later."

Shacklebolt jerked around, he hadn't even heard Ginny approach, she was stood at his elbow glaring at him with eyes that promised a swift and messy end should he misbehave. He opened his mouth in order to explain himself, but he never got the chance.

"Top team reports mission complete! Its time to get the hell out of here."

Dean Thomas had been keeping a careful ear on the radio in between duelling with Death Eaters, and now he had the confirmation that he had been waiting for. The Teams tasked with rescuing the prisoners had cleared the secure wing and were retreating back to the roof, there was no further need for a distraction below them.

"Alright, everyone will be leaving via the Floo, injuries first...yes that actually means you Wendel...maintain your positions until your turn comes up. Harry and I will be the last out, right Harry?"

Ginny stared at him with such intensity that Shacklebolt gulped and just nodded, beaten into silence by the strength of the teenager's personality.

OoOoO

_**MALFOY MANOR**_

They landed inside the small orchard that butted onto the servants' quarters of the large building, it was isolated and out of sight of the main house. Hiding the two broomsticks in one of the trees the two youths adjusted their clothing, placed the masks on and tried to walk like Death Eater's, a stride full of arrogance and hate, and found neither of them were particularly comfortable doing it.

"We are so going to die." Draco hissed as they approached the main house, "every Death Eater in there will take one look at us and know we don't belong!"

"My hope is after all the trouble we have caused that there won't be too many Death Eaters left inside."

Draco just snorted.

At the portico Draco paused, and then hesitantly placed his hand on the door, for a moment nothing happened, then a blue glow enveloped his hand and the door opened of its own accord.

"What do you know; nobody took my signature off of the access ward, very careless of them."

"They probably never expected you to come back here in a thousand years, after all what sane person would risk it?"

Draco looked for a moment as if he wanted to smack Harry in the head before looking down and giving a little snort of amusement.

"I have to say this Harry, spending time with you, it's never boring."

"Vot is point of having door if door is left vide open. In or out before I catch death of cold! Stupid Vizards"

Draco spun towards the Death Eater stood in the doorway, there was something strangely familiar about the man, and despite the fact the newcomer wore the same mask as he did there was something in his heavily accented voice that led Draco to believe that the face behind the mask was smiling.

For a moment the three masked men stood looking at each other then without warning Harry, smiling broadly, strode forward and clasped forearms with the newcomer.

"I wasn't sure if my letter would get to you or not, mail deliveries to Death Eaters can be so problematic."

"Dat is von very smart owl you have Potter, bird found me despite der wards."

Draco was still stood there, his head turning from one to the other, not understanding what was happening. Harry turned to him as if he could feel Draco's confusion.

"Draco there might have been a few things I neglected to tell you, don't take it personally, but you are now the only other person who knows this particular secret. Draco, meet my ace in the hole, Voldemort isn't the only one who can use spies, I think you'll remember agent Viktor Krum of the Bulgarian Ministry of Magic, Viktor I'm sure you remember Draco Malfoy."

OoOoO


	25. 25 All The Kings horses pt2

**AN: **Many think this is a dead story, pleased to say that's not so, just have an immense workload at the moment and no internet connection, so stick with me for the end of the ride. Or as the Harry's army would say "Until the deed is done!"

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: ALL THE KINGS HORSES AND ALL THE KINGS MEN (Part 2)

_**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**_

"Arthur, you should know that by all reports I've had from my Aurors, and what I have seen, all three of your sons performed very well, you should be very proud of them."

"I am proud, proud of all my children."

Henri Delacour and Arthur Weasley were stood in the doorway of one of the hospitals main wards trying to stay out of the way of all the medical personnel rushing to attend to the injured raiders and those they had rescued. About halfway down the ward in one of the beds lay Delacour's eldest daughter whose attention was firmly fixed upon Weasley's eldest son and that attention was completely and utterly reciprocated.

The two of them hadn't broken eye contact, or released hands from the moment they had arrived at the hospital, almost as if they were somehow making up for the all the time they had forcibly spent apart. They were in love, and both of the fathers were thankful that their children had found something so special. Arthur was doubly happy because he had watched his youngest child begin to form a relationship that was similar in a lot of respects to that formed by his eldest son.

"I have only one question about all of this."

Henri Delacour turned to regard his host and smiled slightly, already half suspecting what the question would be.

"And what would that be Arthur?"

"What happened to that hag Delores Umbridge?"

Delacour just grinned enigmatically but said nothing.

OoOoO

_**ST MUNGOS, SECURE WING**_

He stormed down the corridor in exactly the same manner he had once stormed unchallenged down the passageways of Hogwarts. Of course when in former days he had stormed down the corridors of the magical school sweeping scared children aside from his path like a snow plough moves aside snow drifts, he hadn't been covered head to toe in the residue from some plant hybrid concocted in a twisted red-headed laboratory.

With the consistency of rotten fruit, what was left of the Devils snare plant trap dripped from Snape's lank black hair down onto his face and robes, but he didn't stop to wipe the slime off, nor did he acknowledge the startled looks that the assembled Death Eaters gave to him as he stormed past.

He had pursued the interlopers all the way to the roof, where some deeply ingrained self preservation instinct had slowed his headlong pace and allowed two of the new European recruits to overtake him and precede him onto the roof. Both men died silently and messily as their heads had exploded right in front of him, the effect of no curse or hex he had ever seen or heard of. As much as his curiosity screamed at him to stick his head out and to snatch a glance, his willingness to keep his head firmly attached to his body won the battle.

The secure wing was now empty except for the dead bodies of the dozen Death Eaters that the French Aurors had left behind them.

The French Aurors had recovered several of the captives, including the one that the Dark Lord had actually wanted rescued, but the greatest prize remained safely in Death Eater hands, the one prisoner that he had been tasked to hold at all costs remained securely in her cell, if he had been at all rational at the time he would have questioned why the woman was still in her place of captivity when the door had somehow been forced, it would have occurred to him that there had been nothing to stop the rescuers from making off with their prize.

But Severus Snape wasn't feeling rational, oh no, not rational at all, he was beyond furious, he had been slighted by Neville Longbottom, and bested by Gilderoy Lockhart, not once but twice, and the fact that the incompetent pompous arse now lay dead at the bottom of a hospital stairwell, and that he had just personally executed Longbottom's father did very little to quench his temper.

He entered the cell like an avenging storm cloud. The woman inside looked up and opened her mouth to speak, but before she could utter a word Snape had used his wand to banish her into a wall, the resulting impact knocked the woman unconscious. He stood over the naked body of Fleur Delacour, his chest rising and falling in quick pants as he tried to regain his tattered composure.

From somewhere there was a barely remembered stirring in his loins and he responded by using a booted foot to roll the unconscious figure over onto her back, exposing her angelic face no longer hidden by a fine curtain of blond hair and exemplary breasts. It had been a long time since Severus Snape had felt anything like physical attraction for a female. At Hogwarts it had taken his every effort to keep his inner most thoughts guarded from the gullible old fool Dumbledore, and when in Voldemort's company he needed all his strength to keep a grip on his sanity when undergoing questioning. For too many years there had been no time for anything like a romantic attachment, now here was this beauty placed at his feet, to be taken advantage of, to be used and maybe when he had finally grown tired of her, to be discarded.

But before that happened he could finally forget all those years of sexual tension and repressed feelings. He had once lusted after another girl, attracted by her intelligence as much as by her looks, back in his teenage years he had cared little about the issue of blood purity, he was a half-blood himself and so was an outcast in his own house.

Lily Potter had shown him that things could be different, shown him kindness and respect despite their respective house allegiances, she had even tried to protect him from the worst of the Marauders and their incessant insults and attacks.

But when she had rejected him in favour of James Potter, something inside had curled up and died, he immediately began to shift his politics towards the blood purists, and when the time of Voldemort's first rising he had been right at the front of the line when dark marks were being handed out. He had willingly passed on the information that had sent Lily and James Potter to their deaths, Voldemort's incapacitation had been a worthwhile price to pay for the revenge he had extracted from the Potter's, and when he finally saw their runt of a son dead in front of him then his revenge would be complete.

But for now all that was history, there was sport to be had with the female at his feet.

"I am not to be disturbed!"

OoOoO

_**PORTON DOWN**_

The Alarm began to blare shrilly at 18:02 exactly, the sun had descended to the point that it just touched the far horizon, and the rolling Wiltshire hills were bathed in the day's last golden rays. Most of the civilian staff from the more mundane projects currently being run at the research establishment had returned to their homes for the evening. The remaining personnel were a mix of duty staff, both civilian security and military guards and those researchers assigned to more exotic projects.

Beneath Porton Down, Pandora's powerfully generated bubble of static electricity was primarily designed to keep captive wizards inside, and the occasional inquisitive wizards out.

It also served another function.

Because of the unique and peculiar way that electricity and Magic reacted when in close proximity to each other, it was possible by using a high powered computer to monitor the power requirements of the bubble, to track any use of magic, including magical arrivals, within several miles of the facility. Because of the size of the bubble, any magical usage within its detection threshold was not only immediately apparent; it could be traced to an exact location within moments.

The computer recording the power requirements of the static bubble registered a sudden and massive localised power spike and correctly identified it as the result of a large usage of magic within the local area. The bubble was trying to increase its power consumption in order to cancel out the magical energy.

The Alarm immediately alerted the Pandora security detachment that a magical encroachment was in progress, and they reacted as per their training. They took up positions inside the facility, expecting to have to repel an invading magical force. It had never crossed anyone's mind that a magical force would come to Porton Down for any other reason than to strike Pandora. It took several minutes for anyone to realise that the arrival and the short bursts of magic that followed it were not in the immediate vicinity of Pandora.

Dominic Mills ran down the entrance corridor gathering his security troopers to him as he ran, he had seen the location fix that the computer had provided and the arrival point of the magical signature was about as far away from Pandora as it was possible to be and still be inside the research establishment.

Either the magicians were very lost, or they weren't here for Pandora at all, either way it was his task to carry the fight to whoever was on the loose out there, in fact his security detachment was probably the best trained to deal with whatever was out there. They had seen at firsthand some of what the magical world could throw at them.

The cramped lift rose to the surface, and once there Mills detailed two men to secure the entranceway, then he led his remaining men at a run in the direction of the magical encroachment. He didn't have to guess the direction, even as he set out, the loud crackle of gunfire, and crack-thump of spell fire acted as the best indication where his target lay.

Even as his men ran, they spread out, weapons at the ready, eyes and sights sweeping the path in front of them; they ran towards a series of bunkers semi submerged into the ground on the far side of the facility. There were bodies on the ground, both civilian security and military, some still moved, moaned in pain, most didn't. Mills wasn't a combat medic, because that was a job for others, his focus was whatever had felled these men in the first place.

A figure dressed in a long black robe or cloak appeared from around the edge of the bunker; he had his back to the approaching men and hadn't seen them. In plain view in his hand was a wand.

Mills and three of his men fired as one, silenced rounds chopping the man to the floor as efficiently as a puppet with its strings cut. They were all aware what could happen if they allowed a magic user to get off the first shot, and none of them were prepared to let that happen. Pandora had a shoot first, shoot to kill policy in place in a situation that involved hostile magic.

Mills reached the edge of the bunker and edged forward until he could get a better look. What he thought would be a single room was in actual fact a passageway wide enough for a vehicle to enter that led downwards into the darkness. The inches thick steel doorway that had protected the bunker had somehow been torn from its hinges and tossed aside like a child in a pram tosses aside an unwanted toy.

There were more bodies lying scattered on the ramp leading into the darkness, however none of them were wizards. They probably had had no idea what they had been facing, his men knew better.

"Right, let's get it done, switch to thermal, keep it tight, watch your arcs and pick your targets."

Reaching up, Mills flipped down his thermal vision equipment, no invisible wizard would get the drop on him or his men, checking on the position of his men, once satisfied he slowly led the way underground.

OoOoO

_**MALFOY MANOR**_

"Der big boss man is not here, left dis morning vith vormtail and der scary verevolves."

"Wormtail! Last I heard he was being held in custody at an Auror safe house, how did he get free again?"

"Safe house not so safe I was thinking. Der vere traitors in Aurors, Death Eaters knew about house."

Harry tried not to laugh at Krum's accent, mainly because the man's English was a damn sight better than Harry's Bulgarian. When he had received word that the Death Eater's had shown so much interest in recruiting Krum, Harry had asked him to do the thing that no-one else in Harry's confidence could do, take the dark mark and infiltrate the organisation. It placed a spy right in Voldemort's stronghold, something that up to that point had been unthinkable.

Harry was starting to think that the traitorous Peter Pettigrew would never receive his due, every time he was in the grip of the Aurors he managed to somehow slip away from them. He was a fairly incompetent wizard, but he seemed to have a streak of luck a mile across.

"Not wanting to break up this happy little seekers reunion, but are we safe, standing outside in the open just having this discussion like we are talking about the weather?"

Even through the concealing eye pieces of his Death Eater mask Harry could tell that Krum looked at Draco quite harshly for a moment, not surprising really, since the last time the two had met Draco had been firmly in the camp of Hogwarts junior league of Death Eaters. Krum, despite his school's dark reputation, and the fact they were in direct competition in the Tri-wizard tournament had never sanctioned the Death Eater philosophy on life, he had since become an ally and perhaps even a friend.

"Harry's plan vorked vell, nearly all Death Eaters left here chasing random Harry Potter sightings across whole country. House not quite empty, large group of Vampires arrive from Europe, new soldiers for Voldemort, dey very creepy guys. Most now sleeping, or vhatever Vampires do."

Harry couldn't help but wince at the news that the odds stacked against him had just risen to even greater heights, although the new information wasn't a complete surprise. There had been rumours that the European vampire clans had received emissaries from Voldemort for over a year, what was surprising was that it had taken them so long to join the Death Eaters.

For some reason the two British vampire clans had rejected Voldemort's advances out of hand and publicly vowed to remain neutral, Harry suspected they knew more about the history of the conflict than the European clans. Vampires lived a long time and had long memories, they knew that Voldemort wasn't as indestructible as he liked everyone to believe, and had seen him beaten before by a one year old child. If only the much older European clans had decided to remain neutral, it would make what Harry had to do so much easier.

"Even so, Draco is right, we shouldn't stand around, someone could be watching, we don't want to stay here any longer than we have to."

Krum nodded in agreement and led the way inside. Despite the fact he had been inside Malfoy Mansion before, the last time he was here he didn't exactly have time to take the guided tour, he had been too busy running for his life. Now that he had the time to actually look around he found the house was decorated very much along the lines of Grimmauld place, there were lots of snake motifs and green and silver were the dominant colours.

On nearly every wall were portraits of stern silver haired witches and wizards that regarded them with suspicion as they passed, Harry hoped that was simply how they regarded everyone, and not that the portraits had some way of seeing through their Death Eater disguises.

Victor led the way to a room that had once been some form of plush reception room, but had now been turned into a make shift barracks by the addition of at least twenty cot beds. The room was empty, but from the number of bags and other personal belongings strewn around the room, there wasn't a spare bed.

Krum settled onto one of the beds and removed his mask, Harry and Draco sank onto the bed facing him and pulled off their own masks. For a moment the three of them just looked at each other as the enormity of what they were doing hit home. Having a meeting in the middle of the Death Eaters headquarters was possibly the maddest thing he had ever done.

There had been a time Harry Potter would never have had the courage or confidence in his own skills to even contemplate such a risky endeavour, but now after everything he had seen and done it had occurred to him that without taking risks there was no way he was going to win against Voldemort.

"So Victor, I need to know whatever you can tell me about what ol' Snake face is doing, any information you give to us will be shared with others, including the Bulgarian Ministry, via a pensieve memory at a later date, that is one of the reasons I have Draco with me. One person's memories can be falsified, but if two individual people have the exact same memories then it's pretty much guaranteed that the record is correct."

Krum was silent for a moment as he put his thoughts into some sort of logical order, and then he began to speak, in very level tones he described the ceremony that potential Death Eaters had to endure before gaining the dark mark.

Harry winced at the mention of the killing of innocents, mainly muggles at the hands of the candidates, he had resigned himself fully to the fact it just wasn't physically possible to save everyone, but that didn't help when confronted with the hard facts.

Krum explained how he had recruited his 'victim' from a terminal cancer ward, an elderly man whose daughter had died during Voldemort's first reign who had just weeks to live, but every reason in the world to want to make his death mean something.

The Bulgarian described the pain that he faced when the dark mark was applied, and that sometimes the mark seemed to wriggle and squirm against his skin, it changed colour, from jet black when Voldemort was present to its current dirty grey colour.

Harry had seen Karkarov show Snape his dark mark during the tri-wizard tournament, it had been a similar shade of grey as the disgusting mark on Krum's arm. It had to have something to do with the Voldemort's proximity.

That brought Viktor up to the current situation, and both Draco and Harry sat in silence as the Bulgarian finished his report.

"Der is not much I can tell about big boss evil plan. He not tell many more senior than me vhat he is doing. All I know is dat he told der crazy voman, Lestrange, dat he be gone three days and dat to be prepared to fight upon his return. Something about cutting the head off of der Lion."

Harry was frustrated that his spy inside Voldemort's camp had so little information, he briefly wondered whether his frustration matched how Voldemort felt when Snape had reported to him in the past, because it was obvious that Dumbledore had not told Snape everything despite his misplaced trust.

Cutting the head off of the Lion sounded ominous, but could mean any number of things, it could mean an attack directed solely at Gryffindor house, the head of which was presently Minerva McGonagall, but that seemed unlikely, she didn't really represent a huge threat to him, she and the other teachers were an annoyance, little more.

"What about numbers, how many have now taken the mark?"

Krum turned his head to one side as if mentally counting in his head.

"I think der are now nearly six hundred Death Eaters, der may be more dat I know nothing about."

Harry's heart sank like a stone in a lake, six hundred Death Eaters, plus werewolves, plus Vampires, Giants and Merlin knew what else Voldemort had gathered to his cause, against the tattered remnants of the Country's Auror force, a handful of school children and their teachers. It was a bleak balance of forces that could only favour Voldemort.

"Well that's not exactly encouraging; however on the plus side wand for wand we still hold the advantage over the Death Eaters in terms of skill, at least for the moment."

Harry looked over at Draco in surprise; he was actually trying to cheer him up! In the face of insurmountable odds Draco Malfoy was trying to cheer him up. Despite his grey mood Harry smiled at the bizarre situation he found himself in.

"Now on to the most important reason for my visit, if I wanted to store something of vital importance, something I didn't want on public display, where would I put it?"

Krum shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, he hadn't been here long enough and certainly wasn't senior enough to know where anything like that was kept.

"My father has a hidden vault under the dining room, that he stores the Malfoy family darker objects, whatever you are looking for might be in there."

Draco was looking at Harry intensely, obviously wondering what else Harry hadn't told him about. No matter how much Harry trusted the new 'improved' Draco, he still didn't trust him with the knowledge of the existence of Horcruxes, which was something that for now was contained within the quartet of himself, Hermione, Ron and Ginny.

The thought of Ginny side-tracked his thoughts, normally she was a welcome distraction, but right at that moment all she was, was an unpleasant reminder of how much he personally had to lose should he become careless or fail in his appointed task of ending Voldemort, once and for all. Ginny was his anchor, she gave him perspective, she was also the light at the end of the tunnel, his reward for what he had already been through and for what was yet to come.

Not that he considered Ginny a possession, quite the opposite, she was a fiercely independent, intelligent and focused young woman, more so than perhaps even he had realised before. She also had a temper, Merlin what a temper! The funny thing was that even when she was raging, and sometimes especially when she was raging, Harry thought she was beautiful, the passion in the woman was incredible.

Giving himself a mental shake, Harry dragged himself back to the here and now, he couldn't afford to lose concentration, especially given the fact he was sat in Death Eater central.

"Right then, let's take a quick look in your fathers' private Dark Magic stash shall we?"

OoOoO

_**STOCKWELL HOMELESS SHELTER, LONDON**_

Voldemort took a deep breath and took a step back to regard his latest creation, his one hundredth and twenty first since he had started, and yet despite his achievement, it was a mere drop in the ocean to what he wanted to unleash upon the unsuspecting in only two nights time. He wanted to have a thousand such creations by that time, although that figure would probably have to be revised downwards significantly.

The construct groaned and waved its arms feebly in the air in an attempt to reach Wormtail, who as was his wont in such situations, had huddled in a corner of the basement room. Voldemort was many things, he wasn't however an idiot, he had taken precautions against his own creations getting out of control and attacking him. He would not have been in any real danger, but it would have been...inconvenient, especially since any such loss of control would more importantly cost him time, time he could ill afford.

There was a timetable that he was working to, one that would see all major resistance swept aside in a single moment, the Aurors were dealt with, even the few that remained free of capture were a spent force, without the Aurors leading the way the rest of the Ministry had quickly fallen to his forces and his control of the Wizarding government was now almost total.

The only remaining obstacles now were the Goblins, the muggles and Potter.

The Goblins had proven a most unwelcome surprise; they had stood with Potter against all of his predictions that a seriously large bribe would have purchased their neutrality. But the Goblins had now been split down the middle by the same greed and lust for power that had handed Voldemort control of the Human Ministry.

The plan to deal with the Goblins, which had been put into place, but for some reason never activated, nearly a thousand years ago by his honoured ancestor Salazar Slytherin, would effectively remove the Goblin threat forever, that it would also doom the Goblin race mattered little to the dark wizard, the Goblin dominance of the financial system was degrading to pure blood wizards everywhere, in the short term the loss of the Goblins would be devastating, but in the long term the freedoms the pure blood society would gain from controlling its own finances would be tremendous.

Potter was only strong while he had the backing of his misguided supporters, the Aurors were already gone, the Goblins would also be stripped from the youth, and the only threat would then be his network of school friends, the parents of those same children and the teaching staff of Hogwarts.

Those that stood with Potter would not be killed out of hand, not all of them at least, after all to rule, you had to have someone to rule over, and after they had seen what was about to happen to the Goblins and many other of Potters supporters, it would be many years before any dared stand against him again.

The last threat came from the muggles, and while individually they barely registered at all, there were now so very many of them in the world that they did indeed pose a significant threat. The time was fast approaching when the muggles would became aware of the magical world, and that time could very well herald the doom for all of them.

Voldemort had been amazed and at the same time horrified to learn how powerful the muggles had become, he had listened to the leader of the Russian mercenaries as he spoke of weapons that could destroy entire cities in an instant, or could kill the populations of entire cities yet leave the buildings completely untouched. Weapons that could strike with pinpoint accuracy from beyond the horizon, weapons that could be carried by single muggles that could chop a dozen wizards down in seconds.

When last he had dealt with muggles their weapons hadn't fired more than one shot at a time and at such a slow rate that any wizard had an overwhelming advantage, and the beyond the horizon weapons required a mass of fire just to ensure a single target was hit. Even the muggle flying machines bore little resemblance to what he remembered them being capable of.

So Voldemort had vowed to use the muggles greatest strength to launch a pre-emptive strike that would trigger a worldwide release of weapons of such destruction that the muggles that remained afterwards would welcome the magical world rising to its rightful dominant place in society.

Back to the task at hand, throwing the preformed portkey on top of the construct, Voldemort sent it to the holding pen where all its fellows waited for the time less than forty-eight hours hence when they would be released to wreak havoc and death upon his enemies.

OoOoO

_**PORTON DOWN**_

Mills led his small cadre of men down the ramp and into the darkness; the pace of the advance had now slowed significantly as stealth became more important than speed.

Despite the thermal vision equipment they wore the going was slow, the downside to using thermal equipment was if everything was at nearly the same temperature then the picture quality fell considerably. At the moment the walls, floor and ceiling all were the same colour and making out details was extremely difficult.

In future Mills would ensure his men were equipped with a mix of Thermal and Image intensifying vision aids. Image intensifiers or II greatly magnified the available light, allowing the wearer to see on even the blackest of nights, but they didn't use heat therefore an invisible wizard wouldn't stand out at all.

For now the small party of armed men struggled to make out their environment from the low quality pictures the thermal vision was displaying and very quickly all had developed headaches.

Ahead of them the wide corridor swept around to the left and out of sight, still descending. The bend would give a defender an opportunity to take a shot at anyone as they came around the corner; it was an ideal ambush position.

With a gesture of his hand, Mills slowed the pace even further and inched closer to the bend while being careful not to scrape his equipment on the wall. In the gloom and silence of the bunker any sound would carry a long way, and if there was a lookout just around the corner he didn't want them alerted.

Adjusting his thermal imaging goggles to their maximum resolution, Mills leant as far forward as he could without exposing his head around the corner. The space in front of him appeared to be slightly warmer than the bunkers background temperature, showing up as a slightly brighter shade.

The difference in temperature was in the shape of a cone, at head height and appeared to be changing temperature every few seconds, it took him a few seconds for Mills to realise what he was seeing was being caused by the breathe of someone stood silently in the darkness, they were only a few feet from him around bend, their body heat hidden by the concrete wall.

Slowly, carefully he reached down and released the catch on the sheath of his combat knife. With utmost caution he eased the blackened blade free of the sheath and eased forward until he was on the very bend of the corner. His own heartbeat was so loud he felt sure the lookout must have been able to hear him in the darkness.

Easing the thermal vision goggles on to his head he gave his eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness, behind him he was aware that one of his team had moved into position directly behind him, silenced weapon ready to finish whatever he started.

Taking a deep breath, Mills held it in for a second before he slowly released it and then he moved.

Stepping around the bend, he was upon the lookout before the man even knew that he was there, the lookout was facing him from the distance of only a foot away and never even had the chance to form a conscious response before the knife blade plunged into the soft tissue under his left armpit. The blade, angling downwards, pierced arteries and slid into the heart.

The lookout stiffened from the shock of the impact and Mills grabbed hold of his clothing and using his own body weight rolled backwards and pulled the wizard from his feet, clamping his hand over the man's mouth to muffle any sounds.

From the darkness was a flash of green light, swiftly followed by an intense feeling of nausea and then the concrete over his head exploded with a boom that was magnified many time over by the close confines of the concrete corridor. The lookout hadn't been alone, out there in the darkness was a second wizard who was trying to draw a bead on him, despite the danger Mills remained focused on the man he sat astride, his men were well trained and he had faith in them.

Close to his head came the chatter of a silenced weapon as his backup engaged the hidden wizard, the backup hadn't removed his thermal goggles and could see the wizard clearly through the invisibility charm by his body heat.

The second wizard slid down the wall to the ground, obviously as dead as the first lookout now was, withdrawing his knife and wiping the blade on the dead man's clothing, Mills stowed the knife back into its sheath and winced slightly as the echo of the blast from the spell rang down the corridor, whatever chance had existed of arriving undetected had now gone. Every living being in the bunker could not have failed to miss the sound.

"Go to white light, time to hustle."

Mills switched off his goggles, but left them sat up on his head then reached down and activated the torch set under the barrel of his weapon, the white light that blazed forth came as a relief as the downward angled corridor was thrown into sharp relief by the beams from multiple torches.

"Alright, we need to pick up the pace, staggered file, watch your arcs."

The men split up until they were in two halves, one on each side of the corridor, and when they were ready Mills led the way at a fast jog. The sound of the rhythmic pounding of their boots preceded them down into the darkness, stealth was no longer an option.

Ahead the ramp swept into another left hand turn, still descending, they had to be at least fifty feet below ground level now, this time there was little point of slowing at the corner, because anyone waiting there already knew they were coming.

One man had replaced his goggles as a precaution and they went around the corner at speed.

There was indeed a wizard waiting for them, his green spell reached out and struck a soldier, folding the man over and dropping him to the floor, but the wizards resistance ended quickly as every available weapon returned fire, turning his chest into a soggy mess.

Mills bent by his downed man, but the soldier was dead, his lifeless eyes staring up at the ceiling, bowing his head for a moment, Mills took the opportunity to slide a fresh magazine into his weapon, those that had fired all did the same.

"Come on, this isn't over yet."

Leaving the bodies where they lay the reduced troop started downwards once more.

The corridor immediately flattened out and widened into a chamber of some sort, the chamber itself stretched away into the distance and its furthest dimensions were lost, out of the range of the soldiers' torchlight. On each side of the chamber were a series of immense metal doors, each a dozen metres across.

Mills could see at least twenty doors in front of him, luckily the only clue to the direction he needed was the footprints that had been left in the dust by the interlopers to guide him in pursuit, the footprints led towards the left of the chamber towards a one of the impressive doors.

With a wave of his hand he indicated that his men should move out and flank the doorway, so if anyone stepped into the main chamber they would be caught in a devastating crossfire. Pulling his goggles down he quickly checked for any hidden surprises, the door was a lot hotter than the background temperature, especially along the edge where the locking mechanism would be. Mills guessed the temperature increase had been caused either by explosives or magic, using thermal it was much easier to spot the door was slightly ajar.

Silently indicating his men to switch off their torches, Mills saw white light spilling from the gap between the door and the wall along with moving shadows as whoever was inside crossed the light source.

Just as he was reaching the door there was a series of loud pops from whatever space lay beyond, Mills recognised the sound as that made by wizards as they initiated a site to site transport, rushing forward he forced himself into the gap between the partially open door and the wall and was rewarded with the sight of two men in black robes carrying a long circular container of some sort between them vanish from sight with another loud pop.

"Help me get this door open, we need to find out what was in this room, we need to know what they took."

It took five of them to move the door the half metre that gave them access to the room beyond. It was small and unlit. The main feature of the room was the temperature; it was cold in there, certainly well below room temperature.

There was a series of empty wooden racks each designed to hold the circular containers Mills had glimpsed; they had been stacked around the edges of the room in batches of five. There had been at least twenty of the containers if each of the racks had been full, but full of what?

Using their torches the soldiers examined the room for any clue as to what had been stored there but it was one of those outside that found the clue.

Responding to a shout from outside Mills retraced his steps and entered the main chamber, one of his soldiers was moving towards him holding some sort of leaflet.

Shining his torch on the document, Mills read the page quickly; he felt the blood run out of his face as he slowly read the page for a second time.

"Oh Shit, that isn't good!"

The page was part of a document detailing the special handling precautions required when moving large quantities of VX gas containers, possibly the most dangerous man made chemical in existence.

OoOoO

_**MALFOY MANOR**_

Under Draco's guidance Harry and Viktor moved the dining room furniture out of the way resorting to muscle power rather than magic, it was possible somebody would come running to investigate if unexplained magic was used inside the building, and despite the fact they hadn't seen another soul since entering, all three of them felt a crawling sensation on the backs of their necks as if they were being watched...only there was no-one there.

Harry's trouble bump was screaming at him, but there was nothing that could possibly a threat in sight, there was nothing that he could do other than continue with his present course of action.

The high ceilinged room was opulent beyond belief, like something Harry imagined Buckingham palace would resemble, all gold inlaid and magnificent. Draco had already told him that this was the room that his father used to impress the socks off of anyone who visited the estate.

"Now what?"

Harry asked, he was feeling impatient to be gone from the house; he had that awful taste at the back of his throat that always warned him that something bad was going to happen. The other two were feeling it was well, there was a growing sense of 'wrongness' and yet nothing was wrong.

"The hidden area is under a Fidelius charm and I'm not the secret keeper, I am however aware of its location so I can enter, what is it you are looking for exactly?"

Harry winced, he didn't want to start discussing a Horcrux in the middle of Death Eater headquarters, and he didn't want to discuss the subject with Draco at all, however the chances that Voldemort had stashed one of the items keeping him alive inside this most secure location meant that he had to trust Draco a little more than he wanted.

"I'm seeking a golden cup, no bigger than my two hands..." Harry held his hands up to demonstrate the size. "It may or may not be engraved with the symbol of a badger."

Draco frowned at the mention of the symbol of one of founders, he had of course heard of Hufflepuff's cup, just like Ravenclaw's locket, the cup had taken on an almost mythical quality, no-one really believed in the existence of the items anymore. It was like discussing Robin Hood with a muggle, they had all heard the stories, but most people believed they were just stories.

"Right, I'm looking for Hufflepuff's cup." Draco muttered under his breath.

With a wave of his wand the carpet rolled itself back from where it had laid undisturbed under the table and chairs. Taking the tip of his wand he pressed it to the index finger of his opposite hand and caused a single drop of blood to fall onto the finely panelled floor.

The blood appeared to be swallowed up by the panelling and... Nothing happened; Draco however smiled and moved forwards. Harry was amazed to see Draco's feet disappear, swiftly followed by his knees as he descended some steps that were invisible to Harry. In a few short seconds Draco had disappeared completely from view although Harry could still hear him muttering to himself.

Then even the muttering stopped and there was a sudden silence. Harry listened intently but couldn't hear anything, he was just about to start shouting when Draco appeared levitating a cup in front of him. It was a golden cup and did indeed have a badger engraved upon it, the cup wasn't decorated with diamonds and jewels, it was just plain and simple, but even so it managed to convey a sense of history.

"I'm not sure, because this is Bill's area of expertise but I think this thing is cursed, as I approached it I had the overwhelming desire to pick it up, I didn't think that actually picking it up was terribly clever."

Draco's quick thinking had probably saved his life, Harry felt a sudden sense of guilt remembering what had happened to Dumbledore when he had activated the traps placed upon Gaunt's ring, any curse that had crippled and nearly killed Dumbledore would have flattened Draco in an instant.

Harry quickly conjured a bag and Draco carefully levitated the cup inside.

"I think it's time we were leaving."

Draco said with heartfelt conviction.

"Yeah, thanks for the hospitality Viktor but it's time we got the hell out of here."

"It's too late for that."

The voice came from Harry's left, it was a foreign accent yet with aristocratic tones, spoken with a slight lisp. Harry reacted with the instincts of a youth whose recent experiences had been one life threatening event after another. Lightning fast, he span away from the voice and his wand flashed from the wrist holster.

Harry never even saw the blow coming that smashed into his chest and sent him flying across the room to land in an ungainly heap on the floor and slide the last metre to rest against the wall.

Draco had moved just as quickly as Harry and had the slight advantage that he was further away; he at least managed to get his wand on target.

The figure still somehow managed to strike Harry, turn and close the distance on Draco in the blink of an eye, flowing around the cutting curse that Draco fired at him, which destroyed a chair. Grabbing Draco's wrist in a firm one-handed grip the stranger proceeded to throw the reformed youth across the entire room, dislocating the shoulder in the process.

Then Viktor smashed into the man from behind, the Bulgarian was of a bigger build than both the other youths and the stranger, and the force of the impact should have thrown the man to the floor, instead he braced himself then reached over his shoulder grasped a handful of Viktor's Death Eater robes and flung him across the room as if he weighed nothing at all.

By this time Harry had regained his feet, he was empty handed as his wand had flown off in the opposite direction from the one he had taken, He didn't even have to think about his actions, he had spent so much time practising that he automatically flexed his fingers and concentrated and his wand was back in his hand in an instant and pointed at the interloper.

"So the little one has a few tricks of his own, good, I was afraid this would be boring."

The man stood with his arms hanging down by his sides in a relaxed pose, there was nothing relaxed about his eyes however, they were a brilliant violet colour and they regarded Harry like he imagined an owl regarded a rodent from his high perch.

The newcomer was dressed in opulent brown riding trousers and a shirt that had frilly ruffles down the front, the shirt resembled Ron's dress robes from the tri-wizard tournament, but where Ron had looked distinctly comical, this man looked very dangerous.

"Who are you?"

Harry asked, not really expecting an answer, one of the new Death Eater recruits from the continent, one obviously trained in hand to hand combat. But between the three of them, acting with some co-ordination, they should still have been able to take him.

"I am eternal as the night itself, I am the fear you feel when death comes calling for you, I can smell that fear on you little one, you do not belong in this place, despite the clothes you wear, I can sense the blood hammering in your chest, I have yet to taste British Wizard and how I hunger for you."

The man slowly smiled and seeing his enlarged incisors Harry suddenly realised how much trouble he was really in.

"A Vampire, that is just terrific."

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW**_

With a great deal of care and attention Emily Shacklebolt used her wand tip to send tiny electric shocks through each finger of Ernie Macmillan's reattached hand, watching carefully for any sign of tendon or nerve damage. Damage caused by curses could be extremely difficult to repair, a lot depended on the type of curse and the amount of time that passed before medical attention was available.

While Ernie's injury was caused by a simple cutting curse the situation had been complicated because the teen had cauterised the stump himself to avoid bleeding to death and enabling him to continue fighting. So not only did the hand have to be reattached, but all the damage done by the cauterisation to veins, blood vessels and soft tissue had to be repaired.

The hand began to spasm as the small electric current passed across it and from the sharp intake of breath, Ernie could feel the pain travelling all the way from the tips of his fingers, all of which was a good sign that the hand would make a full recovery.

"So what's the prognosis?"

Emily Shacklebolt somehow managed to not flinch as the voice of her husband sounded right behind her, she had long ago given up trying to figure out how Kingsley, despite his size, moved so quietly, he could always appear at her side without any warning and frighten her half to death.

"Mr Macmillan should make a complete and speedy recovery; there should be little or no loss of function."

Emily smiled in reassurance at the worried teen; he had been the model patient, sitting quietly while she went about the task of saving his hand.

"I never doubted it; I after all have a very skilled healer for a wife." Shacklebolt leaned in towards Ernie and dropped his voice to stage whisper. "I have to say things like that every so often or I don't get fed."

Ernie laughed and Emily gave her husband a mock scowl that quickly became a warm smile. With a tilt of her head towards the door she indicated that Ernie could leave.

Grinning, he hopped off of the bed and made his way out of the room, leaving the married couple alone for the first time in far too long. Shacklebolt closed the door with a wave of his wand.

Once they were alone Emily gratefully sagged against her husband, finally able to give into the exhaustion that had been threatening to overcome her. Her magical reserves had been run to a dangerously low level over recent days and she hadn't been given sufficient time to regain her strength.

In a fully staffed magical trauma ward, after a trauma incident involving multiple patients of the size they had been dealing with at the burrow, healers would have been sent home for at least twenty four hours to allow their magical reserves to recover. At the burrow however, with trauma healers in such short supply and the incidents coming at such a fast pace, there was no possibility for such downtime and the resultant strain was starting to damage the healers' health.

Kingsley knew his wife well enough to see through the front she had been projecting for the patients, which was why he had taken this opportunity to grab some time alone with her. Ernie Macmillan had been the last trauma patient injured during the recent operation waiting to be seen. Cho Chang, while seriously ill, wasn't a trauma patient, Poppy Pomfrey had taken over as her primary healer to relief some of the pressure from the trauma healers.

"I'm not sure I can keep doing this for much longer, I cannot remember ever having been so tired, eventually I will make a mistake, or not have the energy left to adequately heal a wound."

Kingsley gently began to caress the back of his wife's head, it was an action he normally carried out when they were in bed and she had returned from a particularly heinous shift at St Mungos, normally it helped her off to sleep.

"You won't make a mistake, you don't have it in you to be anything less than perfect, it's one of the many reasons I love you so much. Now you need to take the opportunity to go get some sleep while you can, there is no-one left to heal."

Emily Shacklebolt shook her head and stepped back, looking up at her husband.

"Not everyone is back, Harry and Draco are still out and since when does Harry ever arrive back without some sort of life threatening injury leaving him bare moments from death?"

Shacklebolt knew his wife well enough to know that since she had somehow pulled Harry back from the brink of death on his return from Azkaban that she felt that she had become his personal healer, a view that she and Poppy Pomfrey both felt. She would not take no for an answer on this matter, she was too stubborn to allow personal weakness to get in the way of professional duty to a patient.

Sweeping Emily into his arms, Kingsley carried her to the bed in the treatment room and despite her weak protests laid her upon it.

"Harry isn't here now, and you will be no good to him when he does arrive if you are too tired to string a sentence together let alone cast a spell, you need to get some sleep, allow magic levels a chance to recover. I promise you I will come and wake you the moment that Harry walks in or is carried through the hospital door."

Despite her verbal protests, Emily made no attempt to move off of the bed, deep down she knew that she was at the limit of her power, but she still needed to have the last word on the matter.

"You had better wake me up, and I mean the instant Harry gets back, whether he needs a healer or not."

"Yes dear."

Shacklebolt conjured a blanket and placed it over his wife's already sleeping form. Very gently he stroked the back of her head for a few minutes before he crept from the room and cast a silencing charm on the door to ensure she wasn't woken unnecessarily.

ooo

The Goblin Warrior named Wendel had wasted no time upon his return to show off his new battle wounds to the members of his company remaining at the burrow, the entire right side of his head felt like it was on fire, but he allowed no sign of his pain and discomfort show in front of his fellows, not even when the overly curious prodded and poked at the wound.

Unlike the humans, who seemed to abhor the sight of honestly won scars, Goblins celebrated a warrior who returned with scars won on the field of battle. For one thing for a Goblin to be able to show off his scars he had to still be alive, and that meant the one that had given the warrior the scar probably wasn't.

The blond female human healer, the one who had become mate in all but name to the human warrior dressed in black, she had attacked him upon his return, her wand tip glowing blue. Wendel knew she thought she was helping him by attempting to heal his wound, however to a Goblin a wound received in battle was not something to be feared, it was an expression of manhood and bravery, something to be treasured as it brought honour to his family and clan.

It was this reason why the Goblins as a race so respected Harry Potter, he had a battle scar he had won at the tender age of one year old and had in the process vanquished, albeit temporarily, the most dangerous and evil wizard of recent years, the one that had killed his parents. Goblins were very much into seeking revenge for past wrongs, it was this need for vengeance that had kept the majority of Goblins firmly opposed to Voldemort. It was very impressive...for a human.

Despite the fact he had sworn his life to Harry Potter's cause, Wendel knew that the future of his face would soon be decided, all the warriors of his clan were preparing to march on the Goblin city, and he knew that he should go with them. But his oath kept him behind, and within hours he would be the last Goblin at the burrow, he could only hope that the result of the upcoming leadership struggle would come out in Harry's favour.

ooo

Arthur Weasley was returning to his home from the hospital when he first heard that familiar sound, he had been checking on the condition of his soon to be daughter-in-law and some of the other more seriously injured patients, as he was officially the host and felt that it was part of his duties to ensure everyone was made as comfortable as possible.

He looked up as the familiar sound drifted to his ears, a rhythmic thumping sound that seemed to come from everywhere at once. It belonged to one of the amazing muggle flying machines with the spinning wings that had arrived and picked up the muggle Prime Minister.

Something fast moving and dark green in colour crested the thickly populated tree line over Stoatshead hill, dropping swiftly down into the valley beyond and out of sight behind the tress that surrounded his property, just as it disappeared from view a second machine cleared the top of the hill, the second machine was dark grey, then as he watched open mouthed, a third machine crested the hill and quickly disappeared from view.

A small crowd began to gather, drawn by the increasing sound; no two people were looking in the same direction, as the sound although increasing in level still seemed to be coming from everywhere.

It came as a surprise to nearly everyone watching when the first machine appeared above the tree line, it was moving so incredibly fast for something so large. The machine roared across the meadow at a height of less than a hundred feet causing nearly everyone to cringe in terror as it passed low overhead, the crowd all turned in amazement to watch the machine pass, and so had their backs turned to the second machine following the path of the first at an even lower altitude. That was too much for many in the crowd; they either threw themselves flat on the ground or ran screaming back into the buildings.

Arthur Weasley just stood there with an overjoyed expression on his face; he marvelled at the ingenuity of the muggles creating such machines, if they could do this, then surely nothing was beyond them. The third machine crossed the meadow at a much higher altitude than either of the first two, this was the same type of aerocraft as had picked up the muggle leader, the first two had been slightly smaller and of a different design.

The first machine had banked into a crazily tight turn and circled back and this time as it crossed the boundary of the meadow hatches on the underside sprung open and wheels had dropped down into position so that the machine could land. As it approached it pointed its nose into the air, slowing rapidly, by the time it dropped its nose back to the horizontal the machine was moving at a slow walking pace only a few feet from the ground. With dainty precision the pilot set it down and let it roll to a halt.

The second machine followed the first and its landing was almost identical, the third machine circled the meadow once more, picking its larger landing area due to its size before it gently touched down. The noise level dropped almost immediately and Arthur thought that even his inexperienced eyes could detect a slowing in the movement of the lead machines spinning wings.

By now the crowd had grown considerably in size, although no one had moved closer than a hundred feet of the machines, which considering how fast the wings of metal, like oversized Goblin blades, had been spinning was probably a good thing.

The wings on the first machine were barely turning at all now, and even as he watched large ramps in the rear of all three of the machines began to descend slowly until they were at ground level.

A large mass of men seemed to explode from the rear of the three aircraft, the majority of them were dressed in black and a few members of the watching crowd cried out in alarm at the sign of men dressed in the colour of Death Eaters. All of the men (and surprisingly, two women) whether they were dressed in black or the woodland camouflage were armed with firelegs slung on their backs.

Whatever it was that they were doing at the back of the aircraft resembled organised chaos from Arthur's view, they appeared to be taking boxes from the back of the aircraft and stacking them into piles, then other soldiers came along and moved the boxes into other piles.

One of the men dressed in black had broken away from the group and was walking towards the wizards. It took a moment for Arthur to recognise Thomas Bell. The tall soldier was dressed in black from his boots, to the trousers with many pockets to the jacket that seemed to have a hood rolled up around his neck, he also wore that unusual waistcoat with all the different pockets and pouches packed full of whatever supplies he needed, he carried a small fireleg in a holster at his waist and had another, much larger weapon, slung over his back.

"Mr Weasley, it's good to see you again, I hope our arrival hasn't interrupted you routine too much."

Shaking the offered hand, Arthur grinned and glanced over his shoulder, the crowd had grown to include many of the hospital staff, in fact other than those still be treated and those treating them he was willing to bet that every member of his growing community were gathered to watch the muggles.

Before Arthur could say anything a certain blond female healer tore past him and threw herself into the soldier's arms. Thomas smiled and easily lifted her up off of the floor, into his arms and span her around.

"I told you I would be back, why so surprised?"

Waiting until Thomas had placed her feet gently back onto the ground, Amanda Coombs placed a hand on either side of his head and pulled his face down to hers and proceeded to kiss Thomas long and hard on the lips. The soldier came back up for air with a dazed yet happy look on his face, putting his arm across Amanda's shoulder he turned back to Arthur.

"Sorry about that I got a little sidetracked, where were we?"

"Not at all, while you are always welcome here, I have to ask the reason for the arrival of so many soldiers at the burrow?"

The politician in Arthur ensured he spoke loud enough for the entire crowd to hear the question, he already knew the answer, but it would do everyone's morale good to know they didn't stand alone. Word would get out faster than most thought possible, and soon all that stood against Voldemort would know.

Thomas Bell smiled and from the amused expression he knew what was required, a loud verbal declaration of his intent and mission statement. Pulling a piece of paper from his pocket he began to read.

"On the direct order of Her Royal Highness the Queen, the Criminal named Voldemort...oh for goodness sake people, it's his name...has been declared an enemy of the state. This individual has both ordered and personally committed heinous acts targeting both the magical and non-magical communities, and as such he and his organisation are considered a clear and present danger to the people of Great Britain. With immediate effect a state of war exists between Great Britain and the wizard Voldemort and any of his followers that continue to support him."

Bell paused and saw that many in the crowd still had confused looks upon their faces, he smiled, it seemed that sometimes the long version didn't quite carry the punch that the short version did.

"In other words, we are here to help ensure that snake face and his friends get shuffled off this mortal coil with extreme prejudice, we are going to kick his arse so hard that any potential dark wizard in the future takes a good hard look at his career choice."

The cheer that rose from the crowd at this statement almost knocked Bell over with his volume, he grinned, now he just had to find a way to break the news to the majority of his command that everything they thought they knew about the world was wrong

OoOoO

_**MALFOY MANOR**_

Viktor was quickly back on his feet, Draco less so, his face was pale and his injured arm hung limply down at his side. The Vampire, although keeping his attention split between the three of them, continued to regard Harry with a hungry expression which Harry found to be more than a little disconcerting.

"Look, we really don't want any trouble..."

That sounded really lame even as the words left his mouth, Draco was looking at him with an incredulous expression on his face, and Harry just shrugged in response, he had to start trying to resolve some of the conflict happening around him without always having to fight for his life.

"Oh I assure you it won't be any trouble at all; you might even enjoy it...briefly."

The Vampire smiled again showing his extended and sharpened teeth. Right Potter pull yourself together, you have tried talking your way out of this, epic fail, so as normal in your life experience so far, it will come down to a fight, at least you have two other wands backing you up, alone against a Vampire would be suicide.

Harry wracked his brains trying to recall everything that he had been taught about Vampires, but like most of what he had been taught in Defence Against the Dark Arts over the years a lot of what was taught paled in comparison when confronted by the real thing.

Vampires: Lesser demon bound inside a human host, created by what is sometimes referred to as the 'Vampires Kiss' which is actually not the act of drinking the victims blood, but the act of passing part of the demon's soul into the victim. Considered by many to rank among the Undead due to their extremely long lifespan, Vampires however have no resemblance to zombies or Inferi, in that after being turned or 'reborn' they retain intelligence and all the memories of the host.

Harry still found it incredible that whenever he was recalling subject matter from lessons he always found it being narrated in Hermione's voice...Shut up Harry and pay attention...yes Hermione.

Vampires: phenomenally fast, exceptionally strong, highly resistant to direct damage magic, Vampires are also reported to possess some form of hypnotic ability that can place a victim into a form of trance, there are reports of Vampires being able to transform into various animals, but whether this is an innate talent, or something carried over from the host is uncertain.

Ok, so don't look into a Vampire's eyes or around his eyes, but especially not into his eyes, this wasn't helping, he needed a weakness to exploit...I was just getting to that, patience Harry...Yes Hermione.

Vampires: Cannot cast spells using wands, the hosts magical core is expended during the 'rebirth', Vampires gain strength and power by feeding on victims blood, more so magical folk than muggles, an injured Vampire can rapidly heal himself if he has several victims to feed upon. Vampires are severely weakened by sunlight rather than killed; Vampires are allergic garlic and to all forms of wood, and a wooden stake to the chest will kill most. Decapitation or major head trauma will also kill the Vampire.

Since his wand was out, Harry glanced around the room looking for something he could use as a weapon, the only thing that sprang to mind was the demolished remains of the chair that Draco's errant cutting curse had destroyed, several of the legs looked like they might do some damage, but for that he needed to be close to the vampire, right on top of him in fact.

The only way for this to work was for the three wizards to coordinate their attack, overwhelm the Vampire with numbers; otherwise the creature was fast enough to swat them one at a time. It was at times like these that Harry wished he had paid a lot more attention to Thomas Bell and the hand signals he used.

Then it hit him, they already had a silent language in common, each of them were seekers and Quidditch teams all used silent forms of communications to call plays, of course making a message that fitted this situation wasn't going to be easy and required some...inventive interpretation of the International Confederation of Quidditch recognised gestures.

He was signalling moves like a seeker communicating with the rest of his team, the rapid hand signs translated as follows, _seeker has seen the snitch, team to distract opposing seeker_, which if he was mounted on a broom would mean the beaters would now be smacking bludgers at the opposing seeker to distract him, and the chasers would start a confusing series of moves designed to divert attention away from Harry as he flew for the snitch, Harry hoped it translated to what he wanted them to do.

Draco looked at him, narrowed his eyes for a moment before nodding his understanding of the message, Viktor just grinned, flexing his shoulders. Both Viktor and Draco exchanged glances and quick hand gestures.

Harry held up three fingers and slowly counted down and then all three of them were moving.

Draco ran diagonally across the room, casting a steady stream of non life threatening curses, concentrating on creating a wall of minor curses full of coloured lights and sound. The Vampire hardly moved his feet, but his body seemed to blur as he flowed around the curses. Viktor sprinted directly at the Vampire, arms and legs pumping as fast as he could, intending to use his larger size and bulk as his weapon of choice. Harry added his own curses from off to the side, he was moving slowly forward, trying to time his arrival so all three wizards would reach the vampire at the same time.

Draco flicked his wand outwards as he ran and summoned the dining table across the room towards him, as the table moved towards him it crossed Viktor's path and the powerful Bulgarian timed his leap to perfection, landing surefooted on the moving table and driving off it in a leap. The table continued moving across the room and Draco banished it straight at the Vampire.

Harry accelerated, his wand now safely retracted into his wrist holster, he wasn't aware of what spell he could use that would even slightly disadvantage a Vampire and didn't want his wand damaged in the process.

Then the Vampire moved the dining room table split in half from the powerful spin kick the creature delivered, the two halves flew across the room in opposite directions forcing Harry to duck underneath one of them, slowing his forward progress.

The Bulgarian flying through the air struck the Vampire just after he had delivered the kick, on one leg and off balance, the impact spun the Vampire around and Viktor rolled clear, just as Draco arrived in a slide across the floor that would make a professional baseball team proud and delivered a two footed kick to the back of Vampire's leg.

The Vampire's knee bent at an unusual angle and the creature let out a hiss of pain as he sank down to his one good knee. Then Harry arrived from behind brandishing the chair leg that hadn't been in his hand a moment before.

With the Vampire distracted it had been Harry's intention to ram the chair leg into its chest or back and end its life. But somehow the Vampire still managed to spin around on one knee and with his free hand grasp Harry's throat.

The fingers were like metal claws crushing his windpipe and Harry dropped the chair leg to leave both of his hands free in an attempt to prise the fingers off of his throat. Despite his efforts the Vampire continued squeezing and started slowly drawing Harry closer, turning the wizards head slightly to make the neck more accessible.

Harry's feet scrambled for grip on the smooth wooden floor, his eyes stared straight into the face of this immortal killing machine and he felt fear that threatened to stop his heart right there and then, all of his strength counted for nothing, he felt powerless before this creature of the night, there nothing he could do but give in and let the creature take him.

"I shall send you to such sweet oblivion."

The Vampire's voice, such a sweet and melodious sound, how could anyone fight against this. Harry began to black out as the fingers that were like steel slowly increased their grip, he could feel the Vampire's breath on his neck, feel the longing that the creature had to drink him dry, and that suddenly seemed to be a welcome prospect.

The Vampire grunted and the pressure on Harry's throat slackened. Opening his eyes, Harry saw that there was a chair leg protruding from the Vampire, Draco had recovered the chair leg after Harry had dropped it and thrust it into the creatures side. While it had obviously hurt the creature, it hadn't killed him.

The Vampire scowled in anger and raised his free hand; the chair leg came free with a sickening sound, a black foul smelling liquid dripped off of the wood onto the floor. The smell was like a product of the Weasley twins' twisted imagination, it smelled of corruption and evil, and it saved Harry's life.

The foul smell penetrated his olfactory channel in his nose and it had the effect similar to sniffing a bottle of smelling salts, he was immediately fully awake and aware of his surroundings.

Damn, he had looked into the creatures eyes, power of hypnotism confirmed. He had fought his entire life; he wasn't going to beaten by this...thing. He quickly ran back Hermione's narration in his head searching for something he could use. Transforming himself into a giant clove of garlic was not a battle winning strategy, and his conjuring skills lacked the precision to create garlic out of thin air.

Vampires: Vampires are severely weakened by sunlight, although not killed. His own mind was even providing the exasperated tone of voice Hermione used whenever she had to repeat something she had already learnt for Ron or Harry's benefit.

Sunlight, It couldn't really be that simple, could it?

Harry punched the Vampire in the face with one hand as hard as he could, and while his knuckles felt they had been run over by a herd of stampeding Thestrals, the Vampire hardly noticed, but all the blow was for was to distract the creature from what he was doing with his other arm.

Harry raised it and cocked his wrist at a particular angle and pointed his newly emerging wand directly into the Vampires face, there was just time for the creature's eyes to widen in surprise before Harry non-verbally cast a charm he had last used in his first year at Hogwarts.

Lumos Solaire, once used to defeat the Devils Snare that had been set to protect Flamel's stone, now flashed out straight into the face of the startled Vampire. It wasn't sunlight, but rather the magical equivalent, but Harry had thrown everything he had into the charm and the intensity of the light at that range was like falling asleep under a UV lamp.

The Vampire screamed in pain and threw Harry away from him before putting both of his hands up to his face, Harry hit the floor and slid backwards on his rump all the while keeping his wand firmly on the Vampire and maintaining the Lumos charm.

The original exposure had burnt and blistered the Vampire's face, tanning the skin from pale white to lobster red in an instant, clear liquid leaked from oozing sores on the Vampires face. There was a smell of slightly burnt flesh that made Harry want to empty the contents of his stomach all over the floor.

"I am going to cause you such pain, your screams and that of your friends shall feed my soul for centuries to come."

The Vampire's voice was no longer melodious and entrancing, now it was just hate filled and angry, so Harry figured he must have been doing something right. The creature dropped his hands and his eyes, now inflamed and watering were fixed with an insane determination on Harry.

The Vampire, still on his knees, suddenly had the most unusual expression on his face, and there was a foot of shining steel sticking out of his chest, he reached up and touched the metal protruding from where his heart was located.

The metal withdrew as fast as it had appeared, there was a whirling sound and suddenly the Vampire's head fell forward, away from the neck and landed by the creature's own knees, the headless body, no longer under conscious control, toppled over backwards.

Both Harry and Draco scrambled backwards away from the corpse, the head sat on its side on the floor, almost seeming to look at them in disbelief until, without warning it burst into flames and disappeared leaving nothing but dust behind, Within seconds the body of the Vampire had also started to burn and in the space of a few breaths there was nothing substantial left to show where the Vampire had been.

Harry raised his eyes from the now empty floor and beheld the man that entered the room unnoticed by all the occupants. He held a black sword resembling a Japanese Katana in a two handed grip, the blade held horizontal to the ground, with the cutting edge facing upwards, level with his head.

The man was dressed in loose black trousers and a dark grey top. He was regarding the three youths with a strange intensity, his eyes searching for something. He found what he was looking for when his eyes finally came to rest on Harry's forehead and the scar visible for the entire world to see.

The man smiled, revealing that he wasn't in actual fact a man at all, but another Vampire. Harry didn't even hesitate for an instant, before the Vampire could so much as blink, his sword rested in Harry's hand. Both Draco and Viktor drew a deep breath, there was no way that was a simple summoning spell, the sword had not crossed the distance between Harry and the Vampire, it had moved instantly between the two locations, like apparation.

"I am pleased to see the leader of the light is not without a few tricks; however you will need more than tricks to save you, Harry Potter."

The Vampire had straightened and held up his hands. Palm forwards in a conciliatory gesture, he appeared to be in his early thirties, although that was highly misleading.

Harry wasn't sure why, but he didn't feel in any danger from this creature, it was like the reverse of his trouble bump, instead of warning of impending peril it was trying to calm his fears, despite the unthreatening feeling he had, he didn't lower his guard a fraction of an inch.

"Who are you and what do you want with me?"

The Vampire smiled again and nodded his head as he watched Draco and Viktor moving so that they could cover him with their wands without getting in each other's way.

"I shall answer the second question first if I may. The Vampire Clans of Europe are ruled by a Conclave formed by six clan leaders, there was a vote passed to send forces to aid Voldemort in your conflict. This vote was passed by majority only; it was not by any means unanimous."

Harry was surprised that dark creatures could be so organised, Werewolves just wandered around in packs, but now he knew they had a formalised leadership and internal politics every bit as contentious as the Ministry of Magic.

"I have been sent here as an insurance policy, not every Vampire clan believes that backing Voldemort in this conflict is the best or indeed the wisest course of action. My clan master firmly believes we should have remained neutral in wizard affairs, and fears that should you win despite the Vampires' interference, that the backlash would lead to a much wider conflict. In short I am here to protect you in the hope that should you succeed you will look more kindly upon us. My name is Zachariah"

Harry blinked in surprise, assuming this Vampire was telling the truth, what he had said was just about the last thing he had expected to here coming out of a Vampire's mouth. It was nearly as surprising as hearing Voldemort telling him at their next meeting that he was giving up dark wizardry and retiring to the country to take up llama farming.

"How could I possibly believe anything you say, let alone that you are here to protect me, if I take you to the burrow I will be effectively bypassing the wards, you would be inside our protections and free to roam about. I would be taking an awful chance with a lot of innocent lives."

The Vampire frowned in thought, obviously understanding the risk he was asking Harry to take on his behalf.

"I would take a wizard's oath, but since i haven't been a wizard in over fifty years it would be meaningless. I have to say that i am at a loss what to say..."

He was interrupted by the arrival of a third Vampire, this one was dressed almost identically to the Vampire that had already been slain, ruffles on his shirt and all, the new arrival most definitely set Harry's trouble bump off.

"Who are these humans and what are they doing here..." The Vampire's eyes fell onto Harry's lightning bolt scar and he did a double take. "Its Harry Potter, right here, Voldemort will be most pleased by such an arrival gift, and we could share the remaining humans between us. I haven't fed in days."

Zachariah sighed and bowed his head in dismay, then he moved so fast that it took a pensieve memory at a later point to follow. He somersaulted backwards and thrust out his hand towards the wizard in mid air. The Vampire's katana held in Harry's hand jumped free and span across the intervening gap and smacked securely into the palm of Zachariah's outstretched hand.

The Vampire landed, reversed his grip on the hilt of the sword and thrust the blade backwards under his own armpit into the chest of the new arrival, taking the new arrival completely by surprise.

Before the Vampire could so much as cry out, Zachariah had wrenched the blade clear, spun and with his grip on the sword still reversed, swept in a circle. The movement ended with Zachariah crouched facing Harry with the sword placed on the ground

The new arrivals head still wore a look of confused horror when it hit the floor, as before the head and body burst into all consuming flames within seconds of the blow.

"How..."

Zachariah stood with gracefulness of a big cat and wiped the blade with a cloth he had pulled from his pocket before holding the blade out to Harry hilt first.

"How did I summon the blade without using magic?" Harry nodded. "My sword is a Goblin made blade, one of the features that Goblins can enchant into their weapons is that it will always return try to its master's hand when called. This was my sword before my rebirth, and the charm apparently still works now that I am a Vampire."

Harry nodded in understanding, he had seen Wendel and other Goblins summoning weapons back to their hands in combat, he didn't know that they had created human weapons with the same enchantments.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I'm sold."

Draco spoke into the few seconds of lingering silence that followed the swift killing of the second Vampire in as many minutes.

OoOoO

_**THURAS CLAN APPARTMENT**_

Gutripper disembowelled the Grey robed assassin with a casual looking yet precise swing of his sword, and with a hard shove, pushed the dying Goblin off of the barricade and back into the press of his fellows. The respite the Goblin's death bought was short-lived however as another grey robed assassin scaled the barricade almost immediately.

The double headed axe flashed downwards and whizzed by Gutripper's nose by no more than half an inch before burying itself halfway into the hastily built barricade. Gutripper didn't give the assassin the time to wrench the axe free so he could swing again, instead he reached up and grabbed a fist full of grey robe and pulled the off balance Goblin off of his perch and onto Gutripper's sword.

The impact of the impaled Goblin drove Gutripper to his knees and tore his sword from his grasp.

"Switch!"

Gutripper rolled aside as another of his clan warriors took his recently vacated place at the barricade, allowing the panting Company Commander to recover his weapon and survey the carnage that the clan apartments had become.

Thanks to Rotgut's warning of the impending attack, Gutripper had wasted no time in preparing for what was coming. The clan apartments were exquisitely decorated and furnished, they were for diplomats and clan elders who had business in council, and in other words they were about as defensible as a soggy brown paper bag.

The only possible choke point in the entire apartment was the entrance hallway, and as a sign of clan wealth and importance, unfortunately, it was wide enough to move a dragon through. They had had to strip the entire apartment of furnishing in order to build a barricade at Goblin shoulder height across the entire width of the hallway. Beyond the hallway the apartment opened up into a wide airy courtyard surrounded by arches.

Without the barricade it was likely the Clan Thuras defenders would have died already, the assassins had vastly superior numbers, but the barricade was working at negating that advantage, allowing the numerically inferior clan warriors to put their technically superior skills to good use.

Despite the necessity of the barricade, Gutripper still winced as he oversaw the destruction of pieces of furniture that had been in the possession of the clan for hundreds of years. It was into an antique desk that the assassin had so helpfully buried his axe moments ago.

The ten permanent household staff of the apartment weren't sat huddling safely in the back rooms letting the warriors take all the risk, most, if not all, had some weapons training, and every spare weapon in the detachment's possession had been pressed into willing hands.

The staff had thrust themselves into danger to evacuate the wounded, the handful of living assassins that had breached the line of clan warriors, normally already bleeding out their life's blood on the floor, were quickly dispatched and dragged by the staff to the growing pile of corpses against the back wall, so as not to impede the warriors. Anything of any use was looted from the bodies, weapons were stacked within easy reach, cloaks reduced to strips for bandages.

What the staff lacked was the protection afforded by the thick chain and scale armour the clan warriors wore, their servants uniforms had no chance of turning a blade, while the clan armour was the finest money could buy. The assassin's armour was cheap, mass produced rubbish, but even that was better than nothing, several of the staff were now equipped in bloodstained grey armour whose former owners had no further need for them.

Somehow, and Gutripper knew that deep down it wouldn't last, he hadn't lost a single warrior, he had two that probably wouldn't march with the company again due to honourable wounds sustained, and three others were injured enough to require treatment from the three clan Shaman that had come with him to attend the trial by combat.

The power of a shaman fully unleashed on a battlefield was a sight that few opponents ever lived to report upon, but they were a resource that was several hundred years in the crafting, and as such he had taken the decision not to risk them in combat initially. They possessed powerful healing magic that was helping keep his warriors in the fight far longer than Gutripper had any right to expect.

Discounting the staff, he had fifteen swords left plus his own blade, he had five down due to injury, the other five clan warriors he had sent to escort Rotgut. The Gringotts night custodian and newly revealed Thuras spymaster was on his way out into the dangerous tribal precinct in order to deliver a series of letters. They were the most important letters that Gutripper had ever written, for they could spell the very future of the Goblin tribes in Britain.

"Switch!"

One of his warriors, clutching at wound on his arm had stepped back from the barricade to be assessed by one of the household staff, and with a grim snarl of determination the company commander stepped forward again to face those that Rocksplitter had hired to end his line.

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW**_

Safely home, Harry stepped out of the Floo in the Burrow and with his normal grace fell forward on to his knees, nearly impaling himself upon Remus Lupin's wand tip, despite the lack any alarm, there was always someone watching the Floo as a precaution. Remus had raised his wand because Harry still wore Death Eater black, he didn't have any other clothes having already given his to Shacklebolt.

Remus offered his arm to help Harry up and Harry gratefully accepted the help, trying to control the embarrassed blush that was spreading over his face, he could cast a Patronus powerful enough to chase off dozens of Dementors, apparate through the strongest wards, yet he couldn't do the simple things such as use a Floo terminal without ending up sprawled upon the floor.

Harry had just managed to step aside before Zachariah appeared in the fire place and stepped out right where Harry had been laid.

Harry had enabled the Vampire to use the Floo without alerting the world, but Remus saw the unfamiliar face and somehow recognised what the creature was. Remus reached out, fast as a rattle snake, grabbing Harry by the collar and before he could speak a word of protest the Werewolf had spun Harry clear of his line of fire, while bringing his wand up in his other hand.

"Vampire!"

If Remus was blindingly fast, Zachariah was like stainless steel lightening, as soon as the wand began to move, the Vampire was surging forward, he smashed the palm of his hand into the wrist of Remus's wand hand, blocking the movement. His body seemed to flow around into a spin culminating in a kick to Remus's chest that propelled the Werewolf halfway across the room and sent his wand flying.

Remus landed on his shoulders, but somehow contorted his body and arched his back until he rolled back onto his feet, he dropped into a crouch and snarled before leaping back towards the Vampire.

Zachariah had taken a step back and drawn his sword, which he now swung horizontally at the charging Werewolf , Remus ducked under the blade as it whistled through the air and spun until he was stood side to side with the Vampire. Both of them had their hands on the hilt of the sword, each straining to tear it from the others grip. The contest appeared to be quite even as far as strength was concerned, both Vampire and Werewolf, locked together over possession of the sword. And then the sword wasn't there anymore, and now struggling against empty air both men collapsed onto the floor.

"Gentlemen, when you have both quite finished. Yes, you are both big dark creatures, ohhhh scary, but please...take it outside!"

Harry stood tapping his foot in displeasure; he was holding both Remus's wand and Zachariah's sword, looking down at the two figures on the floor with an expression of a parent that has caught errant children pilfering from the cookie jar.

"But he's a Vampire Harry!"

Harry sighed deeply and squatted down by a protesting Remus.

"Yes, and you're a Werewolf, the way I figure it, all I now need is a Dementor and an Inferi and I have the full set. I have never judged you because of your affliction; don't be so hypocritical that you judge another because of his. Now pick yourself up off the floor, you're both embarrassing yourselves."

With a puff of ash smoke and green flame Draco Malfoy was spat out of the Floo network, brushing himself down with a natural god given arrogance, he stepped out of the fire place and stopped dead in his tracks. In the middle of the Weasley kitchen a Vampire and Werewolf appeared to be sharing a special moment, as they lay side by side on the floor.

"Riiiiggghht...Remus, I know your generation believes in free love and all that, but does Tonks know about your...special friend?"

Harry couldn't help it, the thought of Remus and Zachariah sharing some form of relationship, and what Tonks would then do to Remus when she found out made him fold up and burst out laughing. Harry's laughter went along way to breaking the tension in the room and the two supposed dark creatures picked themselves off of the floor and while eyeing each other with suspicion, at least they were not physically attacking each other.

"Remus, this is Zachariah, and yes he is a Vampire, but since he saved both my and Draco's life's by killing two others of his own kind, I am rather inclined to trust him."

Remus looked thoughtful for a moment before hesitantly extending his hand to the Vampire, Zachariah for his part studied the Werewolf intently before taking the outstretched offer of peace and the two men shook.

Harry let out the breath he hadn't even realised he had been holding and slumped into one of the chairs around the kitchen table, feeling all the adrenaline flood out of his system, and suddenly realising how tired he felt.

They had made a rather hurried exit from Malfoy Manor in the hope they didn't run into any more Vampires, but before they had left, under Draco's guidance the other three had returned the dining room furniture to its previous positions, repairing the table and chairs that required patching up, then leaving Viktor in place the two wizards and the Vampire had made their escape using the mansions Floo to the Leaky Cauldron, and then home. The dogleg Floo journey was so that no-one could trace a visitor back to the Burrow, just in case.

Despite the many unanswered questions that burned in Remus's eyes, there were some important questions that Harry needed answering for before he was willing to give any answers of his own. The first one was very hard to ask.

"Remus, did everyone make it back ok?"

Remus smiled slightly, knowing what the question was that Harry was really asking.

"Ginny is absolutely fine, not even a scratch on her despite the fact she right in the thick of it. Of the others, Fleur needs some treatment and a period of readjustment, but with Bill's tender loving care and Molly feeding her up she'll be fine as well. Cho...well Cho is a different matter..." Harry indicated that Remus should continue as his voice trailed off. "She was raped and tortured, her original injuries were badly treated and the bones that have started to knit have had to be re-broken or re-grown. On top of all that they did something to her mind, she doesn't appear to recognise any one, not even her parents."

Harry squashed down hard on the anger that had began to build inside him, someday soon there would be an accounting for all the ill deeds visited upon those that didn't deserve such treatment, but for now she at least was at a place that would give Cho the proper care and support that she needed.

"What about the assault groups, any injuries?"

"Very few of any severity, Hannah Abbott was nearly killed but is in a private room and is expected to make a full recovery, Ernie Macmillan lost a hand, but that has already been reattached, Wendel took a curse to the side of his head that took his ear off and then he threatened to kill Amanda Coombs when she tried to heal his wound, no Deaths on our side, although we now have a few more guests than we were expecting."

Harry and Draco looked at each other in confusion, more guests, what was Remus talking about?

"Oh do tell?"

"Well we found Mr Ollivander, our missing Gryffindor and his blond Ravenclaw girlfriend at St Mungos, we also recovered one mother of said Gryffindor. In addition, unexpectedly we have a member of Slytherin house upstairs in Percy's room, who was captured in Diagon Alley during our deception plan, apparently she tried to warn Arthur, who at the time looked like you, to get clear before the Death Eaters arrived."

Draco frowned and with a nod from Harry turned and made his way to the stairs, if someone from Draco's house was trying to pull something sneaky, then he would be the ideal one to find out, he knew those of his house and their loyalties. But then given that Draco himself had been for many years Harry's worst enemy at Hogwarts nothing could be judged by its appearance.

"Ok, is that it?"

Remus smiled broadly and shook his head.

"Thomas Bell has returned, and he didn't come alone, we have a large number of muggle soldiers that have recently arrived with some of their marvellous heli-whoppers, as you can imagine Arthur is absolutely beside himself with excitement at the muggle flying machines. The soldiers have moved into the operations centre and taken over one of the larger rooms."

Harry felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders as one of his most heartfelt wishes came to fruition, actual muggle military assistance was something he had hoped for from the moment he had met the tall Wizard-Soldier. Anything that shifted the balance of forces more into his favour was welcome, but given the resources the muggle military could call upon, well it could change everything.

"They landed in the meadow?" Remus nodded.

"Now I have been very patient, but you have to now answer some of my questions, like WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!"

Harry leaned back in the chair as Remus virtually screamed at him, he wasn't angry, but he was scared. It was one of the few times he had seen Remus frightened, but he wasn't frightened for himself, he was frightened for Harry. It made Harry feel quite small, when he had made up his mind to carry out his plan he hadn't even stopped to consider what effect his unexplained absence might have on others. He had hoped that with Shacklebolt impersonating him with Polyjuice that his absence wouldn't be noticed until he arrived back at the Burrow, obviously that part of the plan hadn't worked.

"How did you know I was even missing?"

"Because Shacklebolt might have looked like you, but he doesn't move like you, and he certainly doesn't smell like you. I picked it up as soon as they returned, 'you' just smelt wrong. Ginny was faster than that, she knew Shacklebolt wasn't you while they were still at St Mungos. That's one very bright young lady, I would be careful if I were you, she really isn't amused by you charging off and not telling anyone."

Harry paled slightly, an angry Ginny was something that he wasn't looking forward to facing, despite that his plan was an overwhelming success.

"Now stop trying to distract me and ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION!"

"He would tell you if he could, but, with all secrets, the more people that know it, the more chance it has of not being a secret anymore. While I do not know you Werewolf, I do not think this has anything to do with trust, seeing how uncomfortable Harry is looking right now, I think he wishes nothing more than to tell you everything."

Zachariah spoke up, he had chosen to remain silent to that moment, absorbing as much information as he could from the conversation happening around him. Remus had spun to face him, angry at the interruption, but now he had turned and was regarding Harry with concern.

"I'm sorry Harry, I shouldn't have pushed you so hard for information, I was scared, because you mean so much too so many people, so much to me..."

"I want to tell you Remus, but I promised Dumbledore not to tell anyone, I accepted this task from him when he died, it's something that I have to complete before I face Voldemort for the last time if I'm going to have an even chance of beating him."

Remus pulled Harry into an embrace, and for once Harry didn't feel awkward at all, maybe finally he was growing emotionally, perhaps he had developed more emotional depth than a teaspoon.

ooo

Daphne Greengrass sat, bound and gagged in the chair, and glared up at the elderly wizard as he leaned up against the window frame, the man wore a set of Auror issue body armour over his robes, but he could hardly be an Auror, she was fairly certain that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had a mandatory retirement age, and this wizard must have exceeded it twice over.

He was tall, and although slightly stooped with age he still held himself well, his face was covered by a long white beard but the hair on his head while just as white was cut short. There was something vaguely familiar about the man that she just couldn't put a finger on, as if she had seen him before.

Ever since she had awoken, tied to a chair in someone else's poorly decorated bedroom, the elderly wizard had been studiously ignoring her glares, he hadn't said a word to her, and it was almost as if she didn't exist at all.

Daphne didn't know how long this was going to go on for, but she was fairly sure that she would need a comfort break soon or be forced to soil herself, and for some reason she suspected that should the worst occur, this wizard wouldn't do more that use an air freshening charm so he didn't have to smell the results of her poor treatment.

Despite her fuming, Daphne replayed the most recent events in her mind from as impersonal prospective as she could manage, trying to extract as much information as possible, the Slytherin in her was still trying to decide which side that she should ultimately end up supporting, if it was the Dark Lord, then any information she could bring him would be a bonus.

First, Harry certainly hadn't been Harry, it had been a trap to draw the group of Death Eaters into the open, but instead of being arrested by Aurors, the Death Eaters had been attacked and wiped out by Goblins.

Second, Goblins working with wizards against the Dark Lord's forces, nobody had ever mentioned the Goblins in regard to the conflict as having an interest in either side, so that had come as quite a surprise.

Third, whoever was in charge of those facing off against the Dark Lord had finally grown a set of balls, rather than stun the Death Eaters and imprison them somewhere, and then have them set free weeks later, whoever it was seemed to be finally playing for keeps.

Fourth, while not Aurors, the wizards all seemed to have access to Auror issue body armour, the Goblins were also armoured, but they used chain and scale. Auror issue equipment was strictly controlled, it was simply not available commercially, which meant that this group whoever they were, were well supported.

Daphne was so intent on studying her own memories that she didn't even hear the door behind her open, or the footsteps that crossed the room and came up behind her. Her attention was attracted by the movement out of the corner of her eye.

Her eyes widened as she recognised the last person she had thought that she would see in a group of Harry Potter supporters, dressed in exactly what she expected him to be dressed in. Draco Malfoy, dressed in the black robes of a Death Eater, crossed to the elderly wizard and spoke a few words and indicated her with a nod of his head. The elderly wizard nodded grudgingly and strode from the room, leaving her and Draco alone.

Draco took the wizards place leaning up the window frame and regarded her coldly. She was now totally confused, he was dressed as a Death Eater, and up until that moment she had fully expected that the next time she saw him that he would be wearing the Dark Mark, his entire time at Hogwarts had been the build up to his service with the Dark Lord. Here he was, now mixing with a group of Potter supporters but still dressed as a Death Eater.

"When I heard of one of my housemates had tried to warn Harry Potter of approaching Death Eaters I didn't know who I was going to find in here. I expected someone from one of the younger years, perhaps a second or third year, not in my wildest dreams did I think it would be someone from my own year!"

Draco shook his head in astonishment, but that was nothing to what Daphne was experiencing, Draco even sounded different from how he had before Dumbledore's death, less arrogant and sure of himself, more...human. There was pain in his eyes, and regret, that hadn't been there before.

"I suppose I could have been more surprised. It could have been Pansy or Theodore sat there having tried to warn Harry, but that is hardly likely, just as I suppose that before a few months ago it would have been highly unlikely to have found Harry and I on the same sides."

Draco raised a hand to his head and ran his fingers through his hair while wearing a thoughtful expression on his face. His tone was friendly and conversational, and had warmth to it that Daphne wasn't used to, most of what Draco Malfoy had said in the past had been said as a sneer.

"It's hard to explain, but people can change, sometimes it's a change because of choice, sometimes its enforced change, but in my case it's definitely a change for the better. I have found friendship, real friendship here amongst those that only a few short weeks ago I would have been happy to find at the tip of my wand. I think that I have also been lucky enough to find someone that I love, although it's still early days yet."

Despite not being able to speak through her gag, Daphne widened her eyes at Draco, he really had changed, not just superficially, but his entire core being, he wasn't the same person at all that he had been before, the Draco she remembered hadn't cared for anyone other than himself enough to even consider a relationship.

Pansy had always sucked up to him because of the wealth and influence that came with the Malfoy name, but she wasn't his girlfriend, his plaything perhaps. Daphne was so surprised by this revelation that she missed Draco pushing himself off of the window and only tuned back in to find him squatting down in front of her.

"So I suppose I should warn you, that if you have come here as part of some harebrained plan of Voldemort to try and hurt anyone here, if you are trying to gain entry to the Burrow as some kind of spy...well let's just say events in your life could take rather an unpleasant turn for the worst."

His tone had changed just slightly, it had none of the previous warmth and there was just a hint of menace behind his words now, despite herself, Daphne shivered as she felt icy fingers of fear run up and down her spine. She was still regarding Draco with wide eyes, contemplating the consequences of the changes she had witnessed when the door opened behind her again.

"Draco Malfoy, I ought to hex you into the middle of next week for disappearing like that without telling anyone, but more importantly not telling me..."

Katie Bell stalked across the room with a face like thunder, her shoulders were actually shaking she was so angry, she paused in front of Draco and began poking him in the chest with her finger.

"...and then I find out that from Ginny that Harry absconded as well..."

Katie was cut off mid-rant as Draco placed both hands, one on each side of Katie's head and leaned in and kissed her tenderly. Daphne was surprised, she of course had recognised Katie Bell from her years at Hogwarts, but she was two years older than Draco and much more importantly...she was a Gryffindor!

Draco Malfoy, the pampered prince of Slytherin in love with a recklessly brave Gryffindor, the snake and the lion, it was enough to make her smile at the irony of it all. Severus Snape the previous head of Slytherin house and a dedicated Death Eater despite what Dumbledore might have thought would be throwing some sort of fit at the thought, if they were all really lucky it might even have been fatal.

The gentle, tender kiss lasted a long time, mainly because Katie, once she got over her initial surprise, pushed Draco back against the wall and pressed her body against his, which Draco obviously enjoyed immensely.

"I do hope the witch selling ice-cream and pumpkin juice be coming around soon, I really fancy a pumpkin flavoured cornetto."

Daphne hadn't heard Looney Lovegood enter the room, nor from the embarrassed blushes now appearing on both Draco and Katie's faces had they. The blond from Ravenclaw had the same dreamy expression on her face that she always wore at Hogwarts, the one where you were never sure if she was even aware of her surroundings.

"Ah Luna, thanks for coming, you know why I asked for you?"

Daphne listened intently, she had no idea what Draco could have in common with the strangest student at Hogwarts, in the past their only interaction had been when Draco had openly mocked her.

"Oh yes, you want me to use my special talents to burn a hole in Daphne's brain."

What! Daphne recoiled as the strange girl turned her attention onto her and started to stare at her forehead while emitting a low humming sound. Daphne began making the chair she was tied to make little bunny hops in order to get some distance on the strange Ravenclaw. Draco however had the broadest smile on his face.

"Close, but no holes in the brain today, at least not yet, let's just see if she deserves a hole first, alright?" Luna sighed dramatically, nodded and stopped humming. "Right, Daphne I am going to remove the gag but I want you to only answer the questions asked of you, no outbursts, no ranting and shouting, do we have an agreement?"

Daphne considered, but knew she didn't really have a choice in the matter and nodded her agreement.

"Good." Draco reached forward and pulled the gag from her mouth. "Then let's get started."

ooo

Harry left Remus and Zachariah trying to eyeball each other into submission in the kitchen and stepped outside, it was a contest neither of the supposed dark creatures was going to win, but Harry was happy to leave them to it, confident that violence was unlikely to be resumed.

It was turning into a glorious evening, warm, yet with a slight breeze, the sky still had a slight yet rich golden glow despite the fact that the sun had already slipped below the horizon.

Despite the darkness that enveloped him as he stepped away from the well lit Burrow he felt safe, the Burrow had always been a sanctuary for him, a place to run to when things were going badly. It was one of only two places in the world that he had visited that he felt safe, Hogwarts being the other.

He didn't need light to show him the way, he knew his way around the grounds of the expanded Burrow complex so well now that his feet could just engage auto pilot while his mind drifted. The thought running through his head was that of the British Special Forces soldiers machine gunning Death Eaters, it was an image he wanted to saviour, it was about time that the murderous scum got a taste of the fear and death they had been dealing for so long.

The bronze coloured curse came flying out of the darkness with the sound of an angry buzzing insect, Harry tried to spin away from the incoming curse at the last second but to no avail and the curse struck him in the side of the head.

There was an explosion of mind numbing pain in his sinuses and Harry dropped to his knees with one of his hands pressed to his nose, sure that his nose must be streaming blood. His nose felt just like the time Draco Malfoy had broken it on the Hogwarts express and Harry was fairly certain that the curse had re-broken his nose.

Despite his eyes watering so much that normal vision was nearly impossible, Harry stayed silent and as still as he could, stretching his other senses as well as his sight for any sign of his assailant, but there was no sign other than the growing pain in his sinuses and nasal cavity.

Taking his hand away from his nose to investigate the damage, he was relieved and surprised to discover there was in fact no blood streaming down his face despite the pain and discomfort from his nose. He was relieved right up until the moment something green and disgusting, something with tiny madly flapping wings, plopped out of his nose

Harry closed his eyes briefly aware what was happening to him, knowing what was coming, a second winged glob crawled free and fell from his nose, and it too seemed to have a life of its own. He twisted his wrist and his wand slid into his waiting hand, he turned with the intention of destroying the first glob before it could rise from the floor and start attacking his head.

"Expelliarmus! Accio Potter's wand!"

Ginny advanced out of the darkness like a fiery haired avenging angel, her wand held out in front of her in a duelling stance, his wand blasted from his fingers and flew to Ginny's outstretched empty hand and she placed the wand in her pocket.

Harry knew that he could have just called the wand back to him in the space of a moment, but he also knew that Ginny was trying to teach him a valuable lesson, and in truth he did feel guilty about not telling her what he was about to do, in some respects he deserved what was about to happen to him. He had learned early on that Ginny had a fiery temper that went with her hair, and sometimes the best thing to do was let her anger burn itself, she was intelligent enough to know afterwards when her anger was justified or not,

So he suffered in silence the terrible indignity of the bat-bogey hex, and wondered if, once they had made up, he could convince Ginny to teach him this particular curse, because it was non lethal and completely de-habilitating. Once he started getting attacked by his own winged snot there was little else he was able to do even if he had his wand, other than roll on the floor, try to protect his head and ride the curse out, which in any sort of duel could be a useful tool.

It lasted perhaps five minutes, during which at the height of the curse there was six winged snot globs attacking his head, before each fell to the ground and vanished. During the duration of the curse Ginny had stood there watching with her arms folded across her chest, a look of fury and pain upon her face.

Harry climbed back to his feet and dusted himself down, then glanced over at Ginny, then without a word he called his wand back to his hand and made a show of retracting it back into the wand holster.

"Are you done?" Harry hadn't actually meant his voice to come out sounding quite so cold as it had.

"I haven't even started yet you selfish twat!"

Harry blinked hard, taken aback from the fury in her voice, he felt suddenly cold as he realised that he had drastically underestimated just how angry and hurt Ginny was, he had never ever seen her this angry and hurt before, let alone at him. He started to say something and Ginny twitched her wand at him and he found himself unable to speak, a quite impressive piece of nonverbal casting, she had obviously been practising.

"Do you have any idea what it has felt like, for my entire childhood, to be the littlest, the youngest, the one always left behind? I built up barriers to protect my feelings because I was so tired of being hurt by my own family. I relaxed those barriers with you because you treated me differently, you always treated more than a child to be protected, until recently that is, I think that because it's you treating me this way is the reason it hurts so much. I swear now that this is the last time I ever want to feel this way again, neglected, left out, cast aside and betrayed, it would break my heart utterly, but if you go off on your own again without telling anyone...without telling me, then we are finished as a couple Harry, do you understand what I'm saying?"

Harry felt the huge lump in his throat at the thought that he might lose Ginny due to his insensitivity, he had never dreamed that what he was doing could have such long term consequences. He hadn't told her to protect her, if she had known he was going to Malfoy Manor then she would have insisted that she accompany him, it was bad enough that he marched off into danger himself, without dragging Ginny long in his wake.

Harry suddenly realised that he had at some point started treating Ginny like her brothers had been treating her for her entire life, wrapping her up in cotton wool in case she broke. If Azkaban had proved anything, it proved that Ginny Weasley wasn't at all fragile and that she was more than capable of looking after herself. This revelation made Harry feel guilty, and he understood why his actions had hurt her so much, because he was the one person who she expected better treatment from. Ginny removed the silencing charm allowing him to reply.

"Yes, I understand Ginny, I'm truly sorry, I have been such an idiot."

"Yes you have, just as long as you understand that we won't be having this conversation again, regardless of what happens."

Without another word Ginny turned away and stalked off into the darkness leaving Harry contemplating an impossibly bleak future without her in it.

OoOoO

_**THURAS CLAN APPARTMENT**_

The assassins blade scoured a line of fiery pain across Gutripper's back as he attempted to turn and duck under the swinging sword, if he had been fresh he would have succeeded in dodging the blow, but like all the remaining defenders he was tiring fast. And the assassins showed no signs of relenting, indeed they seemed to sense that victory was nearly theirs, and like sharks detecting blood in the water they pressed their attack with more vigour.

There were only seven clan warriors plus him still able to fight, and two of the warriors had died to protect the clan's heir apparent, their bodies lay in the back room, hands clutching weapons that become soaked in the blood of their enemies, but there had to be at least thirty Assassin corpses on their side of the barricade alone, who knew how many had died before even getting across the pile of furniture, this defiant stand would go down in clan history, assuming of course that anyone lived to tell it.

Completing his turn, Gutripper ignored the pain from his wounds and thrust his sword into the throat of the assassin that had nearly cut him in two. The Goblin dropped his weapon and put both clawed hands up to his ruined throat in an attempt to stop his blood from gushing from the wound.

Gutripper pushed the dying Goblin into the path of one of his own colleagues and the two assassins went down in a tangled heap of arms and legs, Gutripper just leaned down and thrust down with his sword into the uninjured Assassin's chest, running the creature through, the Goblin grunted once then lay still.

Combat was bloody and confusing, and there was no place for the niceties awarded an opponent in an honour duel, the object was to do anything that allowed you to survive long enough to face another opponent, there was no such thing as a dirty trick on the battle field.

Gutripper pulled his sword clear and turned to find another target only to find there were none, there weren't anymore assassins clambering to climb over the barricade, in fact other than mortally wounded Goblins there wasn't anyone on the other side of the barricade at all.

Leaning tiredly against an archway, Gutripper attempted to sheath his sword only to discover that the sword scabbard had at some point been cut away and that he had sustained a deep wound in his side that he didn't even remember receiving.

There was a hint of movement in the entrance to the apartment and Gutripper steeled himself to be ready to go back into battle, although looking around at his warriors he knew there was little that they had left to give.

"Thuras, coming in!"

Gutripper relaxed, he recognised the voice of the senior warrior that he had sent out to escort Rotgut.

"Thuras, all clear!"

It was a much larger party that came back than had gone out. There were the colours from three other clans among the warriors of the group, they were the clans that had historically been linked to his father, those that had the vision to look to the future and this made them prime targets for the violence that had been unleashed upon them this night.

However there were two other clan leaders that he had written letters to, letters that offered safety in numbers and a place to make a stand, and if the clans stood together against this attack, what else could they achieve if they put their mind to it. Had his offer been refused because of the Goblin racial stubbornness?

With some effort part of the barricade was pulled down to allow the new arrivals entry and soon the small apartment complex was bursting at the seams, because not only had three other sets of clan warriors arrived but as many of the other clans household servants as well.

The three other clan leaders looked as if they were in shock, no doubt the reality of the new world they found themselves in was a little too much for them to cope with. None of them wore armour, one in fact was so rotund that Gutripper suspected that he would never find armour that fitted anyway, and the other two looked as if they had not picked up a weapon in many years. All three wore ceremonial robes that while eye catching and rich, were bugger all use as armour.

Which left Gutripper in a bit of quandary, he was very much the junior member of this group, he was only the son of a clan leader, and one accused of high treason at that, however by the look of the three clan leaders stood before him, he was the only one with the relevant military experience, he had to handle this very carefully or destroy the fledging alliance before it started.

"Gentlemen welcome to the Clan Thuras apartment..."

"Force leader I insist that you take us to the Thuras representative in charge!"

One of the Clan leaders, the fat one as it happened, had mistaken him as simply the senior warrior of the bodyguard detachment, which considering the state he was currently in wasn't so surprising, he was bleeding from several wounds, covered in the blood of his enemies and the practical combat armour he wore was a long way from the ceremonial armour he had worn earlier.

"My lord, I am Gutripper, son of Ragnok, and I command here."

The clan leaders looked him up and down intently, the fat one with a look of disdain on his face. Gutripper was aware that in this situation his age would probably act against him, he was young to hold the position of responsibility that he did, company command in the Goblin nation was normally held by an older and much more experienced warrior, but unlike many Goblin appointments, his wasn't political in nature, he had earned his by merit.

"You commanded here until we arrived, now as the senior clan leader present I am assuming command."

The fat clan leader stuck his many chins in the air in a pompous attitude that despite the situation made Gutripper smile, the Goblin was so far out of his depth and still he thought that any of that self important bullshit that the council members peddled mattered anymore.

"This isn't a council meeting and we aren't discussing the latest tax increases to be imposed on the wizards, we are fighting for our lives and the very future of our race, so if you want to step up and take your place at the barricade, please be my guest."

Gutripper held out his blood stained sword to the politician, as expected, the Goblin flinched back from the blade as if it would jump up and bite him. It appeared that Goblin clans really where as different as night and day, his clan believed to effectively command armed troops you needed to have served to understand what it was you were asking those troops to do on your behalf, every Thuras clan leader in history had served under arms at some point.

"That's what I thought, please instruct your house warriors to obey any orders I give, other than that please retire to the back room and help the servants give aid to the wounded."

With that Gutripper turned his back on the three clan leaders, effectively dismissing them and claiming his place as senior amongst them, he didn't have the time to waste trying to logically win them around to his way of thinking, he needed to act before the wave of assassins swept them away.

"My lord."

Gutripper turned and grinned savagely at Rotgut, the bank night custodian cum spymaster was wearing his looted armour and weapons like a professional, you would never know that if he ever drew the sword at his side he was more likely to cut his own leg off than injure an opponent.

Gutripper grabbed hold of Rotgut's chest piece and tugged hard, the armour had belonged to a much larger Goblin, who Gutripper assumed had no use for it anymore, the armour was slightly loose, but there was no more space for adjustment in the straps.

"You look good, fancy taking the space next to me at the barricade?"

Rotgut grinned back but shook his head.

"No my lord, I would not want to rob one your superb warriors of their chance for fame and glory, besides I am much more suited to intrigue and the affairs of court, I wear this armour and carry this blade only so I did not stand out or..." Rotgut leaned closer and lowered his voice "...become associated with those individuals."

Rotgut nodded in the direction of the other clan leaders who were still stood in a group looking around themselves in bemusement. Gutripper smiled and nodded in understanding.

"What's happening out there?"

Rotgut sighed and beckoned his superior out of earshot of all those scurrying about rebuilding the barricade.

"It's bad, there are several different groups that are fighting out in the open, if I had to guess I would say more than one clan leader is using the situation tonight to even old scores, Rocksplitter isn't the only one taking advantage of the lockdown. It was hard to move undetected, even with such small numbers, we arrived too late to deliver one of the letters, the assassins of Rocksplitter or some other group had struck before we arrived, everyone was dead. Clan Darrow however was still fighting, but with only six of us there was no way we could fight our way through to deliver your letter."

Rotgut looked down at the ground and his shoulders slumped.

"I have failed you my lord..."

"Nonsense, look around you, you succeeded beyond my wildest expectations, you managed to gather three clan to our banner and bring them back here, because of you we now have a fighting chance of lasting the night."

Gutripper placed his hand on Rotgut's shoulder for a moment and turned to survey the ongoing work. He was aware that many of the warriors from other clans had seen the exchange and wondered at the difference between the young warrior and their own clan leaders.

His father had always reared him to understand that just because he might have been placed above others by birth, that didn't give him the right to treat those of a lower station as if they were not important. He knew the names of all the warriors he commanded and he treated them as equals, rather than underlings to be bossed about without thought, it made clan Thuras appear weak to the other clans, but seemed to generate the kind of loyalty the other clans were envious of.

The loss of the support of an entire clan was a blow, there would be a successor, but they wouldn't be in a position to support his father. Clan Darrow was another matter, the clan leader was a Goblin named Fangtooth, and while the cantankerous old Goblin wasn't exactly a friend of his father, he at least respected him. The two had clashed on any number of issues over the years, not least the affections of his mother, but it had never dissolved into open violence between the two clans. If any clan other than Thuras would survive the assault upon it then Gutripper's galleon was on Clan Darrow. Their warriors were almost as good as his own.

Back to business, with return of Rotgut and his escort, that gave him twelve warriors of his own clan, there were about fifty warriors from the other clans, although some of these were seriously injured. Counting his own warriors, he had a force of about thirty five that were fit for combat, and another ten that were walking wounded. The other clans servants he discounted, his clan stood alone in ensuring training for nearly all, the other servants stood around looking afraid and getting in the way. Another bonus was each of the other clans had a single shaman with them, doubling his available spell power, he still wanted to their offensive magic as a last resort, but there were plenty of wounded that needed their attention.

"Here they come again!"

Gutripper stepped up to the barricade, and grinned as without a word the warriors from the other clans replaced his exhausted troops, they now had a fighting chance. His eyes narrowed as he saw the oncoming wave of Goblin warriors and something else, something massive lumbered behind them, something that made his breath catch in his throat.

"They have a cave troll."

The warrior beside him stated matter-of-factly, Gutripper just nodded at the truth of that assessment, things were about to get really interesting.

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW OPERATIONS CENTRE**_

Harry, in the aftermath of his confrontation with Ginny had returned to his room in the burrow and changed out of the Death Eater robes and into jeans and a hooded top. Feeling very down he cheered himself up by conjuring writing on the top that matched his mood, and then he set off again for the operations centre and for what he expected would be an extremely interesting meeting.

It was something he and Thomas had discussed before he left, the small matter of what to tell the soldiers and when to tell them. Harry had agreed reluctantly that not telling them anything before they got to the burrow made sense, not only did it stop any word getting out, but also reduced the chance Thomas would be carried away in a strait jacket for being mad.

Of those recently arrived muggles, Harry was sure that only Thomas and Wilky had any idea what they were about to be exposed to, and given how badly Harry needed their help he wasn't sure the best way to explain the magical world to them.

Reaching the entrance to the Operations centre made Harry feel the absence of the Goblins at the burrow even more keenly, they had been a welcome and reassuring sight, and more than that, they had been his friends. Where ever Gutripper was, Harry wished him success. The two Auror cadets that were on duty, each barely older than he was nodded at him and waved him inside.

He didn't have to ask which room the soldiers were in, he just followed the wall of sound that emanated from one of the meeting rooms, it sounded as if every one of the soldiers was shouting at the top of their voices at the same time, Harry frowned and entered.

His assessment unfortunately proved to be more accurate than he had liked, all of the soldiers were on their feet and talking loudly at once, some of them were even waving their hands and shouting at a very frustrated Thomas Bell who was stood at the front of the room.

"Good timing"

Harry turned as Wilky shouted in his ear to make himself heard above the din. The soldier with the ridiculously boyish good looks, reminding Harry very much of the late Cedric Diggory, was stood at the back of the room with his arms folded across his chest.

"What's going on?"

Harry shouted back, indicating the room of shouting soldiers.

"Thomas just told them about magic, it didn't go down well, apart from him we didn't have a wizard in the room for a demonstration."

That was something else they had discussed, to start with at least the knowledge of Thomas Bell's upbringing would remain hidden, his use of magic was severely limited at the moment anyway due to his exile during his childhood.

Harry took one more look at the mass of disbelieving soldiers and raised his wand.

"Yes, I think it's time a demonstration is in order. EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

The large, solid looking silver stag shot out of his wand and trotted down the aisle between the seats, instantly silencing the soldiers as it passed them, they just started at the creature until it came to a stop next to Thomas Bell. The tall soldier looked up and made eye contact with Harry at the back of the room, he gave a slight bow of his head and a smile of gratitude.

"Now where was I?"

"You were telling us of the existence of magic and a war being fought between good and bad wizards."

Wilky called out from the back helpfully, Harry grinned, Wilky was the muggle equivalent of the Weasley twins to some extent.

"Yes i was, we now have with us one of the wizards that we will be helping, Harry Potter. Harry come on up here."

Despite the fact he had addressed much larger audiences in the past, Harry felt extremely nervous as he followed the path prongs had taken up the aisle. He could feel the eyes of the soldiers upon him, and hear some of the comments being passed. "He's just a kid..." "just pretty lights and mirrors" "magic my arse".

"Harry I think there are some who still doubt what i am telling them, can you provide a further demonstration."

Harry nodded, too nervous to speak, with a wave of his wand Prongs disappeared from view, he wracked his brains for something that he could show them. Then it came to him, sometimes the simple charms could be the flashiest.

"Winguardium Leviosa!"

He pointed at the back of the room and smiled at the look of astonishment on Wilky's face as he rose slowly into the air, Harry was careful, he didn't want to smash the soldier into the ceiling by accident.

"Accio Wilky!"

The soldier began drifting down the aisle towards the front of the room, Wilky, always the performer began to move his arms and legs to make it seem as if he was running in mid-air, then he rolled onto his front and began the front crawl. Harry laughed so hard he almost dropped the soldier to the floor prematurely, he just managed to maintain enough control to lower Wilky gently back to the floor. The audience just watched in amazed silence, there was no way that they could claim that this was just wires, or smoke and mirrors.

"And that is just a small portion of what Harry is capable of, but what he and his friends have in abundance is power, what they lack is formal training and numbers, and that ladies and gentlemen is what we are initially here for, we are about to make this conflict a level playing field by teaching this bunch of reprobates how to fight in a way that their opponents have never seen. But our role here is not limited to training, we are to actively involve ourselves in the conflict and bring to a speedy and successful resolution."

Thomas turned to Harry and smiled.

"Just like boot camp, but for little people."

OoOoO

**AN: **VX really is nasty stuff and whether there is a stock pile of somewhere i cannot say, however for dramatic license there is now!

Some reader questions answered:

yes, yes, no, maybe, never, sometimes and i might if i had the time.

If you asked a question please pick the answer you like the best.


	26. 26 A Call To Arms

**HARRY POTTER AND THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC**

**C_LAN THURAS APARTMENT_**

The wave of onrushing grey clad assassins battered against the redoubt of the barricade and now that it was once again fully manned by troops that were not exhausted from hours of constant battle, their efforts to kill the three clan leaders sheltering in the back room away from harm made little progress, or would have if the assassins had been the only weapon in the arsenal.

The cave troll, probably once part of the security arrangements in the Gringotts vault system, roared in anger, and it began to lumber its way through the mass of Goblins pressing to get to the barricade, flattening a dozen of his own allies in his eagerness to close with the defenders. The creature barely fit inside the entrance tunnel due to its height, and that meant that it couldn't lift its huge club over its head to deliver the killing blows that would spell the doom for any defender unlucky enough to be the subject of its anger. That didn't mean the troll wasn't a threat however, a kick or stomp would kill any Goblin, the height difference pretty much negated the benefit of the barricade, it only came up to the grey, scaly knees of the troll after all.

"Throwing weapons target the troll, stop it before it reaches the barricade!"

Gutripper put his own words into action and threw his dagger, aiming for the troll's head. A stream of weapons flew out from the defenders, axes, daggers and swords, most simply bounced off the trolls naturally armoured hide to clatter uselessly to the floor at the creature's feet, two or three of the projectiles actually buried themselves in the troll's chest, but they didn't seem to inconvenience the creature in the slightest, and they certainly didn't slow it.

Gutripper found he couldn't drag his eyes away from the creature as it made its approach to the barricade, the sight of it, towering over the occupants of the apartment was somehow mesmerising yet terrifying at the same time. He waited until the troll couldn't grow any larger in his vision then drew back his arm and with all his strength threw his sword at the massive creature.

The blade flashed end over end until it stuck the troll in the neck and embedded itself up to the hilt, the troll blinked in surprise as even its feeble brain began to receive signals that it was in pain, for a few seconds the troll repeatedly tried to tilt its head down to see the object sticking out of its neck, but every time it did so it struck the sword hilt with its own massive chin, causing itself more pain.

Then its eyes flickered down to the small parasite that had caused it the pain in the first place and anger once again stole across the dumb creatures face as it made the decision to crush the insect.

The troll began to move forward again and Gutripper felt a flicker of fear course through him, he stood defiantly before a fully mature cave troll without a single weapon, brave...without a doubt, worthy of a song...guaranteed, suicidal...almost certainly.

Gutripper was no coward, but neither was he quite so willing to consign his name to the history books as to engage a troll in hand to club combat, he reached behind his back with a clawed hand and snapped his fingers.

"Weapon...Now!"

Without hesitation somebody pressed a weapon into his hand and Gutripper accepted it without so much as a backward glance, his eyes never left the approaching troll. The weapon that had been passed to him wasn't one of those looted from the corpses of either the dead Assassins or slain clan warriors, the first would have been of very dubious quality, and the second utterly disrespectful to the warrior in question. The weapon was ancient, dating back hundreds, if not thousands of years, and legend placed it in the hands of Thuras himself when the clan was formed. Up until a few minutes before it had resided in a hidden and locked alcove inside the inner chamber, a chamber that Gutripper had thought only he and his father had known the location of.

The axe was still in remarkably good condition considering how old it was reputed to be, not a blemish marked the double heads, and the edges of the twin blades gleamed, wicked sharp. Gutripper twirled the weapon in his hands to ensure he had the feel of the weapon, it was well balanced and as finely made as only a Goblin weapon could be.

With his attention still on the troll Gutripper waved the rest of the clan warriors back away from the barricade, the assassins also seemed to be maintaining their distance, watching the unequal struggle that was about to commence. He wished he could fall back from the barricade himself, it was the sensible thing to do, but unfortunately the sensible thing in this case wasn't the right thing.

The cave troll had to be the assassins last roll of the dice, a last chance to gain victory before their strength was spent, this was the moment that the whole night hinged upon, either he could cripple or kill the troll, or it would kill him, then demolish the barricade with contemptuous ease, allowing its Goblin brethren to finish the rest of the them off in quick fashion.

The troll blinked at the single small Goblin stood defiantly before it, looking from its tiny axe to the Troll's own massive club, and then the troll smiled, exposing rotted teeth and bleeding gums.

The club shot forward in a horizontal arc at Goblin chest height, the clubs far tip moving through the air so fast that it made a swishing sound. Gutripper dived forward, ignoring the pain that movement caused his various wounds. The club missed him by inches, the momentum of the club's swing caused the troll to nearly spin around, as it was by the time the troll managed to stop the swing and reverse the direction, Gutripper was already back on his feet and running forward towards the creatures knees.

Casting a minor speed boost upon himself, which required neither a wand nor a silly incantation, Gutripper raised the hereditary weapon and swung with all his might at one of the troll's knees. The axe managed to pierce the creature's hardened skin, but the blow felt like he was striking an anvil with a hammer, his arms and shoulders screamed in protest at the jarring force.

The troll hardly even noticed the wound, but swung the club in reflex at the annoying sting it had felt, the club smashed into the troll's kneecap, causing it to bellow in pain. Gutripper wasn't quite fast enough to escape completely and the club clipped him on the shoulder, opening a further wound and sending him spinning away like an out of control children's toy.

Shaking his head to clear the fog caused by the club's impact, and flexing his shoulder to try and restore some movement, Gutripper found it amusing that the troll had caused more of an injury to itself than he had so far. Climbing back to his feet, the Goblin raised the axe in a two handed grip level with his shoulder and charged back into combat.

The club swept around again, but Gutripper was becoming used to the troll's speed and movements now, he easily dodged the erratic swing and arrived in front on the troll in sufficient time to take an opportunistic swipe at the hand holding the club as it swept over his head. The troll bellowed more in anger than pain as two fingers from its left hand were cleaved right off.

The troll, eyes mad with uncontrollable anger, raised the club to head height and made to strike vertically straight downwards in a blow that would crush the Goblin from existence. Gutripper stood perfectly still, watching as the club began to rise, knowing that for the moment at least he was safe.

The club struck the ceiling and became wedged on a wooden roof beam, the troll, not having even the basic rudiments of problem solving tried to drag the club free of its resting place. The troll's strength was equal to the task and a four hundred year old piece of timber was torn free from the ceiling to fall, smashing into the trolls head.

It was just the distraction the Gutripper had been waiting for; the troll had bent his knees and looked up at the ceiling with confusion all over its face as it tried to understand if it was being attacked from a new direction. The end of the club came to rest upon the floor, the stem still held in the troll's disfigured hand.

The Goblin used the last of his available boosts and dramatically increased his speed, running diagonally across the troll's front, aiming straight for its grounded weapon. He leaped as high as he could, smashing his knees on the hardened wood of the club, Gutripper scrambled for purchase, struggling to find grip on the wood.

The troll turned his attention back to the Goblin and seemed surprised to see Gutripper, not on the other side of the room, but climbing the end of his club, the feeble minded, massive creature, not understanding the danger he was exposing himself too, lifted the club to gain a better view of the tiny struggling creature.

Gutripper felt the club shift and move, and instead of trying to climb up the sloping wood, he now found himself lying on a horizontal bridge leading straight to the troll's head, he didn't hesitate, but launched himself down the length of the club, axe poised ready to strike.

Even the troll's tiny brain must have at some stage understood that allowing an axe welding Goblin easy access to its face and head was a recipe for disaster, because even as Gutripper reached the end of the club the troll threw the weapon across the room and away from him. But by that time it was too little too late, the Goblin had bunched his legs under him and leapt into midair with the axe swinging downwards from behind his head.

The blade of the axe smashed into the soft tissue of the goblins nose, splitting the nose virtually in half, the underlying bone exploded, sending slivers of bone in all directions, including upwards into the skull. Had the troll been a Goblin or even a human, that sort of damage normally resulted in a virtually instant death, but the Troll, being made of sterner, yet stupider stuff took a step back in surprise and tried to brush the annoyance off its face.

Gutripper yanked at the axe and felt it come loose from the ruined face in a spray of gore and bone and the Goblin started slipping down the Troll's face. Realising what a long way to the floor it was he reached out for something to slow his descent, and his hand closed on something familiar and comforting.

The hilt of the sword still protruded from the troll's throat where his throw had planted it, and now Gutripper hung one handed from the hilt of his own sword, in his other hand, hanging down by his side was the bloody axe of Thuras.

Gutripper was not given the time to consider what he should do from that moment on, as moving in what seemed almost slow motion the massive hand moved into his field of view, and smacked him with thunderous force clear of the troll. The Goblin warrior cart wheeled through the air and willed himself to relax and go limp moments before striking the apartments wall and sliding to the floor.

The Goblin screamed aloud as several ribs splintered under the impact, collapsing a lung and causing massive internal bleeding, he may even have passed out from the pain momentarily, but when he was aware of what was happening around him once more, the thing that struck him most was the silence, the entire apartment was silent, as if even the walls themselves were holding their breath.

Rolling slowly over onto his side, Gutripper hissed against the pain and regarded the massive creature he had been fighting to the death only moments before. The troll was on its knees holding both of its hands to its throat, and from behind those hands spilled an enormous amount of blood that flowed down the troll's chest and had began to pool around its knees. That much blood could only have been caused by a mortal wound, and Gutripper found himself gazing down at the bloody sword that he still held. His sword must have pierced the troll's jugular but because it had been left in place had prevented the worst of the bleeding, once removed, there was nothing stopping the troll from bleeding to death right in front of him.

As if to underscore Gutripper's logic the troll slowly leaned to one side and crashed to the floor, the blood flow had stopped to a trickle then stopped completely. Gutripper smiled, his mouth full of teeth, despite the incredible pain, he had overcome his enemy, it was up to others now to finish the night's work, for he could do no more. As he closed his eyes and slowly let himself drift into the blackness a sound carried to his ears.

"GUTRIPPER...GUTRIPPER...GUTRIPPER!"

Goblin voices rose, shouting his name, and more voices than could be explained away by his remaining warriors or servants. Confusion reigned for a moment before his tired body gave into the result of all the demands placed upon it and unconsciousness claimed him.

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW HOSPITAL**_

Harry sat on the hospital bed and allowed Emily Shacklebolt to run her wand over his body with a diagnostic spell, obviously something was concerning her because she was running the same spell for the third time, all the time muttering things like 'odd, most odd' under her breath.

"Ok, so what have you found? What's wrong with me now?"

Emily Shacklebolt shook her head, her unbound black hair framing her pale face, and emphasizing how tired she looked.

"That's just it Harry, I can't actually find anything new wrong with you at all, nothing. Now admittedly my experience of you is fairly limited, but going on the past excursions I know about, how likely is it that you go all through that and other than a bump on the head not get a scratch?"

Harry opened his mouth to speak, then simply closed it again, there wasn't really much he could say to the fact that the trauma healer was complaining that he _**hadn't**_ gotten hurt, given that he normally got so injured that he could keep an entire ward full of staff busy.

In fact Harry was very touched by the way that, despite her obvious exhaustion, Healer Emily Shacklebolt had insisted on treating any of his injuries when he returned. According to Shacklebolt, Auror Shacklebolt that was, his wife had been very clear in her instructions of what would happen to _**him**_ should Harry escape her treatment on his return.

"Well then, if there is nothing wrong with me, then maybe you would consider it a personal favour to me that you immediately log off shift, return to your accommodation suite and spend some time with your husband and daughter, before getting at least twelve hours uninterrupted sleep."

Harry's voice had started evenly and somewhere along the line he had slipped into his command tone, it wasn't something he consciously did, it just came naturally, but Emily Shacklebolt felt her eyes widen as for the first time she personally really understood the power of personality Harry possessed. She already knew he was powerful beyond belief magically for his age, and she suspected that his power was _**still**_ growing, but she had just witnessed how effortlessly the teenager had stopped being a patient and started being a leader.

Harry jumped off the bed and pulled the old jumper back over his head, oblivious to the effect his words had had on the healer, his main reason for coming to the hospital had been to spend some time with those that were there because of him, in Hannah Abbott's case because of orders of his got her hurt, and in Fleur's and Cho's cases because his orders had gotten them rescued.

Emily Shacklebolt just smiled and nodded in acceptance of his request and Harry smiled back in return before bobbing his head.

"In which case I shall bid you goodnight, I will be turning in myself as soon as I have seen a few people."

Harry left the treatment room and crossed to the healer's station, which was presently unmanned, the duty healer was probably off on rounds, he reached behind the desk and pulled out the patient roster just to confirm in his mind where everyone was then set off to the first visitor.

Despite her injuries, and the fact she should have been sleeping, Hannah Abbot opened her eyes and smiled weakly when she saw Harry slip quietly into the room, she waved her hand at the unoccupied chair by the bedside and then winched at the spike of pain that effort brought.

"Hannah how are you doing? Can I get you anything?"

Harry fussed with Hannah's blanket before settling into the seat, whenever someone was hurt because of him he still hadn't managed to shake the feelings of personal guilt.

"They tell me I'll live...barely." Harry grinned as despite her injuries Hannah proved there was nothing wrong with her sense of humour. "You just missed my father, he only left a few minutes ago."

Hannah had lost her mother that year in a Death Eater attack, and Harry couldn't imagine how her father felt seeing the last member of his family in a hospital bed, but he could imagine who he blamed for putting her there.

"He doesn't blame you...for anything."

"Is my face that easy to read?"

"It is when you know what to look for Harry." Hannah smiled at the frowning teen. "I knew it depended on how badly you yourself had gotten hurt, but I was fairly sure you would come."

Hannah's voice was soft, and now slightly dreamy, Harry assumed that was down to whatever medication she was on.

"How did you know?" Harry was genuinely puzzled, up until he had left the soldiers he hadn't known he was going to the hospital himself.

Hannah smiled. "Because that's who you are Harry, you are a thoroughly...nice...guy." Hannah's eyes closed as she spoke and her head slumped back onto the pillow and Harry realised she was asleep as the drugs in her system caught up with her.

Standing quietly, Harry slipped from the room. He was surprised that he was a predictable as everyone seemed to think he was, while allowing his friends to predict his actions wasn't a bad thing, Voldemort knowing what he was going to do next didn't bear thinking about.

Fleur's room was slightly busier than Hannah's had been. Apart from the blond bombshell laid in the bed, and her very attentive red headed partner, who seemed to only have eyes for each other, the bombshell's father and younger sister completed the line up.

"Harry!" Gabrielle threw herself at him and hugged him tightly, Harry returned the hug for as long as was appropriate, he still thought that the eleven year French girl had a major crush on him because of his actions during the Tri-wizard tournament.

Next thing he knew, Henri Delacour had also thrown his arms around Harry, he briefly wondered if this was becoming some sort of officially recognised Burrow form of greeting, there would be spontaneous hugs breaking out all over the place. Harry was surprised to find that Delacour senior had gone a little moist around the eyes during the embrace.

"Harry, I don't know how to thank you, you have given me my daughter back. Even given my rank and position I cannot guarantee that any promise for French Ministry support I make here will be honoured, but I can assure that any request for aid you make will be given my full support for what it's worth. But that isn't enough, whatever you require of me, you just have to ask."

Harry grinned, there was a very pressing problem that required a purely French solution, but he had been unsure how to broach the issue with the senior French law enforcement officer without coming over ungrateful.

The problem had been brought to his attention during his recent meeting with Thomas Bell.

"_Harry, can I have a quick moment?"_

_Harry turned in the doorway, and grinned at the tall soldier, he had just finished a lengthy explanation of some of the forms of magic the soldiers could encounter, including small demonstrations of charms, transfiguration, conjuration and even been forced to stun, and...much later...revive Wilky to demonstrate combat magic._

"_Sure what do you need?"_

_Thomas took a quick look over his shoulder but none of his soldiers were close enough to hear him, they were still too busy examining the large table Harry had conjured in the middle of the room._

"_In order to be at our most effective when we go into battle, we are going to need all of our technology to be working at peak efficiency, without radios and some of our more exotic toys we will be fighting with one of our hands tied behind our backs. I don't know how they did it, but the French Aurors use technology in magical areas, we need whatever it is that they have, as it stands at the moment I cannot even be sure that the helicopters will even restart should we need them!"_

_Harry understood immediately, magic and electricity were so incompatible that normally wherever magic existed, electricity couldn't. It was why nothing with batteries worked inside Hogwarts, and why Arthur kept all his muggle appliances outside in a shed, there was too much magic inside the house itself._

_The French indeed seemed to have overcome the problem, the French Ministry Tactical Strike Team used radios and other pieces of technology in magical environments seemingly without penalty, Harry even knew that the French sniper teams had silencing enchantments placed upon their weapons._

"_I cannot promise anything, but I will speak to Henri Delacour, but I doubt even he will just give us the information we need considering it probably cost the French a pretty penny to develop it, leave it with me, Thomas."_

Harry carefully explained his problem to Delacour and watched a pained expression come over the Auror's face.

"I want to help you Harry, really I do. I can see the advantages muggle technology will bring much better than most, the strike teams in the French Ministry have been using such items for years, but you are right, I do not have the authority to just give away the enchantments as much as I might want to...not even to you."

"I understand that Henri, I wouldn't want to place you in that position, I think I have a solution to our problems, I have to hammer out a few details with those that control my accounts and certain business interests." Harry smiled cryptically, he had the skeleton of an idea growing inside him that would solve the problem and make a lot of people's lives a lot easier. "Leave it with me, I'll get back to you with a proposal as soon as I can."

Harry grinned and waved at Fleur, although still pale and terribly thin, her return smile at least contained its usual warmth, her bruises would heal and over time so would her mind, that process was helped along by having someone like Bill Weasley around to help her through it.

Satisfied, he moved back out into the main hospital, he had wanted to visit Cho, but the healers had said she was still not up to visitors other than members of her family.

Yawning massively, Harry suddenly realised just how tired he was, the next few days promised to be quite exciting and he decided a decent amount of sleep was going to be a godsend. With a sigh, he decided to head for the suite of rooms in the accommodation rather than look for his friends, there was a lot he needed to tell them, including the fact that he had in his possession another Horcrux, but with Ginny still mad at him he really didn't need the aggro.

OoOoO

_**OPERATIONS CENTRE, STIRLING LINES, HEREFORD**_

All British military camps, whichever of the three services they belonged to, had some form of manned presence around the clock. However very few camps could lay claim to the fact that they were actually _**operational**_ around the clock, Stirling Lines, and the underground command centre informally known as 'the Kremlin' was one of those exceptions. Controlling teams of soldiers spread across the world in all manner of time zones required that there always be a staff on duty.

Captain Reynolds was the duty Operations Officer and had a small staff of watch keepers manning the workstations, other than these and a world map the rest of the room was in darkness. It had been a quiet shift, just a few teams had checked in using satellite communications, and one team had used a public phone box, but considering how strange it would have been to set up a small satellite dish in the middle of a square in Moscow it was understandable.

The explosion that had nearly destroyed the old KGB headquarters had been reported as an accident, a gas explosion, but of course no one in any of the intelligence agencies believed a word of it. The British Secret Intelligence Service had requested help from the SAS in order to discreetly investigate the scene. The Regiment had a team in the country already conducting Anti-terrorist training with certain elements of the Moscow police, who after a series of botched hostage rescues had decided that they would take as much advice as they could get.

The team were not sneaking about, they were at the scene of the explosion with the full consent and backing of the Moscow City Police, the KGB understandably were extremely unhappy with the situation, but the Soviet Intelligence juggernaut had lost much of its influence and power in recent years.

Reynolds recalled the conversation he had had with the team leader.

"So what do you think?" There was a slight pause in the conversation because of the distance and a clicking sound on the line as whoever from the KGB was listening in started recording the conversation.

"Well whatever it was that happened here, it wasn't a gas explosion, there were at least three different initial sites of destruction. The area had been sanitised long before we got here so we couldn't detect a trace of the explosive used, or tell whatever purpose the room was originally used for."

"What about the locals, are they giving you any trouble?"

"The local Cops are surprisingly professional, but they are working with a limited budget and getting pressure from above to stick to the party line, they know it wasn't a gas explosion, but that's the story and they are being forced to stick to it. The forensic team only spent about five minutes in the room before the gas explosion story was released."

Reynolds sighed, some things never changed, the higher up the chain of command the less people actually wanted the truth, gas explosions were very convenient tools to covering up the truth.

"What about spooks?"

"We still have our official minder, and we know of at least four others on shifts watching us, but as yet they haven't interfered, and as long as we don't step out of bounds I don't think they will. It would be nice if they would actually tell us if what was stored in that room is as dangerous as we think it is, but little chance of that."

"Amen to that, alright, stay safe and stay in touch, Firebreak out."

There had long been a rumour that the KGB had assembled a wealth of information and knowledge about a host of Western countries that during the cold war could have been regarded as a threat, and the former KGB headquarters was the prime suspect for the location of that information.

It was pure luck that the British actually had a military presence in the country at the time, British Intelligence in this instance had promised to share any information they gathered with the other NATO countries, since it effected them all equally. Reynolds wasn't a spy, he was a soldier, but he had a really bad feeling that wouldn't go away, that if the information had been in the building, then large parts of it hadn't been there during the 'gas explosion', he wondered how long it would be until that Russian information came back to bite them in the arse.

He didn't have to wait long.

"Sir, I think you need to see this."

One of the watch keepers had approached him and held out a single piece of paper that one of the printers had just spit out, from the look on the watch keeper's face, it wasn't good news. Reynolds took the sheet and ran his eyes down it quickly.

_**To: 22 SAS Regt, 23 SAS (V) Regt, SBS Regt, SO19**_

_**From: Director UK Special Forces**_

_**This is a flash notice to all Operations Centres.**_

_**A substantial number of Canisters containing VX gas have been seized from secure bunkers located at Porton Down. The party or parties involved used technology or technologies unknown to penetrate security and to escape.**_

_**Security personnel on site sustained heavy casualties to suspected high technology weaponry, none of which was recovered. **_

_**All military camps are to adapt highest Bikini security stance, any ongoing operations are to be made aware of possible contaminating material in circulation. Mass civilian evacuation of potential target areas will be coordinated by civilian authorities with military assistance.**_

"Crap!" Reynolds stated with deep conviction. "Ok, raise the alert state of all sub units, recall everyone on leave effective immediately, have the duty squadron stand to and await instructions, have them draw NBC suits."

Nuclear, Biological and Chemical warfare suits were protective garments, worn over regular uniforms and lined with charcoal, when worn with issue respirators they were designed to protect soldiers from any airborne or liquid threat. It was a precaution that nobody in their right mind ever dreamed would be required, nobody had ever tested the effectiveness of the protection afforded by NBC suits against VX gas, for one thing they could never find a volunteer to stand there in a suit and be exposed to the stuff.

"I sincerely hope that 'technologies unknown' doesn't mean what I think in means..."

Reynolds was speaking to himself, he had been security cleared for Task Force Thor and what Thomas Bell and his detachment were really doing, and he had been given a quick insight into magic from the newly promoted officer, and from what he had been told, Magic could well be at the bottom of this new development.

"Wake the CO and inform him of our change in security state, and raise Op Thor and pass this message along to them, this might be right up their street."

Reynolds was careful not to let just how worried he was by this new development show on his face, but with all the pieces of information he now had, even he could but the picture together, it didn't need an intelligence analyst to know things were about to get a whole lot worse.

First, there was a bunch of hostile Russian, or Russian trained, Special Forces Soldiers loose somewhere in the south of England, doing god knew what for god knew who.

Second, this suspected source of information on western targets that had been destroyed by fire in Moscow, which the Russian authorities knew more about than they were saying.

Third, the recent attacks in London and on other targets, instigated by men in black cloaks who had the ability to come and go at will undetected.

Fourth, this theft of just about the most dangerous chemical substance on the planet from the research establishment at Porton Down, the security surrounding the existence of the stockpile of chemicals wasn't just rock solid, it was air tight, so how had anyone penetrated that security to even know where the stuff was kept, let alone actually steal it! And what about 'high technology weapons' and 'technologies unknown'.

Reynolds was no fortune teller, in fact he had only recently learned that real fortune tellers existed, they were called seers, but to him all the pieces seemed to fall snugly into place, years of experience of trying to make complete pictures from spotty pieces of intelligence now served him well.

The Dark Wizards that Thomas Bell had gone off to fight, fearing the British Army involvement would tip the balance of power, had hired themselves some hardcore Russian muscle, the muscle had stolen sensitive information on targets in Britain from a secret KGB intelligence library before destroying it to cover up the theft. Using the stolen information the Dark Wizards, probably with Russian assistance, had then raided Porton Down and stolen the VX gas canisters.

But where would they use the gas, and against who? Would this Voldemort fellow use the dangerous compound to attack an utterly unprepared magical target? Reynolds personally suspected not, his Russians must have told him how dangerous the chemical was, and that when used on a civilian population the death rate would be nearly 100%, Voldemort couldn't rule a magical world that consisted of corpses.

So that left the normal world, and that's where the problems started, there were simply too many targets and too many people to cover to be effective, unless they found themselves a miracle, then all they could do was wait until after the attack and move in to pick up the pieces.

And miracles had been in very short supply lately.

OoOoO

_**STOCKWELL HOMELESS SHELTER, LONDON**_

Voldemort studied the circular metal canister intently, his red eyes narrowed as he tried to take in all the details. It was a dull green in colour, approximately six feet in length and two feet across, about a third of the way along the canister's length was a hatch that sat flush with the metal surface, on the hatch were a series of yellow stickers exclaiming that the substance inside was a Chemical hazard level 4, whatever that meant.

He approached the canister with caution, laid the palm of his hand upon the metal surface and ran his hand the entire length of the canister, it was slightly cold to the touch and completely inert. He didn't know what he had been expecting, but it was more than this.

"To think that something so harmless looking can be capable of death and destruction on such a vast scale, I am almost impressed by the muggles ingenuity...almost, your men know how to use this substance to its full potential?"

Voldemort looked up at the individual stood the other side of the canister, Gregor Ivanovich may have only been a squib, but he was proving to be one of the finest investments that Voldemort had ever made. He stood out among the majority of the rank and file Death Eaters by his sheer competency, there was something about him that screamed confidence and talent. The man also had a first class brain, he thought out every move he wanted to make in advance, never made snap decisions, and had the personal courage to correct Voldemort or add suggestions or additions to any task presented to him.

Ivanovich and his men were not just experts in the field of muggle combat, they also brought with them a wealth of experience and knowledge about how the muggle world worked, and where the exploitable weak points were, they even had information on how the muggle armed forces were structured and it had been Ivanovich that had informed Voldemort that it was unlikely the muggles helping Potter numbered more than his company of nearly seventy men. The Russian mentioned something about an Air Service and a Sabre Squadron that made no sense to the dark wizard.

"It depends on the target you want us to attack, but yes we can deliver the weapon in such a way that will guarantee as large potential body count as possible. If for example you want a large area, such a city, the gas would have to be released at several hundred feet, and a single canister should be enough to kill maybe one hundred thousand..."

Voldemort grinned as he listened to the man's explanation, to have the power to kill so many muggles in one foul swoop, it was beyond his wildest dreams, and he had twenty of these marvellous canisters at his disposal, and this was only the start, this was not even the most powerful of muggle weapons.

When Voldemort had been told of what a nuclear warhead was capable he knew that he had to posses such power, but weapons such as those were not just left lying about for the foolhardy to pick up, it would require careful planning, but as the Russians had proved, with the right mix of knowledge and ability anything was possible.

The creation of his shambling army was going well, but the process was depleting Voldemort's magical energy at a prestigious rate, luckily his magically constructed body was able to regenerate magical energy at a rate that his flesh and blood body had never been capable of. He was ahead of schedule numbers wise, but he was running out of components, he had dispatched Fenrir Greyback in order to restock what he required and was sure that when the time came he would be ready.

His plan required a coordinated attack at two different locations, the first to draw in as many of those that defied him as possible, so he had picked a target of such significance that it couldn't possibly be ignored. But the secondary attack was the real target, the one that would take him that much closer to his goal.

"What are your next plans?" Voldemort addressed the Russian soldier.

"We intend to spread panic throughout the population and confusion through the armed forces, our target list is comprehensive and cannot possibly be predicted ahead of time, we will launch the first attacks later today, and continue until tomorrow night, when your main attacks start we will then switch our attention as we planned to your targets."

Voldemort nodded his understanding, completely sure that this man was worth every single galleon he had paid for his services.

OoOoO

_**GRINGOTTS HOLDING CELLS**_

Ragnok sat alone in his cell and stared at the dark wall. He didn't know exactly how long it would be before he would have company, but he knew it was coming. There was no way Rocksplitter was going to leave his greatest opponent alive, while down in the depths of the city he was doing his best to destroy every clan that had or could stand in his way. Someone was going to come and end his life before the morning, of that he was sure.

He had given his son every possible chance to survive, he had distanced himself at birth, hoping it would give Gutripper the time to grow and develop into the leader Ragnok hoped he would become. He was the future of the Goblin Nation, he had the best of both of his parents, his father's strength of purpose and leadership skills, and his mothers compassion and ideals.

Ragnok missed his wife terribly, if there was one thing he could have changed it was the fact that she had chosen those particular days to visit her family at the tribal enclave in Nottingham, the day when Voldemort's Death Eaters had destroyed it utterly.

As the leader of the Goblin Nation, Ragnok had been very careful in the preparations he had been making, thanks to the Blood vault parchment he had known that Voldemort wasn't dead, just temporarily banished, he had also known that telling Minister Fudge was pointless in the extreme .He had known the day would come when the dark wizard would rise again, he had slowly, oh so slowly, increased the size of the force that his own clan could field, while encouraging other clans to do the same.

Ragnok had been so busy watching the growing external threat he had not seen what was happening closer to home, his preparations hadn't gone unnoticed by the wider Goblin community, and his spending had lost him support from the frugal and short sighted Council. His own short-sightedness had doomed the Goblins to fight a bloody and costly civil war that would only weaken whatever could have been mustered to throw at Voldemort.

It was if someone had turned on the light, of course it would help Voldemort...because that was exactly how he had planned it, this was exactly how the dark wizard worked, using political means to split and distract an adversary, and then he would strike when he was ready and assured victory. Voldemort had used the same tactics on the human Ministry, he had done the same to the Werewolves in the last war, and now he had split the Goblins.

But at the present moment there was little Ragnok could do with the information that Rocksplitter had been helped by Voldemort, being accused of treason didn't exactly give him many willing ears, and he still had to last through the night to his trial by combat.

From outside the cell came the sound of the rattle of keys, as whoever the assassin tasked with killing him was tried to insert the correct key into the lock. Ragnok gathered his legs under him, and got prepared to throw himself at whoever came through the door.

When the door creaked open Ragnok relaxed, there was only one Goblin he knew that could be wearing weapons and armour and still look like they would do more harm to themselves than others.

"Griphook, what are you doing here?"

"Don't you recognise a jailbreak when you see one Director!"

Ragnok smiled with affection at his youngest protégé, when offered the chance of escape before he hadn't taken it because he had thought his problem a purely Goblin affair, but now he knew different, now he had to stop a civil war before it started and unite the Goblin Nation like it never had been before, or there might very well not be a Goblin Nation for very much longer.

"Very well Griphook, let us indeed break this jail."

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW**_

Harry awoke spluttering and flailing about as the bucket load of ice cold water hit him full in the face. Calling his glasses to his hand he slipped them on to his dripping wet face, and looked up into the stern face of a young oriental man, Harry vaguely remembered seeing him among Bell's soldiers from the previous evening. The man was dressed all in black, from the tips of his boots to the jacket with the rolled up hood.

"What the fu..."

"Good morning princess, I have some clothes and shoes for you to get changed into. Get outside, you have five minutes." The man held out a bundle towards him, which Harry took with some bemusement, he then looked up at the soldier still not understanding what was happening. "Why are you still in bed Potter, MOVE IT, MOVE IT, MOVE IT!"

Harry was surprised to find he had bounced from under the covers and out of the bed before he had made a conscious decision, the soldier's barking voice had engaged his brain at some atomic level and it had responded without any input from him.

"NOW GET DRESSED AND GET OUTSIDE!"

Harry felt a surge of anger, what gave this man the right to treat him like Snape always had, but cold logic quickly stepped in before Harry was able to turn the soldier into a steaming puddle on the floor, whatever he was doing, there must be some logical reason for it. The soldier finally satisfied he had the teenager's attention, turned smartly and left the room.

Looking through the bundle of clothes he had been handed, Harry found a pair of black shorts and white trainers, there was also a t-shirt in Gryffindor red with gold trim on the sleeves. Dressing quickly he crossed to the apartment's door and entered the corridor.

Harry found himself joining a stream of groggy and occasionally damp people making their way outside, all the while receiving some less than welcome vocal encouragement from other soldiers dressed in black. Leaving the block, Harry was shocked to discover that it was still dark outside, and he shivered as the morning chill finally penetrated his sleep befuddled brain.

"What's the time?"

"It's four in the bloody morning."

A very disgruntled Terry Boot answered as he went passed, it was only then that Harry noticed that everyone around him was wearing t-shirts whose colour matched that of their house at Hogwarts. Doing a brief head count, It seemed to Harry that every member of the D.A. was present along with the Auror cadets that had reached the Burrow. The Weasley family were also well represented with only Molly and Arthur being absent, he smiled at Ginny but received only a brief nod in reply. Remus and Tonks were also stood there in t-shirts.

"0400hrs..."

"You know what the oh stands for..."

"...Oh my god it's early!"

Harry groaned as the twins proved that early starts didn't seem to affect their energy levels at all.

A flash of blond hair drew his attention to the only person stood in Slytherin green...except to Harry's surprise, Draco wasn't the only one in green. Standing beside Draco and trying to ignore the hostile looks and muttering that her unexpected presence caused, Daphne Greengrass didn't even raise her head as Harry approached. He had to touch her arm for her to look up and meet his eyes.

There was the look of despair, fear and probably most surprisingly of hope, that Harry had seen the first time that he had met the 'new' Draco during his rescue of Helen and Ginny. It was the look of someone that knew they had done terrible wrongs, and knew that perhaps, just perhaps they still had the time to do something about it to put things right.

Albus Dumbledore had believed in redemption, it was one of the reasons he had been so willing to allow Severus Snape to take a teaching position at Hogwarts, along with the fact it had allowed him to keep an eye on 'his' spy. It was also why, despite being given so many opportunities to be rid of them, Dumbledore had never expelled the Slytherin children of known Death Eaters. Now Harry could see that maybe Dumbledore hadn't been completely wrong in his world view, because Daphne and Draco were both living proof that redemption wasn't just a word.

"Harry, It...I..."

Daphne stammered and finally gave up, staring back at the ground again, Harry glanced at Draco and raised a questioning eyebrow, Draco had a strange look on his face, which Harry chose to read as Sympathy directed at Daphne, and just gave a single nod of his head. It was slightly strange how Harry had come to rely on Draco, and even stranger how the two of them had become so in sync that they didn't even need words half the time anymore.

"Daphne..." Harry spoke softly, what he had to say was only for Daphne's ears, and perhaps Draco's as well since he had heard a version of it himself already. "Everything that has gone before, Hogwarts, all of it, none of that matters, all that really matters is what we do from here on...you're here now, that tells me everything I need to know about the kind of person you are."

Daphne looked up finally and although she still looked very unsure of herself she gave him a small smile, Draco put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a gentle squeeze. Harry was aware of the hostility that emanated from all those around him, and knew if he felt it, Daphne must have felt it as well.

"Don't worry about this lot..." Harry nodded over his shoulder at the silently watching and definitely hostile crowd. "None of them even spoke to Draco for the first week he was here, but they adjusted for him, they will adjust for you."

Harry stuck out his hand towards Daphne, and tentatively she took it and they shook, just as once Harry had shook Draco's hand in an offer of friendship.

"ALRIGHT YOU HORRIBLE CROWD LISTEN UP!"

Harry span as somebody began bellowing behind him, the subdued chatter from the crowd stilled instantly, Wilky was stood at parade rest in front of a mass of his black clothed fellows, he looked as stern as Harry had ever seen him. Beside him was a table with a number of black weapons piled upon it alongside a number of shoe boxes.

"For those of you who don't know me, my name is Sgt Wilks, and I have been placed in charge of turning you into something better than the shower of shite you currently are...lucky, lucky me." There was a titter of laughter from the back of the crowd, from two identical mouths, Wilky smiled, although there was little or no humour in that predatory smile. "Oh, you think that is funny do you? We'll see how funny you are feeling after we have run you until you puke. Drop your wands into the boxes on the table or keep them if you have holsters, but you won't need them this morning."

There was slow swell of people moving to the table, dropping their wands into the boxes, all the while Wilky stood there glowering at everyone in a most intimidating manner, eventually his patience seemed to run out and he raised his voice again.

"Get into three ranks facing me, for those of you that can't count, that's one behind the other twice! Straighten those lines! Eyes front and no talking unless you happen to be me!"

The resulting mess was utter chaos as wizards seemed to rush in all directions, trying to the best of their ability to obey the instructions that were being shouted at them, it took some of the soldiers actually placing people into the ranks before some semblance of calm was finally restored.

"You people are really starting to try my patience!" Wilky was walking up and down in front of the first rank, his voice pitched so that he wasn't quite shouting, but still everyone could hear it. "What we are going to embark upon this morning and every morning from here on in, is called physical exercise, and by the look of most of you it is a term that is foreign to you! You might well be the most powerful wizard since Merlin himself, but if you are too busy breathing out your arse to cast a spell the other guy wins, so we are going to run, and then we are going to run some more, eventually, some point before hell freezes over some of you might actually be worth something...although I doubt it!"

A collective shudder of horror ran down the ranks of witches and wizards, other than Quidditch, Hogwarts didn't really emphasise physical activity, and it was true to say that most of the teenagers were carrying a little more weight than they probably should.

"Enough chit chat, turn to your left...your other left Mr Creevey, by the front, Quick March...that means walk quickly...you lot are going to be the death of me I swear!"

Wilky appeared at the front of the column with the oriental soldier that had so rudely awoken Harry, both were now carrying black weapons slung over their shoulders, as Harry looked around he saw that everyone of the soldiers was dressed the same, and they were all carrying weapons, and somehow he doubted they were just for show.

Harry was stood with Draco and Daphne and hadn't fallen in with the others, not because of any wish to be excluded from the exercise, but because of his injuries he thought he wasn't well enough, in truth everything still ached. He was smiling at Colin Creevey's directional mistake when he became aware of someone else stood beside him.

Thomas Bell was watching the group of wizards and smiling as they stumbled after the soldiers, he looked down a Harry and nodded his direction of the column.

"You know one of the first things I was taught when I joined the Army?"

Still smiling Harry replied.

"No, what?"

"THAT UNLESS YOU'RE IN THE OLYMPICS, RUNNING IS NOT A DAMN SPECTATOR SPORT!" Thomas placed a hand on Harry's and Draco's shoulders and pushed them in the direction of the walking witches and wizards. "POTTER, MALFOY, GREENGRASS, PULL YOUR THUMBS OUT OF YOUR COLLECTIVE ARSES AND GET MOVING, NOW!"

Harry stumbled forward from the push and hurried after the column, he joined on the back just as Wilky, at the front, gave new instructions.

"Break into Double Time...that means you run you numptys!"

After that Harry had little reserve energy or breath to pay much attention to his surroundings.

OoOoO

_**DALTON BARRACKS, ABINGDON, OXFORDSHIRE**_

The sun was just starting to appear above the far horizon as the five vehicles pulled away from the guardroom of Dalton Barracks. Considering the fact that the Barracks and former airfield was home to two massive Royal Logistics Corps Regiments, and each had dozens of fuel tankers and trucks of all sizes, it wasn't much of a surprise that the five vehicles were a long way from the largest convoy that had departed from that gate, it wasn't even the largest convoy of the day, nor were the five vehicles doing anything particularly important or noteworthy, just the normal routine collection of the supplies that kept the Army functioning. The only unusual thing was that the soldiers, due to the security level, were armed, the L85A1 Rifles of each soldier were clipped into the doors of each vehicle

However for 23 year old Private Neil Richards the day was shaping up to be something very special indeed, a lot of that was to do with the soldier currently sat in his passenger seat. 20 year old Private Kelly Hobson was wasted in the Army, or at least that was the opinion of the male members of her platoon, who had agreed that if she decided to she could easily have been a fashion model. Kelly Hobson was not the first female that had decided to become a driver in the British Army, but at least according to her colleagues she was by far the most beautiful.

Neil Richards had fancied her from the moment that Kelly Hobson had arrived from the moment she had arrived in the Squadron fresh from her heavy goods vehicle course, it wasn't the fact she was probably the most beautiful thing he had ever seen on god's green earth, it was way she seemed to calmly glide above the general bullshit that came from being a woman in a male dominated world, that and the fact she was better at her job then nearly every male in the Squadron, him included.

As far as Neil Richards was concerned, if he had to carry out such a boring detail as driving at such a ridiculously early hour, then at least he might as well have something pretty to look at, besides the rumour mill had been supplying the titbit that Kelly had recently broken up with her boyfriend, and maybe if he played his cards right Richards could find himself in the position of providing much needed comfort and consolation.

Richards frowned, listening to himself sounded like he was some kind of stalker, he genuinely liked the female soldier, but ever since she had been posted into the Squadron he hadn't been able to get near her to actually speak to her, every other eligible male within the camp seemed to float around her like flies around shit, now here he was, four hours, with just the two of them alone in a vehicle cab.

"Stop watching me and try watching the road instead."

Richards felt his face turn bright red, his supposed covert glances at his co-driver had obviously not been as covert as he had thought. But Kelly had a point, the other four trucks were 4tonne Leyland DAFs and were all standard right hand drives, where as his vehicle was an 8tonne Bedford and apart from being the largest vehicle, was also the only one that was a left hand drive continental version, of which he alone was qualified to drive, and which was the reason why he alone of the drivers had a co-driver. Being alone, on the wrong side of the cab at a junction or a round-a-bout could be a life changing experience.

Kelly sat leaning forward in her seat, leaning her elbows on her knees and resting her head on her hands, her face was slightly red, especially around the eyes, and it was with some surprise that Richards realised she had been crying.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to upset you Kelly."

Turning her head, she regarded him with those amazing brown eyes that Richards could have stared into forever, and reached up to brush a lock of raven hair that had escaped her bun out of her eyes.

"Just once it would be nice if one of you arseholes treated me like a normal human being rather than staring at me like I was a slab of meat, if one of you talks to me they are normally holding a conversation with my chest."

"Well we can't help it, it is a really nice chest."

Richards took a sudden intake of breath and winced, he wasn't sure what had been going through his mind when he actually said those words, rather than just think them, but what was going to follow was not going to be pleasant.

"Thank you." Kelly's voice was soft, not quite the explosion he had been expecting. Her soft response completely threw Richards, and his tongue seemed to fill his throat and block his fell thought out and meaningful response.

"Er, what I meant was..."

"Quit while you're ahead, idiot."

Despite her words, she was smiling while still looking forwards, it was the sudden switch of her expression from that smile to a frown that crossed her face that alerted Richards to what was ahead. Switching his attention back to the road, he noticed that the convoy was approaching road works. The A34, which he had just turned onto, was normally a dual carriageway, but now had a lane blocked off by cones, council workmen in fluorescent jackets were busy moving equipment about the blocked off lane.

Slowing and dropping down through the gears, Richards watched the lead vehicle come to a stop behind some kind of small truck with 'highway maintenance' signs on it, slowing to a stop several feet behind the lead truck, Richards kept the vehicle balanced on the clutch rather than apply the handbrake, because the larger vehicle was slower to pull off from a complete stop than it's convoy mates.

Richards saw one of the workmen approach the cab of the lead truck, and he saw the man pulling some object from inside a bag, a quite familiar object. His brain supplied the information that the object he was looking at was an AK 47 assault rifle, but by the time his mouth had started to form a warning shout all hell broke loose.

Unseen, a fake workman had approached each of the truck cabs and in nearly all the cases managed to fire an entire magazine from their assault rifles at the unprepared driver. In four of the five trucks the result of the attack was the nearly instantaneous death of the Army driver, as the thin metal of the truck's drivers doors failed to even slow, let alone stop 7.62mm full metal jacketed rounds.

In the fifth truck however things didn't go exactly as planned, for one thing the truck was larger, the cab of the 8 Tone Bedford was several feet higher off the ground than that of the four DAF's, for another the fact that the Bedford was a left hand drive meant that the attackers rounds rather than strike the driver, struck the similarly unprepared passenger.

The difference in height between the two different types of truck meant that the majority of the rounds, fired at a higher angle, missed their intended target, striking either the bodywork of the truck, or punching out through the cab's roof.

Three rounds struck the unlucky young woman on her right thigh, one shattered her femur, another round passed through her thigh and became lodged in the roof, the third round deflected upwards off of her bone and its momentum already failing, struck her under the chin and exited through her cheek. A fourth 7.62mm round struck the woman's rifle held securely in its door clips and its deflected path struck the woman on her side under her right arm, the round passed through a lung, before exiting the woman's back, missing her spine by half an inch.

Richards foot had slipped off the clutch in shock at the overlapping sounds of gunfire, before he had chance to realise what was happening, the large Bedford truck began to roll forward as his brain tried to make sense of what had just happened, he had never seen combat, never been exposed to enemy fire, never had to act to save his life or the life of another, and the traumatic experience momentarily froze him in place.

It was the moans of pain from his co-driver that dragged the soldier back to reality.

Kelly sat slumped in her seat, hung upright by only her seat belt, although Richards couldn't see the extent her wounds, the side of her face was bleeding heavily as was her throat, and the front of her uniform shirt were already sodden with blood. But before he could act the passenger door was thrown open, opened from the outside.

Some deep buried survival instinct kicked in and Richards reacted far faster than he thought himself capable, he reached down and snatched his own rifle from its clips on his door, thankful that for once he hadn't fitted his sling, because slings had the tendency to get caught on every single possible thing they could. He didn't even aim, raising the rifle one handed and pointing it in the general direction of the head that suddenly appeared above the legs of his wounded passenger. Flicking off the safety, he pulled the trigger twice and watched in satisfaction as the man fell backwards out of sight.

Throwing the weapon down, Richards thrust the truck into gear, ignoring the grinding sound that the protesting gearbox made and floored the accelerator. There was a flash of green light and the passenger door slammed shut from a massive impact that rocked the cab from side to side, it was if a giant hand had gripped the truck and shaken it, for a moment the wheels on the passenger side may even have left the ground.

The empty truck finally responded to his foot on the accelerator, moving from less than walking pace to a running pace in seconds, steering out from behind the stationary truck in front of him, he flatten several of the cones blocking the other carriageway before he was clear and accelerating.

He felt rather than heard the rounds striking the rear and sides of the truck as he pulled away, but as long as the engine remained undamaged he was in with a chance of escaping the ambush he had found himself in.

It was only when he was several minutes down the road, when the adrenaline began to wear off, that Richards found himself shaking so hard he could barely hold the steering wheel, and his breath came in sudden quick gasps. It was only then, when the pain was no longer hidden by the adrenaline that he realised that he hadn't escaped completely unscathed.

At some point in the ambush a round had grazed his forearm, punching two neat holes in his uniform shirt, but his own injury paled in comparison to those of his co-driver.

"Kelly, talk to me Kelly." Richards alternated his attention between the road and his injured crew member, at first he thought she was unconscious or dead, but when he spoke she raised her head a little and made an indistinct, wet bubbling sound that horrified him. "Hold on Kelly, just hold on."

Finding a turn off into some woods he span the steering wheel, taking the corner far too fast and nearly over turning the vehicle in the process, he slowed and engaged the four wheel drive and left the road, sliding the large truck between the trees in some mad slalom until he felt safe enough to stop.

As soon as the hand brake was applied he threw himself across the truck, dragging a first aid kit from behind his seat as he went. He had no way of communicating with anyone, his truck radio sparked and fizzed from the two neat bullet holes in the front of it, and he had no idea how far he had to go before he found medical help. He had to at least stabilise Kelly here before moving on.

As quickly as possible Richards assessed and treated his co-drivers wounds, the throat wound although bleeding heavily wasn't life threatening, it seemed to have missed everything vital on its path. The leg wounds although causing the most pain, also were not life threatening.

Throughout the entire time he was treating her, Richards had kept up a reassuring monologue of verbal rubbish, telling her about his family, how he felt about her, anything and everything he could think of, even if she couldn't hear him it helped steady his nerves. Using the blade on a pouch on her belt he cut her uniform shirt and the squadron t-shirt away from under her right arm and back, exposing a small nearly perfectly circular hole in her side and a much larger ragged exit wound in her back, the flesh around the holes had gone a distinctly unhealthy purple colour, especially in comparison to her very pale skin.

It was the first time he had ever seen a genuine bullet wound in person, he had watched the first aid videos and done the dry training, but for just a moment it all got too much and Richards felt the pile rise in the back of his throat. But then Kelly made another hideous sounding moan, reminding him he had to be strong now for someone else, if he lost it there was a high probability that she would die.

He noticed that wet frothy bubbles were appearing around her mouth when she breathed, which if he remembered correctly indicated a punctured lung, but at least she was still breathing.

Using nearly the entire first aid kit, he patched and bandaged his co-drivers wounds, stopping any further blood from leaking out, the internal injuries were beyond his skill, and beyond the scope of the first aid kit, to deal with, for those he needed a properly equipped hospital. Mercifully Kelly lost consciousness before he had to lay her down on her uninjured side. He had unloaded her rifle and used it as a makeshift splint, using two rifle slings to hold the injured leg to the uninjured, he placed the unused magazine in his thigh pocket, which with his doubled his available rounds.

Having cut Kelly's shirt, t-shirt and trousers into tatters in the course of treating her, he removed his shirt and placed it over her in an effort to keep her warm. At no point did it even cross his mind that she was virtually naked in front of him, her life hung in the balance and time was everything, he slipped back behind the wheel and for first time took a good look at his cab. There were holes in the roof and starred impacts on the wind screen blocking visibility from the passenger seat. Both seats were covered in blood, his and Kelly's and the whole cab smelly of burnt cordite.

Turning the key in the ignition, at first nothing happened, trying to keep his panic under control, Richards placed the vehicle into neutral and turned the key again, with a sigh of relief he heard the engine catch, and then he was rolling. The nearest hospital was the John Radcliffe in Oxford, and if anyone or anything got in his way, by god he would either run them down or shot them full of holes.

OoOoO

_**THURAS CLAN APARTMENT**_

Ragnok stared at the corpse of the cave troll in utter amazement, the creature was big enough that it dominated the outer room, he couldn't believe that a single Goblin had managed to slay the creature, it might not have been a giant from the tales of old, but in those tales it had taken dozens of Goblins to bring a giant down. That the single Goblin had been his own son had brought a lump to the old clan leader's throat.

"You should have seen him my lord, it was like something out of the old tales, despite the wounds he had taken defending the apartment he just threw himself at the troll without any hesitation."

Rotgut had reported to his clan leader as soon as he had arrived at the Apartment with only the slight protection afforded by the escort of Griphook. The very fact that they had made it this far caused the spymaster to revise his opinion of the Gringotts clerk, he had navigated uncharted tunnels and avoided the armed forces of several clans without incident.

"My son?"

Rotgut bowed his head, now for the worst of news he had to give to his clan leader, the piece he hadn't been looking forward to passing on.

"He is in a comma my lord, the shamans think that given enough time that he might make a full recovery, but to move him far would be to court disaster."

Ragnok looked off into the distance as he processed the information, his son had protected the alliance, saving three other clan leaders in the process, but he was the nominated champion in the trial by combat that would determine whether Ragnok himself would survive the day. Without his leadership it was doubtful the alliance would archive anything before they were swept aside.

"I am too close to this to think clearly, I need options, what is to be done?"

"My lord I'm not sure what to advise. You can ask for a postponement of the trial by combat, but Rocksplitter is under no obligation to grant it, plus even if he did, that gives him more time to strike at us here since we cannot move your son. By ancient law once a champion has been chosen, another cannot stand in his place accept for the accused, and I don't wish to cast doubt on my lord's skill with a blade but we can be assured that whoever Rocksplitter has chosen will be his best. You could run, but I know you would never leave your son, if you do not attend the trial your life will also be forfeit."

"So I die here with my son, die in the trial by combat followed swiftly by my son, or run away and allow my son to die and spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder for an assassin's blade...some choice you present me with spymaster!" Ragnok chuckled grimly at the situation he found himself in.

"I'm sorry my lord, whatever happens Rocksplitter will die by my hand, this I swear to you."

Ragnok clutched the arm of his spymaster and his friend in gratitude for his unwavering support.

"If only we weren't so short of time I might be able to come up with something, but we have five hours until the trial is supposed to start, I don't know what to do my lord."

Ragnok stiffen in surprise. Time, they needed more time, or more accurately they needed to make better use of the time they had. To triumph in the face of adversity they needed an object whose use was strictly controlled by the human ministry, it was commonly held belief that every single example of this item had been held in the department of mysteries and had been destroyed in the battle between Harry Potter, his school friends and the Death Eaters.

Commonly held belief was wrong.

_Ragnok looked up from the ledger he had been examining as the door to his office opened and a tall white haired wizard was shown in._

"_Thank you Griphook, that will be all."_

_The small Goblin clerk nodded once and shut the door behind him as he left, leaving the Headmaster of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry alone with the director of Gringotts Wizarding bank._

"_You asked to see me Headmaster, whatever it is please be brief my time is precious." If the words had any effect on the elderly wizard none were discernible, his blue eyes still twinkled above his half moon glasses, and the very subtle enchantment that encouraged people to trust him could be felt prickling at the corner of Ragnok's mind. It didn't have any effect on Goblins who were mostly immune to human enchantments, but Ragnok found it amusing that this supposed leader of the light required such a spell._

"_Thank you for your time Director, and I shall be brief, your time may be precious, but my time is short." Dumbledore raised his shrunk and withered hand, it looked almost skeletal now, the curse was spreading, of that Ragnok had no doubt, Dumbledore's days were numbered. "I have written a revised copy of my will, and due to some of the more...controversial contents I wondered if you would do me the honour of witnessing it."_

_Ragnok felt his eyebrows rise in surprise, he and Dumbledore were not enemies, however they only occasionally found themselves to be the most casual of allies, as Dumbledore's interests lay in the future of the Wizarding world which often was not in the best interests of the Goblin Nation, most often they didn't have any common ground at all. _

_That Dumbledore would come to him of all people to witness a will said a great deal about his current level of trust in the Ministry of Magic._

"_I see, well pass it over then and let me read through it."_

_Dumbledore handed the thick parchment across the desk to the Goblin, Ragnok took the document and using a lifetime of experience of cutting through the chaff he skipped to the vital parts of the will._

_Hermione Jane Granger is left the ownership of my personal time turner, an item that is already in her very responsible possession, may she continue to right many wrongs with it._

_Harry James Potter on his age of majority shall be left with Guardianship of the sword of Godric Gryffindor, I cannot grant him ownership of the blade as it is not mine to give, however given its...attributes I'm sure it will be of use. I also grant Harry access to the entire library of Hogwarts including the restricted section upon him reaching his age of majority, in the hope he finds something that will aid him in his appointed task._

_Alastor Moody shall receive my pensive, foe glass and any other items of a defensive nature he deems worthy of his time, constant vigilance Alastor. I also request Alastor help train Harry James Potter for the coming conflict._

_Kingsley Fredrick Shacklebolt shall receive my dragon scale armour I wore against Grindlewald, its style is dated, but its protection is unrivalled. I also request Shacklebolt aid Harry Potter in any way he can._

_Minerva McGonagall shall receive my undying affection and respect for her many years of unwavering support, she is to be given financial control of the Hogwarts trust to use to fund the schooling of those without the means to do so themselves as she sees fit._

_Aberforth Dumbledore shall receive the contents of the Dumbledore family vault along with a copy of my portrait, so our arguments may still continue._

_The will went on for several pages, Dumbledore had amassed a considerable number of assets during his life, and most of the rest of it was not at all controversial._

"_A time turner out of Ministry control, I've never heard of such a thing." Ragnok spoke softly, his eyes studying Dumbledore as if for the first time._

"_And now you see why I didn't ask Cornelius or another senior Ministry official to witness this document, it would create too many problematical topics of conversation that I don't have the time to address. I assure you that everything listed in my will is mine to dispose of aside from the sword."_

_Ragnok simply nodded in understanding, he knew better than most that the sword only truly belonged to Gryffindors heir, and could only be used by that line or the appointed champion of that bloodline. Long ago clan Thuras had created the blade as the counter balance for a mistake that had been made in respect to another of the founders._

"_Very well, I shall do as you request." Ragnok swept up a blood quill and signed the parchment, watching as his blood transferred to the document. "I would wish you a long life Headmaster, but I think we both know that is not to be, instead I shall wish all those that stand against you know the architect of their destruction."_

"_That will be Harry Potter, thank you for your valuable time Director."_

Ragnok frowned, he had never been put in the position before where he needed to ask a wizard for help, and he didn't like it in the slightest. Too many of his ancestors had paid too high a price for Goblin independence for him to be happy surrendering even such a small piece of it, but this was bigger that than his own hurt feelings, it was bigger than his son, this was the future of the Goblin Nation.

"Rotgut, I need you to find out if the intended portal was ever installed at the Burrow, I know it was on the to-do-list, but like so many things it might never have been done."

The spymaster frowned.

"My lord even if it was installed, there are no Goblins remaining at the Burrow, all of them were recalled as a precaution."

"All but one, there is still one Goblin at the Burrow, and whether he knows it or not he has just become the most important Goblin on the planet."

OoOoO

_**INTENSIVE CARE WARD, JOHN RADCLIFFE HOSPITAL, OXFORD**_

The door opened slowly and the man entered the private room, already inside was two occupants, one, the female patient in the bed, was barely visible under the mass of tubes and attachments that led from the bed to rack mounted equipment that quietly wheezed or beeped in the background.

The second occupant was sat in a chair at the bedside of the first, still dressed in the blood splattered camouflaged trousers and t-shirt he had arrived in. Moments before a large green and black weapon had rested across the soldiers knees, but the instant the door had opened the weapon had snapped up to the man's shoulder and was now pointing directly at the rooms newest occupant.

"Who the hell are you? I was told that the police would keep anyone other than medical personnel out of here, and you are no Doctor."

"No Private Roberts I'm not a doctor, and if the policeman outside the door knew I was in here he would probably beat me with his baton until I was a twitching mess on the floor, they all seem very protective of the two of you. Luckily for me said policeman is suffering from an acute lack of concentration, and never noticed as I walked right past him. My name is Croaker...and I may be the only one who can tell you who attacked you earlier this morning."

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW**_

They ran at a constant pace around the perimeter of the wards, the pace was designed to be testing but not to actually kill anyone, and somehow, just at the point that it became too much for one of the runners and they were about to drop out the column stopped and another activity was substituted.

They had done press ups, sit ups and chin ups, they had laid on the ground with their just their legs in the air, feet held at a height of six inches from the ground until their legs burned, they had held heavy bags at chest height and lifted them over their heads.

In between each exercise the running continued, it seemed to go on for hours, and yet as soon as someone struggled another halt was called and another exercise began. It was with some relief that the group finally arrived in a large clearing and they were told they could stop and catch their breath.

To Harry his body felt worse than it did after waking up when getting injured, every part, every muscle group, burned from overuse. Nothing had prepared him for the intensity of the exercise, and from all the muttered curses from those around him, he was not alone in his suffering.

Remus and Tonks appeared to not even be breathing hard, everyone else was in slightly differing states of general collapse, except perhaps for Neville, Harry was surprised that despite Breathing hard Neville was still able to converse with one of the soldiers.

"Everything hurts."

Harry found that Ginny had come to stand beside him, she was bent over clutching her ankles in an attempt to stretch off her legs, and in the process giving him an unobstructed view of her wonderfully shaped posterior.

"Me too, give it a few hours and I think that I'll be so stiff it will be hard to move." As soon as the words had left his mouth Harry knew he'd made a mistake.

"Don't make promises you can't keep Potter." Ginny's voice was soft and playful, and how he had missed that recently, despite his cheeks turning a shade of crimson he knew that things had finally turned a corner and were settling down again. Well, if you can't beat them...join them.

"I have no idea what you are talking about young lady, various parts of my body are always stiff when you're around." Harry spoke pompously earning a huge smile from Ginny.

Wilky walked in front of the assembled group and he smiled as they let out a communal groan at his appearance.

"That hurt didn't it, good, because it was supposed to. That feeling of exhaustion you have now, the feeling that you cannot go any further, that is your body telling your brain that it's all over, however your brain is in charge, and you can fight through the exhaustion and the pain, and keep going. Some of you will know what I'm talking about, when the only thing keeping you on your feet is willpower and sheer stubbornness."

Wilky managed not to be looking at Harry when he said that, but that didn't stop others in his peer group from peering over their shoulders at him. Ginny slipped her hand and into his and gave him a reassuring squeeze.

"The more physical activity you do, the further you will be able to go before you feel the exhaustion kick in. This morning was mainly to judge what raw material we were working with, many serving soldiers would have struggled with the pace we set. From here on there will be less loud shouting and more quiet instruction, however..." Wilky looked directly at Fred and George. "I firmly reserve the right to shout at any individuals that try my patience. Right, as I'm sure you are all feeling the effects of our little session, now I'm going to show you the stretches that you need to carry out after heavy exercise. They will not only stop you all stiffening up..." Harry and Ginny barely suppressed their laughter as Wilky spoke from in front of the group. "...but will stop you from injuring yourselves, split yourselves into pairs, some stretches will require partners."

Harry turned his back on Ginny and made a big show of looking around for someone to partner with, and despite a few candidates he turned back to Ginny, let his shoulders fall in an overly dramatic fashion and sighed loudly.

"I suppose you had better be my partner then."

"What makes you think I'd even want to be partners with you!" Ginny was scowling, although her eyes told him she was playing along.

"Because I'm adorable..." Harry held up a hand and began to count the points off on his fingers. "According to _teen witch weekly_ I'm Britain's most eligible bachelor, I'm awesome at Quidditch, and I have all my own teeth."

"That's all well and good, but I'm talking about stretching...?"

Morale seemed to have taken a climb now that the running was over, Wilky took them through a series of stretches that lasted nearly fifteen minutes, but by the end Harry actually felt as if he could at least walk without limping.

"Ok, everybody take a seat." When everybody had eased themselves to the floor and were giving him their undivided attention, Wilky continued. "Most, if not all of you have already seen combat, the fact you are still here speaks volumes about your skill with a wand, being muggles there is little we can do to improve that, we will leave your magical instruction in the hands of those more qualified, however what happens should you lose your wand."

Wilky reached behind him and pulled the large black machine gun around from where it had hung on its sling down his back and displayed it to those assembled in front of him, Harry had no doubt the weapon was loaded.

"This is the M4 assault rifle, this is my primary weapon just as your wand is yours, and it holds a 30 round magazine, of which I normally carry ten..." Wilky let the rifle fall down on its sling until the weapon was hung at his side, faster than Harry could follow, the soldier drew the smaller weapon from the holster on his thigh. "Should I lose my primary weapon, or I have it break or jam, I have a back up, this is the Sig Sauer 226, it holds 15 rounds in the magazine, for the pistol I carry four mags."

Wilky placed the pistol back into its holster with the same speed with which he had drawn it, his hand flashed down again and when it came up it held a large knife with a blackened blade.

"Because, just like your Auror's we soldiers are very paranoid I even carry a back up for my back up, now I'm not encouraging you to all go out and get knifes, I just want you to bear in mind what would happen should you lose your wand. I know that your Ministry discourages people from owning two wands, but seeing as how you may be fighting for your lives, breaking a law or two is something to be worried about at another time."

A hand rose hesitantly from the mass of seated witches and wizards, Wilky saw the raised hand and crossed to it.

"Yes...what's your name?"

"Laura Madley." The teenager replied hesitantly, she probably shouldn't even have been out of her hospital bed, and if her injuries hadn't been tended by Fawkes then she wouldn't have been. Delores Umbridge had damn near killed her, a point blank **Reducto** to the chest had caused huge damage.

"Well then Laura Madley, ask your question." Wilky's tone had softened considerably, maybe because of the girl's obvious young age or maybe because someone had told him of her recent injuries.

"Sir, I don't understand why a knife would be useful, you have your weapons, we have wands, where does a knife fit in."

Wilky smiled. Harry had the impression that the soldier had been hoping that someone would ask that question or something similar.

"Wands and firearms have something in common Laura Madley, they are all used in the hand..." Wilky casually flipped the knife into the air and caught it by the blade, then he turned and his arm flashed up and out and the knife span across the clearing and buried itself several inches into a large tree. "...but if you disable the hand, you disable the wand."

Wilky walked across the clearing and recovered his knife, as he walked back towards the group he was tapping the blade on the palm of his hand.

"Of course once you disable the hand and the wand you may have to disable the rest of the wizard, and that is something we can teach you, how you can use your own bodies as weapons..." Another Soldier, the oriental man that had woken Harry strode out until he was stood in front of assembled wizards and witches. "This is man is Chen, I have known him for five years now and I still have no idea if he has a first name, he is that good with his hands and feet that he trains **us** in unarmed combat, he is a black belt in more forms of martial arts than I can spell and he is going to try and impart some of that knowledge to you, listen to him, do what he says, and don't disrespect him...or you **will** regret it."

"Stand up, spread out and find some space." The soldier named Chen spoke softly but in a tone that was used to being obeyed, he waited until everyone was stood in plenty of space. "Unarmed Combat is all about focus and intent, similar I am told to magic, your intent is to disable your opponent and that's it, it doesn't have to be fancy, it doesn't have to be complicated, but it needs to be final and decisive."

Chen adopted a stance with his feet at shoulder width and with his knees slightly bent.

"The first thing we shall work upon is stance, keeping a low centre of gravity makes you more stable and therefore makes it harder for someone to knock you down..."

OoOoO

_**VARIOUS PLACES**_

The explosion ripped through the wing of the scheduled flight mere moments after it had lifted off from Stansted Airport, the small commercial aircraft staggered in the air as the pilot struggled for control, but with the surfaces that generate lift so severely damaged and with no height to play with the pilot was doomed to fail.

The aircraft stalled, and side slipped until one wingtip brushed the ground, sending the fuselage cart wheeling engulfed in a huge fireball, the flaming wreckage when it came to rest resembled nothing more than twisted metal, of the 132 occupants there was very little to mark their passing.

OOO

The Lindsey Oil Refinery in North Lincolnshire on the United Kingdom's Eastern coast was the third largest in the country, and capable of processing over 200,000 barrels of crude oil a day. It could turn crude oil into 35 different products including aviation fuel.

As many as four huge super tankers could lie up against the offshore anchorages and pump the crude oil directly into the vast underground storage tanks until it was called forward to be processed. At that moment there was only one tanker offloading its cargo, although another three were expected within the next couple of hours.

The explosion that tore the huge vessel apart came without warning, one moment the super tanker was there, the next, an immense fireball rose skyward and bits of hull began to rain down as far away as five miles. Only the ponderous bow of the vessel was visible as it slowly sank beneath the water.

The pumping station, on automatic, continued to pump from the stricken vessel for three seconds after its destruction, sucking burning crude oil deeper into the complex and closer to the massive underground storage tanks.

The control centre of the refinery was manned by well trained staff that drilled for all possible disasters, after only an instants hesitation they snapped into action,. Closing safety valves, redirecting the flow of crude oil through the miles of pipes within the refinery, and contacting the emergency services to deal with the unlikely event that there were survivors from the tanker.

The situation might have remained manageable had not a second explosion destroyed the control centre only thirty seconds after the initial blast, the second explosion, although many times smaller than the first was well targeted, it killed the refinery staff whose job it was to respond to just such an incident, and destroyed the complex circuitry that controlled the flow of crude oil throughout the complex.

When the series of explosions finally reached the underground tanks the oil refinery literally ceased to exist in less than a second, the explosion was so massive that an orbiting satellite belonging to the United States Air Force detected it as a possible nuclear event and the personnel of NORAD spent a nervous few minutes trying to confirm if they had just witnessed the opening salvo of a nuclear war.

OOO

The Royal Liver building in Liverpool was in some respects the heart and soul of the city, and certainly one of the city's most recognisable landmarks. After it was finished in the year 1911, the 300 foot tall building had remained the tallest structure in the country for over fifty years.

It had of course been overtaken by many modern skyscrapers, but the building still possessed a character that had endeared it to the people of Liverpool.

The two massive charges that detonated in the basements underneath the clock towers at either end of the building were separated by less than five seconds. Each charge was more than enough in theory to collapse the towers, but for once the saying 'they don't build them like they used to' was utterly true, the Royal Liver building had been the first in the country to be built using Reinforced concrete, and there were military command bunkers that were less solidly built.

The basements at either end of the building acted as funnels, containing the blast and channelling the destructive force upwards, the twin blasts obliterated offices and all the people who were diligent enough to be working at that time of the morning, before smashing the towers into rubble, the building however didn't collapse and the damage was a fraction of what it could have been.

OOO

Nobody noticed the young man that approached the coach while it was sat parked in the services at South Mimms on the M25 Motorway, nobody saw him open the luggage hold of the coach and place two large sport bags inside, nobody saw him close the hold door and stroll away.

The coach, hired to take passengers on a day trip to France on their annual 'booze cruise' to buy cheaper duty free alcohol and tobacco, went on its way without incident. In fact the only slight drama was when the coach reached the Folkestone terminal of the Channel Tunnel where the train that the coach had been booked onto developed a fault. Rather than face an unknown delay, the party decided to transfer their tickets to the next ferry sailing from Dover.

The Pride of Calais was the current flagship of the P&O ferry line, at 26,400 tonnes she and her sister ship Pride of Dover were the largest roll on-roll off ferries operating from any of Britain's ports. She had only been in service a year, but despite this there were already plans for the next generation of 'super' ferry on the drawing board, which had a tonnage of twice those in service but that was something for the future.

By the time the crew managed to get all the cars, trucks and coaches loaded, got all the passengers from the vehicle decks up to what they called the accommodation decks and started the massive engines in the bowels of the ship, the train, if it had been running to schedule would already have been a third of the way into its journey under the channel.

Slowly accelerating the massive ferry cleared the dock and moved towards the two arms of the large enclosed breakwater that made up Dover harbour and once clear turned on a course that would take the ship into the busiest shipping lane in the world and on a direct heading to Calais.

At the exact moment that the scheduled train would have reached the half-way point of the Channel Tunnel, the two large sports bags placed in the luggage hold of the coach, itself parked on the bottom vehicle deck of the ferry, exploded with intense fury.

To the bridge crew, it was if a gigantic hand had smashed into the side of the ferry and pushed it sideways through the water several feet, to those below decks and nearer the vehicle decks the experience was many times worse, the sound of the explosion and the force of the blast threw nearly all those standing to the floor and emptied the shelves of the onboard duty free store.

Apart from one unlucky crewman who had stopped for a sneaky cigarette in just the wrong place no-one was killed by the initial blast, the bottom car deck was virtually abandoned mid cruise, and sealed by thick doors and the large open space was wide enough to dissipate the worst of the blast. The blast buckled the hull plating, but with only a handful of leaks the hull initially held. The device had not been designed to defeat the hull of a ship, it was designed to use overpressure to collapse a tunnel.

And then the secondary explosions from the fuel tanks of the other vehicles parked close together started, it became an expanding wave of destruction, a chain reaction that was out of control, the already weakened hull plating blew outwards in a twenty foot arc and the water rushed in.

The Captain, an officer of nearly forty years experience of channel crossings, had run to the wing of the bridge the instant he heard the first explosion and had a bird's eye view down the side of the hull when it blew outwards. He could feel the secondary explosions through the balls of feet, and knew with certainty that his ship was dying.

She had already started to slow as the hole in the hull induced drag and had started a list towards the large hole in the hull, he could picture the water rushing into the vast cavernous space of the vehicle deck and if that filled he knew his ship would sink.

"Mr Yates, broadcast a Mayday, tell the coastguard that we have experienced an explosion on board and are taking on water..." The Captain walked back onto the bridge and continued to rattle off instructions. "Sound the alarm to gather the passengers to the evacuation points, but no one abandons ship until I say so, and tell the crew to keep control for god sake there are a lot of children down there that will get injured if there is a panic."

He was amazed by how calm he sounded. Reaching the map table he immediately began rummaging through the detailed inshore maps, places that no one in their right mind would take a vessel as large as a ferry. Finding the right map he dragged it to his station and beckoned the navigator over to him.

"Here, I want to go here, how long?"

The navigator looked at his Captain as if he had lost his mind, the location he indicated was in front of them and placed the ferry virtually on the beach...on the beach! The Navigator smiled as he finally understood what his Captain wanted, turning back into Dover, although possibly quicker time wise, also carried the risk that sink in the middle of the harbour blocking it for maybe months, it also would force them to expose the damaged side of the hull to rough seas as the ship turned, turning towards the beach protected the damaged hull and there was no chance of sinking if the ferry was deliberately ran aground.

"Five minutes at current speed sir."

"Increase speed to max, it's a race now, we have to get there before the list angle kills us. Have the crew check the security of the water tight doors to the car decks, looking on the bright side, at least the water will put out the fires."

The ferry once she started taking on water would continue to list towards her damaged side, and then all the vehicles on the car deck would begin sliding down the deck towards the damaged side only increasing the angle of list because of the extra weight. Eventually the ferry would no longer have the buoyancy to remain upright and would roll onto her side.

The plan was to reach shallower water and ground the underside of the vessel on a sand bar or the bottom before that happened. Now that the plan to save the ship was underway, the Captain concerned himself for the probably scared half to death passengers, he reached up and keyed the mike.

"Ladies and Gentlemen this your Captain, we have experienced an explosion below decks, however the fire is contained and while the damage is severe it is not yet critical, there is no need to abandon ship at this moment. Please remain calm, and listen to and obey any instructions given to you by my crew, when I have more information for you I will pass it on."

When, seven tension filled minutes later, the ferry finally slid to a halt on the Dover sands, within sight of the beach, it became miraculously clear that the loss of life was tiny, one crewmember killed by the explosion itself, three passengers died from smoke inhalation and one died after suffering from a heart attack. One pregnant lady's waters broke in the midst of the crisis and she gave birth to healthy twins. The passengers and crew were quickly evacuated off the ship in case of further explosions, however the ferry just sat there, tilted over at a slight angle, thick acrid smoke billowing from the exposed hole.

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW**_

Wendel regarded himself in the mirror in his quarters, his wound had been covered in a healing paste that would prevent infection, but the white smelly substance made him appear like a character from a muggle musical called 'Phantom of the Opera'.

His quarters were much quieter than normal, without the hundred warriors of his company in attendance the underground central chamber, built under the new operations centre, was silent, without the normal chatter of the many voices.

Goblin company compounds were always built along similar lines, and if possible underground, because of the safety it provided, and the fact that any wizards stupid enough to take a fight into a Goblin tunnel system deserved whatever became of them.

There was a large central chamber for recreation and weapon practice and sprouting off the chamber was the quarters for individual Goblin warriors, to serve in the Goblin armed forces guaranteed individuals privacy that not all Goblin citizens enjoyed. But now the complex was eerily quiet.

Wendel had been offered the use of a suite of rooms in the newly constructed accommodation blocks built to house the humans, but the Goblin took one look at the large and ridiculously plush bed and turned his back, going back to his own quarters.

There was a sudden sound breaking the silence, Wendel cocked his head so that his remaining ear could try and identify the sound, it sounded like stone moving on stone mixed with a strange humming sound, and it was coming from the central chamber. Wendel suddenly realised what the sound was...the portal, it had remained dormant since its initial test runs immediately after its installation.

The portal system was the Goblin long range transportation system. Goblins had an instantaneous teleportation magic similar in its effects as apparation, it was however more limited than what Wizards could archive, only Goblin warriors and highly ranked Clan leaders were trained in it, you couldn't take another with you like a wizard could or both would die horribly, and it was extremely tiring to go further than short distances.

The portals however were a network of devices that when linked allowed near instantaneous travel between two points, they were hideously expensive and hard to manufacture, and Wendel had wondered when he had first seen the installed device how much it had cost, he suspected the price was higher than the cost of everything that the Goblins had already done to the burrow since their arrival, millions of Galleons.

Wendel moved out into the central chamber just as the device activated, he stood open mouthed as he identified the only person that came through. Dropping to one knee and bowing his head before the elected head of the Goblin Nation and the leader of his clan.

Ragnok stopped for a moment and surveyed the chamber, it took Wendel a moment to remember that the Goblin leader had not seen the Goblin compound since it had been constructed after his visit.

"Rise Wendel, I am pressed for time and I have need for your services."

Wendel rose and approached the highest ranking Goblin in the country, he had come alone into an unknown situation, no body guards, no escort and no advisers, whatever was happening was unprecedented.

"As always my lord I am at your service."

Ragnok nodded and smiled at the disfigured warrior, he held out a parchment sealed with wax embossed with his personal seal.

"I need you to find the human female known as Hermione Granger, I need you to escort her to wherever she has to go, collect the item she gives you and return here, discuss this with no one, and let nothing stand in your way, do you understand?"

Wendel nodded his head and then he shook it, he didn't understand at all, but then he didn't have to understand in order to obey his instructions.

"Yes my lord, I shall do as you say."

OoOoO

_**RAF WITTERING**_

The Military Policeman on duty at the main gate of RAF Wittering narrowed his eyes and stepped away from the small brick guard house, as the four matt green trucks turned off of the North bound carriageway of the A1 and slowed as they approached the barrier. They passed the full size Harrier aircraft that stood as a gate guardian and signified everything about RAF Wittering.

Trucks were not an unusual sight as they were the exact type driven by all of the Armed Forces, however these four particular trucks carried Army insignia, and that made them stand out a little. The lead truck slowed to a halt and the driver wound down his window, as expected the soldier was dressed in camouflage uniform, nearly identical to what the Military Policeman wore. Keeping his hand on the butt of his holstered pistol, the gate guard approached the truck.

"May I see some identification."

It wasn't quite a demand, but spoken with enough force to leave the soldier with no doubt who was in charge during this particular conversation, at least for the moment.

"Imperio!" The RAF Military Policeman never saw the wand appear over the drivers shoulder. "You will open the gate and let us through as if we have shown you the proper identification."

The RAF man stepped back and pressed the button that raised the automatic barrier and waved the trucks through, he wore a stupid grin on his face and his eyes were glazed over. The first three trucks moved past him, the fourth pulled up alongside him and again the driver's side window wound down.

"Obliviate!"

Seconds after the last truck had disappeared inside the camp the RAF guard shook his head and looked around in bemusement, he scowled as he saw the barrier in the upright position and reached over to press the barriers down button, castigating himself for the lapse of security, because he certainly didn't remember opening it.

The four trucks were careful not to do anything that would draw attention to themselves, sticking rigidly to the speed limit and obeying every traffic sign. Surprisingly their destination was well sign posted and within minutes the four trucks were parked up on the Vehicle park up with the engines switched off, alongside dozens of other green vehicles, where they immediately blended into their background.

No 1 Squadron was as the number suggested the oldest established unit on the Royal Air Force strength and had served in every single major conflict with British involvement since the Royal Air Force was formed. The Squadron motto, _**In Omnibus Princeps,**_ "First in all Things" was certainly true because in 1969 the squadron became the first operational unit in the world to be equipped with the newly built Hawker Siddeley Harrier.

Although the original Harrier design had been updated many times since its launch it still remained in service with No 1 Squadron along with several others, they had been based at RAF Wittering for so long the base had become known as the home of the Harrier. Indeed it was the trusty Harrier that stood as a gate guardian at the main gate.

The men in the stolen trucks worked in pairs, one Russian mercenary and a disillusioned Death Eater, the four pairs split up, each having a specific target that needed attention. One pair moved to the aircraft dispersal office, one pair went to the head Armourer, the third pair went to the Squadron operations office and the last pair found the Squadron crew room where the off duty pilots hung out.

Using a combination of carefully applied magic and falsified documents the pairs each did their part of a greater plan, they created a completely fictitious night mission for the following night, for a flight of four Harriers that would see them using a newly opened (and completely non-existent) bombing range. The live weapons for the four aircraft had been assigned to the mission for weeks, or so the falsified paperwork stated, and so the head Armourer now believed.

Even the four pilots had their memories modified so that they remembered receiving the briefing from a high ranking officer, rather than the Russian mercenary they actually met. The Squadron Operations officer thought he had been given the mission assignment by the station commander. Even the flight plan had been planted, taking the four Harriers on a dogleg course to the south coast.

When each of the four pairs had completed their assignment they met back at the trucks and put the second stage of the mission into place, each truck was driven to what had been determined to be a vital part of the base.

The first was parked below the Air Traffic Control tower, the second was parked outside the station commander's office, and the third placed as near as possible to the armoured bunker that contained the majority of the bases aircraft munitions, the fourth truck was parked near one of the accommodation blocks.

The magician in each pair levitated several large crates from the interior of each truck, positioned them carefully, the mercenary then bent over each crate and removed several items. The Wizard then disillusioned each pile of crates, adding notice-me-not charms before both men boarded the trucks and retraced their routes back to the main gate and back onto the main A1.

OoOoO

_**THE BURROW**_

Ragnok was as surprised as he had been at any time in his life when he saw his clan warrior return...with Hermione Granger in tow, while he hadn't specifically told Wendel to ban her presence, he thought he had made his intentions perfectly clear, it was bad enough that he had been forced to rely on a wizard for help without flaunting that failure in front of him.

"Miss Granger, this is an unexpected meeting, I thought I asked Wendel for your permission to borrow a magical item from you, your presence really isn't at all necessary."

Ragnok glared silently at Wendel, and the warrior bowed his head in shame at his lord's displeasure. Clan warriors of other clans lived or died at the words of their Clan lords, Thuras was a little different in how its leadership dealt with the rest of the clan, and there was little chance that Ragnok would demand Wendel's life, but there was still a chance.

"Lord Ragnok, while I would like to know how you are even aware that I have possession of a banned magical device, the fact that you wish to use it worries me more. A time turner is not something to be used lightly, it is open to abuse and in the wrong hands can cause unthinkable harm. My presence here is not an option, if you want my time turner, then you get me along with it, if only for the fact that I am the most experienced person in the country in its use. No one, not even Ministry employees, have used a time turner as often as I have."

Ragnok looked at her as she stood in front of him, her hands on her hips, determination blazing forth. Despite her bluntness she had remained polite to a fault, and Ragnok knew that she was of the same opinion as Harry Potter about the advantages that would come from bringing the Goblin nation closer to the human magical world.

In truth he had never used a time turner, they were a human invention and he had never felt the burning need to use one, part of him was glad that Hermione Granger would be there to explain its use to him, another part of him was balking at surrendering even this much of the hard won Goblin independence to a human.

The fact that his son's life was hanging in the balance was what finally tipped him in favour of accepting her offer of help despite the fact he was about to set several very dangerous precedents.

"Very well Miss Granger, but you must understand that the Goblin Nation stands teetering on the brink of a civil war, I cannot guarantee your safety if you come with us. My aim is to act swiftly to prevent a war from starting, and for that I need the time turner, I will explain further on the way."

While Ragnok was talking, Wendel had turned and started punching the sequence that would tie the Burrow portal to the one of the three that lay beneath Gringotts, there was a five symbol code that was unique to each portal allowing any portal to connect to any other, there were inbuilt safeguards so that a portal could not connect to one already in use.

The Portal consisted of an inner and an outer ring, the outer ring began to spin around the inner ring and would continue to do so while the portal was in use. There was a flash of red that indicated that a positive connection had been made, and then rather than see the other side of the room through the previously empty ring, the scene was replaced by the image of what could be seen through the destination portal, although the image appeared to underwater or blurred by smoke.

Hermione stopped suddenly and stared at the large stone ring, the outer part of which was spinning, her eyes widened in shock as if she recognised the portal, which was impossible, because as far as Ragnok was aware no human had ever set eyes on one before.

"What you are seeing is a Goblin transit portal, it allows instantaneous..."

"Instantaneous travel between here and any other portal, by way of that control console, where you enter a multi digit code that allows connection to the destination portal." Hermione Granger finished for him with a slight smile on her face.

Ragnok open his mouth several times, but no sound came out, the Goblin Portal system was a closely guarded secret, placing one below the burrow had been a risk that at the time had seemed reasonable as no human should have ever entered the compound, but now...

"You should know my lord that there is a muggle movie by the name 'Stargate' in which the American military use a device very similar to this portal to travel instantaneously to an interstellar destination, the film was so popular that they have started filming a weekly television series on the same subject." Hermione pointed at the Portal, its outer ring still spinning. "This is a Stargate!"

Ragnok turned to regard the portal trying to see it was some muggle would, it would perhaps seem to be some form of alien technology if you knew nothing about magic, but how would any muggle possibly have come into contact with a Portal, Hermione Granger was the first human to have ever seen one.

"I do not know how to explain this, but it is the subject for another day, for now I need your help to stop a war that will doom my race and destroy the alliance I have forged with the House of Potter."

Without a further word Ragnok strode towards what appeared to be a sheet of water and stepped through, Hermione followed him but paused before crossing the threshold, she reached out with her finger and touched the surface of the Portal.

"You can actually see the ripples in the event horizon..."

She may have continued talking without interruption but Wendel sighed, shook his head and shoved hard sending Hermione stumbling through the portal.

OoOoO

_**LONDON UNSPEAKABLES SAFE HOUSE**_

Croaker sat at the kitchen table listening to the radio, it had been charmed so that could pick up both Wizarding broadcasts and those of the muggles. Not that it mattered which one was chosen, neither community had much in the way of good news to report recently, the death toll had risen significantly during the last day and showed little sign of slowing.

Even Croaker, mocked in the past by his Ministry colleagues for his doom and gloom warnings of upcoming disaster, had been stunned by the speed with which things had gone downhill. The Ministry had all but ceased to be a functioning entity, a sliver of normality clung to the building, despite the fact most of the employees had gone into hiding or been imprisoned. The Aurors were all gone, a spent force, those remaining free were either in hiding or had started to regroup at the burrow.

Croaker looked down at a piece of parchment that sat on the table in front of him, he had never in his worst nightmares thought it would actually come to this, it was the worst case scenario that faced him, and in his capacity as an unspeakable his duty was to recover as much magical research from his department and flee overseas. That research documented over two hundred years of work by British wizards and was utterly irreplaceable; however with the future of the country at stake he had forsaken his oath as an unspeakable in favour of a deeper and more binding oath, one that had bound his bloodline for over a hundred years.

Croaker was a patient man, the slightly bemused eccentric was really just a character that he wore like a cloak, and it made people relax in his presence and made nearly everyone underestimate him. He had been carefully playing a very uneven game of chess with Voldemort for the best part of twenty years. The sides were hideously uneven, and the only saving grace for him or his chosen pieces had been the fact that Voldemort had never realised he was even playing.

But the great game was approaching its finale, all those carefully positioned pieces would soon have to be used or they would be swept away by events. Croaker had been recruiting forces for years, muggles and magical both, being careful to never expose his existence to a wider world. All he needed to do to activate his network of sleepers was to touch his wand to the parchment and state the required words. But despite the desperate need he had trouble bringing himself to actually do it, all his work, all those years came down to this moment, and he was struggling.

Croaker laughed at his own hesitation, nothing could be gained from delaying further, touching his wand tip to the parchment, Croaker spoke the phrase that would either help put out the raging fires burning in the world, or send them soaring higher than anyone could possibly control.

"In the name of the crown."

The parchment glowed brightly for a moment and then crumbled into dust.

OoOoO

_**VARIOUS PLACES**_

Commander Owen Jackson stood, his hands clasped behind his ramrod straight back, upon the bridge of Her Majesties Ship Iron Duke and tried not to let the emotion he felt show on his face. He was a Captain of a Royal Navy Warship, and as such was infallible in mind and judgement before god.

But inwardly he raged.

The news from the mainland was like a never-ending torrent of despair, the loss of life from the destruction of the refinery alone could reach five hundred. The authorities were blaming the attacks on some obscure terrorist group that few would have heard from, but Jackson knew who was to blame, just as he knew that he was equally powerless to do anything to stop it. A Naval Captain had a lot of power at his command, but what he couldn't do was affect anything happening on land further inshore than the reach of his main gun.

He no longer even had an aviation detachment at his disposal to deploy his marine detachment ashore, he was stuck manning this pointless blockade of the southern coast ports, in an attempt to stop something he was certain had already happened. Enemy troops had already landed, alright so it wasn't an invasion force, but it was a large enough force to cause the chaos currently raging across the United Kingdom.

When the Parchment started vibrating in breast pocket he nearly let out a yell, he had promised Croaker that he would carry it on him at all times, it was supposed to alert him when the time had come that he would be 'activated'. If this was the time then things had indeed become desperate.

Reaching up to his pocket he tried to casually remove the parchment and open it. When it had been given to him it had been completely blank, now it had several paragraphs of small, yet neat handwriting on it, as if it had always been there.

_Cmdr Jackson, it is with some considerable regret that I must inform you that the events I discussed with you have come to pass. The Ministry of Magic is in the hands of the enemy and the Dark Wizard known as Voldemort now acts openly against both your world and mine._

_It is only a matter of time before Voldemort takes steps to control aspects of the muggle military, please ensure you take all necessary precautions to protect yourself and your command._

_You promised your assistance to help protect the crown, if this promise holds true then I need you to do the following, go to the safe in your quarters and open the parchment placed there and then discuss the contents with those already within your trust to decide the best way of carrying out the instructions within the parchment._

Jackson blinked in astonishment, the safe in his quarters was a closely guarded secret, its existence, although steeped in long held crew myth, was known to only two others currently aboard, and its combination known only to him. How had Croaker, who as far as he knew had never even seen the ship, let alone been aboard, placed anything in his personal safe?

"Lieutenant Collins, you have the bridge, please inform Cmdr Charles, the chief of the boat, Colour Sergeant Wills and Lieutenant Bean to meet me in my cabin."

The junior officer, who had only recently qualified as a watch officer, allowing him to be left unsupervised as the senior officer on the bridge, nodded his affirmation, perhaps remembering how much Jackson disliked the formal naval responses on his bridge. Jackson was the Warship's Captain, everyone knew he was the Captain, he didn't need them bowing and scraping every time he gave an instruction.

Jackson quickly made his way to his cabin, finding three of the four he had requested already waiting for him upon his arrival. His steward had already made a pot of coffee and readied a plate of pastries, the ship's grapevine having already informed him of his Captain's approach and the fact he would be having visitors.

"Colour Wills is occupied."

Lieutenant Bean the taciturn Royal Marine officer spoke before Jackson could ask, however being 'occupied' was not normally enough to excuse a request to attend the Captain. Jackson raised a questioning eyebrow and cocked his head at the Royal Marine.

"Marine Davis was found with a rusty rifle on parade, Colour Wills is...educating the young man in the error of his ways."

Jackson chuckled and led the way into his cabin, he decided he didn't want to know what punishment that Colour Wills was handing out, the Marine detachment had by tradition always administered its own discipline, serious crime not-withstanding.

Waving his guests to the seats in his cabin, Jackson moved straight to the safe, it was hidden behind a painting of the battle of Trafalgar, and quickly entered the correct combination into the digital lock.

Inside the safe was his personal weapon, a Glock 9mm automatic, that he hoped he would never have to use, along with copies of his current orders from the Admiralty. Also in the safe were the instructions on what he should do with his ship in the unlikely advent of a nuclear strike on the United Kingdom that managed to decapitate the naval command structure. Every Royal Naval vessel had similar orders, and although he had never opened them, Jackson suspected it would instruct him to place the vessel under American or NATO command.

But, just as Croaker had stated, there sat atop of all the other documents was a tightly rolled parchment, Jackson paused for a moment and just regarded this new addition, pondering how this feat had been managed, the parchment had not been there two days before when he had last had the safe open.

Reaching inside, Jackson picked up the parchment, feeling a slight tingle play over his hand when he touched it. Somehow without being told he knew that if anyone other than him had recovered the parchment, it would have been blank. Opening the roll he quickly read the instructions written within before passing the document over to his executive officer.

"Well people, it seems we have a change of mission."

OOO

Commander William Carter blinked awake, and instinctively reached over his head for the handset of the intercom that was emitting a quiet beeping sound, as a light sleeper he had no need for the blaring klaxons others in his position seemed to need.

"Yes."

"Skipper, its Weps, we think we have her."

"I'll be right there, have a coffee waiting."

Carter looked at the clock on the bulkhead opposite and noticed with some degree of exasperation that he had been asleep for only about fifty minutes, he hadn't bothered to undress knowing that he wouldn't get to sleep for long. The ability to power nap was an essential part of his career which wasn't taught on the Navy Perisher submarine command course.

Sitting up with a groan, being careful not to strike his head on the bookcase that was built so that it overhung the bunk, Carter swung his legs over the edge of the bed and placed them on the floor. Standing, he stretched knowing that if he really tried he could nearly touch all four walls of his cramped quarters from the centre of the room. Along the forward wall was a desk, and above it a shelf upon which were a few family photos and a scale model of his boat.

_**Her Majesties Submarine Triumph**_ was the seventh and last vessel of the _**Trafalgar**_ class of nuclear powered attack submarines, at 250 feet long and 4,700 tons displacement, she was far from the largest submarine in the world, nor was she the fastest, but she was undisputedly the quietest attack submarine.

The main reason for this was the design philosophy she had been built with, the American nuclear attack boats such as the much larger _**Los Angeles**_ class were built for primarily for speed in order to keep pace and protect America's prized carrier battle groups, Russian attack boats such as the _**Akula**_ and _**Sierra **_were built to dive to incredible depths and carry an immense amount of fire power.

_**Triumph**_ and her sister ships were built for stealth, everything in her design had been engineered to lower her acoustic profile. Every item of electrical and mechanical equipment was mounted on shock absorbers to reduce sound and vibration, her hull was coated in tiles of a rubber like substance designed to defeat the sonar of other submarines or detection devices, even her propulsion system was unique, she didn't use a propeller like nearly every other submarine, she was fitted with a pumpjet propulsor which resembled a massive lamp shade fitted to the vessels stern, working like a ducted fan, pushing water to the rear to propel the vessel silently through the water. So successful was the design that the American navy were considering it for their newest class of attack subs named _**Seawolf **_that were still in the design phase.

All in all _**Triumph**_ was a marvel of modern engineering, she was able to stay submerged indefinitely, the only limit to her endurance was the amount of supplies she could carry for her vital human component consisting of twelve officers and ninety seven enlisted men. She was the bogeyman under the bed, the hunter in the deep, silent as a ghost, and armed to the teeth.

Opening the thin door Carter stepped out into the passageway, and turned immediately to his right, the passageway was narrow, so narrow in fact that two men would have to turn sideways on in order to pass each other, and that was only if both men were on the thin side. Luckily he didn't have far to travel, as the Captain of the submarine, his quarters were less than twenty paces from the control room.

At the end of the passageway, through a complicated hatchway was the aforementioned control room, it was a fairly large area, one of the largest on the boat, it didn't feel particularly large however such was the amount of equipment packed inside, as with everything else onboard space was always at a premium. Unlike the surface Navy, where the bridge was separate from the CIC, onboard a submarine there was no distinction, a submarine officer had no need most of the time to be able to see where he was going, hence the control room contained everything needed to steer, command and fight the boat.

Just inside the hatchway were two large plotting tables, one currently displayed the boat's position on a standard navigational chart constantly updated by the boat's onboard Internal Navigation System and backed up by the occasional Global Positioning System fixes obtained by raising a mast to the surface, the other was displaying the track of the boat's course over the last few days. To an untrained eye it looked entirely random, a series of slow and cumbersome curves almost as if nobody could make up their mind where they should be headed.

Carter passed the plotting tables with barely a glance, very little had changed on either display in the last fifty minutes. Forward of the plotting tables was the area known as track alley, six positions set up to allow fire control technicians to track and engage multiple targets simultaneously, only two of the positions were occupied at that moment since the boat was not at battle stations, both men nodded respectfully to Carter as he passed.

The two side by side periscopes, which were mounted upon a slightly raised platform, in the retracted positions resembled some sort of technically advanced supporting columns, for while they didn't quite rest upon the deck of the control room, you would have to be laying on the floor to see that for yourself. One was the search scope and the other used for attacking a surface target.

Carter reached the command chair, but rather than sit in it he leant against the back of the seat, while he studied the repeater screens of the boat's vital systems. There was a screen displaying sonar information, as well as the status of his weapons systems as well as a board that displayed engineering information including nuclear reactor status.

Satisfied that every department was working at an optimal level Carter turned to his left and entered the sonar room. If the control room was the submarine's brain, then the sonar room was the eyes and ears, there was no point being the quietest submarine in the world if you did not have the equipment to detect another submarine attempting to hide from you.

_**Triumph**_ had many technically advanced systems at her disposal to aid her in the hunt her prey, they fell into two categories, active and passive.

Active sonar required the submarine to emit a series of acoustic pulses that relied on the signal bouncing back off the target to provide distance and bearing information, the down side being that active sonar could be detected by a listening submarine much further away than it reached and was like having a huge neon sign over your head in a dark room, anyone in the area would immediately know exactly where you where

Passive was nearly always the preferred option, no submarine, no matter how carefully manufactured was completely silent, there was sound generated by many systems onboard, and the you could never rule out human error, just the sound of slamming a door, or dropping a pot in the galley could carry many miles underwater. Even the oceans and seas could betray you, a sudden unanticipated temperature change in the water surrounding a submarine could cause the hull to contract or expand just as when changing depth, which was easily identifiable to a listening sonar operator.

Of course _**Triumph**_ herself was virtually silent, but even she with all her technology and precise engineering could make noise, and in the early years of sonar, operators had on several occasions detected the sounds emitted by their own boats and thought it was an enemy, which could be downright embarrassing if a torpedo was launched.

In an effort resolve this problem engineers had come up with a unique solution, to remove the sound of the host boat they needed to place the hydrophones as far from the boat's sound as possible, the only practical way to do this was for the submarine to drag the sensor platform behind it by a cable. And so the towed sonar array was born, and every attack submarine in the world now included a towed array of some description.

At that moment stretched out behind the submarine was 2,500 feet of cable at the end of which was a string of hydrophones that was a further 240 feet long, every sound in the ocean for miles around was being collected, analysed and scrutinised by both the software of the integrated computer system and human ears. Most sounds could be instantly discarded, whale song or other biological sounds, any sound from surface craft, the sounds of the background ocean. Once these were all put aside, whatever was left was given special attention by the human operators, because it was just possible one of those unidentified sounds was the submarine or submarines they were hunting.

With the growing tensions between the Russian Federation and the West, specifically Great Britain, the Admiralty had taken the precaution of deploying several of its attack submarines into the area around the Norwegian and Barents Seas to monitor the movements of any Russian submarines, and in particular the movements of the huge Ballistic missile armed submarines of the Russian Northern Banner fleet.

Only a few days before they had received a satellite communication confirming that two of the massive Typhoon class submarines had sailed from their home port on the Kola Peninsula heading for deep water. _**HMS Triumph**_ and her sister boat _**HMS Turbulent**_ had divided up the large search area between the two of them and began the painstaking task of slowly sweeping the ocean for sound.

Even with the towed array and all the other systems it was still a task that required patience and skill, the ability to read the ocean and the terrain was essential. The Russian boats were capable of diving deeper than the attack submarine, their massive hulls built to withstand the intense pressure, it was entirely possible that the Russian skippers had heard the British boats and had gone deep to try and wait them out.

The four sonar operators, sat at their computer terminals, didn't look up as Carter entered their domain, they had large head phones on their heads and were straining to pick up that one tell tale sound from the background noise. The consoles depicted the sounds as lines on a screen, anything out of the ordinary was a jagged line, allowing the operator to select the correct sound and listen to it himself.

Behind them was stood the Boat's Weapons Engineering Officer, called by the crew as 'Weps', because they allowed him to engage targets with his precious cargo of destruction, the sonar operators came under his jurisdiction.

The required cup of coffee was pressed into Carter's hands and he took a long sip and sighed in satisfaction before turning back to business.

"Alright what have we got?"

The weapons officer pointed at one of the operators sat in front of him, a young man on his first sea cruise with the submarine service.

"Barnes picked up something about ten minutes ago, the computer missed it because it's so faint, but it's there, and definitely mechanical in nature, possibly a reactor signature, I ordered a slight course change to better position the towed array, we are just trying to get a rough distance and bearing on the contact."

Just detecting an out of place sound was only the start of the task, then by using a process of triangulation they had to tie down the distance and direction to the target, which was why the towed array cable needed to be so long, the further away from the submarine, the better the fix on any suspected target, and then there was the added difficulty that if what they had heard was a submarine, it was highly unlikely she was sitting still, by the time they got a fix it would already be old information, then the real fun would begin as guesswork and hunches about where the target was heading came into play.

"Sir I can confirm a submerged contact, 15 to 20 degrees off our nose to port, range is hard to tell but I would guess perhaps 30,000 yards. The distance is too great to get an accurate course or speed, she is showing us her arse though, I am unable to get positive identification of class, however I can tell you she has multiple screws so she isn't one of ours."

None of the NATO boats currently in service had more than one propeller, and in _**Triumph's**_ case she didn't even have one, but several of the Russian boats had two propellers to move the massive hull through the water.

Carter grinned a predators smile, he had found one of his opponents, but were the two Russian submarines travelling together, working as a team? Western ballistic missile boats never worked together, they occasionally travelled with an attack boat as escort, and two attack boats could search an expanse of water much more efficiently than one. It was more likely the Russian boats had separated and at this very moment _**Turbulent**_ was closing in on a Russian boat of her very own.

"Good work Barnes, stay on Ivan's tail, I want a blade count as soon as possible, after that I want to know his hull number, I am going to start manoeuvring for a firing solution."

Russian Typhoons had two propellers with seven blades each, each blade made a distinctive sound as it cut through the water, although the lower the speed the lower the acoustic level, they needed a firm blade count to know for sure that they were trailing the correct submarine.

Carter slapped the sonar operator on the soldier and the young man looked over his shoulder and grinned up at his Captain before returning his focus to the job at hand. Carter turned and strode from the sonar room, returning to the control room, he once more regarded the repeater screens, assuring himself that his boat was functioning perfectly.

He was just about to issue the instructions that would sweep the submarine, and the cable being towed in its wake into another gentle curve, getting a finer angle on what he was sure was the target submarine, when he stopped, the orders unsaid.

The reason for the hesitation was that something had happened that he had not expected, a piece of parchment that he had carried in his pocket for fifteen years as the result of a promise had, just as he had been told it would so long ago, had started vibrating.

OoOoO

**A/N:** No 1 Sqn Royal Air Force left RAF Wittering on 28th July 2000, moving to RAF Cottesmore. Due to defence cuts the entire Harrier force was taken out of service 15 December 2010 and No 1 Squadron disbanded on 28th Jan 2011. The Squadron has a proud history and a large number of battle honours, and maybe one day they will take to the skies again.

Now I don't want to get all political, but I literally owe my life to two former members of this Squadron and the amazing V/STOL Harriers they flew.

On the 14 Nov 2008, four men lay trapped in an Afghanistan ditch, cut off from the rest of their patrol and pinned by heavy machine gun fire and a constant barrage of rocket propelled grenades. Two of the men were already wounded making any extraction attempt difficult if not impossible. The compound from where the enemy fire was coming from was less than 300metres distant.

The calm, steady voice on the radio of the RAF pilot was the best thing I have ever heard, he explained that due to weather and cloud conditions that he couldn't identify the correct compound from height and that he was coming down for a closer look and that we should keep our heads down because things were going to get loud, the way he said it was if it was the simplest thing in the world.

The first Harrier crossed our position at a height of fifty feet, the second aircraft was even lower and I swore that I could count the rivets on its underside. The aircraft did two more passes before the pilots were happy where we were and where the Taliban were, bear in mind pilot standing orders were to only make one pass over the target before weapon release.

'one pass, haul arse' but these pilots made three passes each, every time taking fire from the ground. Each aircraft released one 500lb bomb, both landed directly inside the target compound allowing us to extract safely. I might never know their names but I have no doubt at all I owe those two men my life.

All Submarine information is based upon the marvellous Tom Clancy books 'Submarine' and 'The hunt for Red October' both published by Harper Collins. Everything right is down to Tom Clancy, everything wrong is down to me.


End file.
